Aten

Aten (also Aton, Egyptian jtn) is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of the god Ra. The deified Aten is the focus of the monolatristic, henotheistic, monistic or monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship and recognition of Aten. In his poem "Great Hymn to the Aten", Akhenaten praises Aten as the creator, giver of life, and nurturing spirit of the world. Aten does not have a Creation Myth or family, but is mentioned in the Book of the Dead. The worship of Aten was eradicated by Horemheb.

Overview

The Aten, the sun-disk, is first referred to as a deity in The Story of Sinuhe from the 12th dynasty, in which the deceased king is described as rising as god to the heavens and uniting with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker. By analogy, the term "silver aten" was sometimes used to refer to the moon. The solar Aten was extensively worshipped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III, when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. In the reign of Amenhotep III's successor, Amenhotep IV, the Aten became the central god of Egyptian state religion, and Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his close link with the new supreme deity.

Aten (disambiguation)

Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology.

Aten may also refer to:

People named Aten

2062 Aten

2062 Aten (/ˈɑːtən/) is an asteroid that was discovered at the Palomar Mountain Observatory by Eleanor F. Helin, who was the principal scientist for the NEAT (Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking) project until she retired in 2002. It is named after Aten, the Egyptian god of the solar disk.

Aten was the first asteroid found to have a semi-major orbital axis of less than one astronomical unit. A new category of asteroids was thus created, the Atens. As of July 2004 about 16 Atens were numbered and some 212 were provisional, the unnumbered Atens ranged from what was then 1989 VA to 2004 MD₆.

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