This seemingly paradoxical nature of Akhenaten's reign has led to opposing academic camps – 'Akhenaten the righteous' versus 'Akhenaten the despot' – with each of them emphasizing either the militaristic or the domestic scenes in support of their case. This dispute is nothing, however, compared to the most hotly debated issue of all – the mystery of Akhenaten's extraordinary physical appearance.
In all the Amarna depictions the king's physique is distinctly feminine, with heavy breasts, swelling hips and ample thighs. Since he occasionally wears a long clinging robe similar to a woman's gown, some representations of the king were at first confused with those of his queen. In many of the reliefs, without accompanying inscriptions, there is no way of telling if Akhenaten is a man or a woman. In the late nineteenth century, the French scholar Eugène Lefébure even surmised that Akhenaten had really been a woman masquerading as a man. He drew attention to Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh earlier in the eighteenth dynasty, who had herself represented in male clothing and a pharaonic beard attached to her chin. However, Akhenaten's profile is not only effeminate, it is also deformed. The legs, for instance, are fatty around the thighs but spindly below the knee, making them look like emaciated chicken legs. There are also malformations to the skull, face and neck: the cranium is excessively large, as are the mouth and jaw, which hang down over an elongated neck.
These abnormalities have led various pathologists to suggest that Akhenaten may have suffered from a disfiguring disorder known as Frohlich's Syndrome. A complaint in which male patients exhibit physical peculiarities similar to Akhenaten's, it is caused by damage to the pituitary body, a pea-size gland at the base of the brain which secretes hormones controlling the function of other glands. The subsequent effect on the thyroid gland, which controls growth and metabolism, can result in features such as a lantern jaw and extended neck; damage to the hypothalamus, responsible for water distribution, can result in the accumulation of fluid in the cranial cavity which can enlarge the skull; and interference with the adrenal cortex, influencing the secretion of natural steroids, results in a feminine-like distribution of fat around the breasts, abdomen, thighs and buttocks. Invariably, Frohlich's Syndrome afflicts the gonads, rendering the patient sterile.
This last condition presents a serious objection to attributing such a disorder to Akhenaten. Far from being sterile, he seems to have sired at least six daughters, three of whom specifically bear the title: 'The daughter of the king, of his loins, born of the Chief Wife Nefertiti'. Although it has been suggested that the onset of Frohlich's Syndrome may not have occurred until after Akhenaten children were conceived, this seems highly unlikely, if not impossible. Firstly, there is the nature of the disease itself: cranial enlargement from the condition would need to have occurred early in life, before the bones of the skull could harden and close, and hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) would invariably result in mental retardation leaving Akhenaten incapable of functioning as the dynamic ruler he appears to have been. Secondly, he was fathering children years after he is depicted as if suffering from the disorder: towards the end of his reign he had three more daughters from Nefertiti, and possibly another by a second wife Kiya. It is quite impossible for someone with such apparent vigour, libido and sexual virility to have suffered from Frohlich's Syndrome to the extent that his representations imply.
There is, in fact, persuasive evidence to suggest that Akhenaten did not have the curious physiognomy the reliefs and statues would have us believe. Although in the official representations of the king he is shown with the peculiar anatomical features, in a number of private representations he is depicted looking quite different. Two statuettes in the Louvre in Paris, dating from well into Akhenaten's reign, are excellent examples. The painted limestone pair statuette of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and the yellow steatite statue of a seated Akhenaten, both show him looking as normal and healthy as anyone else. There is no enlarged cranium, no extended jaw and no womanly curves. These and similar figurines were made for the household shrines of the nobles, who would have been all too familiar with Akhenaten's true appearance. Such representations would obviously have had sentimental value, showing the Akhenaten they personally knew, rather than the divine son and prophet of the Aten.
It seems almost certain that Akhenaten's semblance was deliberately distorted in a manner which was seen to symbolize significant religious attributes. Not only is Akhenaten depicted in such a way, but to a lesser extent so are his family and high officials. With Nefertiti it is most pronounced. In some of the later Amarna reliefs it is difficult to tell her and her husband apart. She is shown with an absurdly long neck, massive cranium, a huge mouth and protruding jaw. In her case, we know for certain that her true appearance was very different, thanks to a number of far more flattering representations, particularly the famous bust found by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in 1911. While excavating what had been the studio of the royal sculptor Djhutmose at the Great Palace at Amarna, Borchardt found a number of plaster casts, sculptor's studies, half finished statues, and heads and busts, which threw entirely new light on the methods of portrait sculpture in ancient Egypt. The most astounding piece in this collection was a life-size painted limestone bust of Nefertiti which is thought to have been a master study for lesser sculptors to copy. Now in the Berlin Egyptian Museum, this renowned bust shows a beautiful woman with none of the exaggerated facial features shown in the reliefs. Also, a similar, but unfinished plaster mask of Akhenaten was found. Although he does have a long face and a full mouth there are none of the distorted features we usually find.
Others also emulated the 'royal deformities', but the lower the rank, the less pronounced. The young princesses are often endowed with enlarged skulls, serpentine necks and excessive bodily curves, but not the exaggerated facial features of their parents; while the lesser courtiers only have one or two such peculiarities, like the excessive cranium of the courtier Parennefer and the pendulous breasts of the chief sculptor Bek and the chicken-legs of his wife.
It would seem that the depiction of these curious physical characteristics was connected in some way to Akhenaten's personification as the son of the Aten. Before he assumed the role, a year or two into his reign, he is shown looking quite normal, even in official representations such as those at the temple of Luxor. Reliefs in the tomb of the royal vizier Ramose at Thebes actually chronicles the apparent metamorphosis of the king. He changes from normal appearance in scenes concerning his advent to the grossly distorted appearance by the time the Aten has assumed prominence within a couple of years. This transformation surely indicates that artists had been directed to depict him in this way once he had undergone his religious conversion. Indeed, inscriptions made by the chief sculpture Bek actually suggest that they were Akhenaten's personal instructions. On a quartzite stela in the Berlin Museum, found at Heliopolis in the 1880s, and reliefs carved on rocks at Aswan, Bek describes himself as 'the apprentice whom His Majesty taught'. It would seem that, as master of works, Bek was responsible for implementing and regulating these new artistic conventions.
The bodies of two members of the Amarna royal family still available for medical examination are Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun, and both have an unusual platycephalic skull. Although not pronounced enough to have been the result of Frohlich's Syndrome, this might suggest that a cranium slightly larger than the norm was a family trait. The artisans may therefore have been instructed to exaggerate this feature to emphasize royal infallibility. When Professor Harrison examined the Smenkhkare mummy in 1963, he also found evidence in certain parts of the skeleton of a trend towards femininity. Although not sufficiently marked to result in sterility, or anywhere near the extremes of the Amarna reliefs, this may suggest that the males of Akhenaten's family did appear somewhat effeminate. If so, it would certainly have been convenient for Akhenaten's religious stratagem, as it seems that his god was considered an androgynous being.
The most likely explanation for the feminine aspects of Akhenaten's str
ange physiognomy is that he was being portrayed with attributes of his god. If we examine Atenism a little more closely it becomes apparent why the king may have wished to have himself depicted in a bisexual fashion. The pharaohs had always been seen as the personification of an exclusively male god, whether Re, Re-Herakhte, or Amun-Re. The god whom Akhenaten personified, however, had taken over from all the gods, both male and female.
Just as there had been a chief god, there had always been a chief goddess. In the Old Kingdom it had been Hathor, in the Middle Kingdom it had been Isis, and in the New Kingdom, by the time Akhenaten came to the throne, it was Amun-Re's consort Mut. Mut was the mother, nurse and nurturer of all living things, and the so-called 'Hymn to the Aten' makes it very clear that Akhenaten's god had specifically appropriated this feminine role. Something of a 'Lord's Prayer' in Akhenaten's religion, the most fully preserved text of the hymn is found in the tomb prepared for Ay at Amarna. In praising the works of the Aten, it endows the god with maternal aspects previously attributed to Mut:
Thou it is who causest women to conceive and makest seed into man who givest life to the child in the womb of its mother, who comfortest him so that he cries not therein, nurse that thou art, even in the womb, who givest breath to quicken all that he hath made. When the child comes forth from the body on the day of his birth, then thou openest his mouth completely and thou furnishest his sustenance . . . The people of the world are in your hand just as you have created them . . .
The reason why the Aten had to be seen specifically usurping the role of the goddess Mut was that she had become as essential to Egyptian religion as Amun-Re himself. The most important celebration of the year was the annual rebirth of Amun-Re, in which Mut played a vital role. Around mid-July, when the Nile sank to its lowest level, it would mysteriously well up and spill over the valley floor, leaving behind a rich black soil that would support crops to feed the nation for another year. Known as the inundation, no one knew that this life-giving phenomenon was due to monsoon rains far to the south in tropical Africa. The event was thus attributed to divine intervention and the annual rebirth of the predominant god was deemed necessary for its continuance.
As chief divinity, Amun-Re had to be the means of his own regeneration. One of Mut's titles was 'Mother of the sun in whom he rises', meaning that, as sun-god, Amun-Re was considered both her spouse and her son. Mut was therefore the means by which the god could annually re-father himself. Temple reliefs depicting the Opet ceremony to mark this occasion show the god being carried to the Temple of Luxor to unite with the goddess and take the form of the fertility god Min. As the details of this event are gleaned only from reliefs, it is difficult to tell from the illustrations alone if the god was represented by a statue, a priest or the king himself. However, logic dictates that it must have been the latter, as the ceremony was an occasion for oracular pronouncements by the god. Someone obviously had to speak for Amun-Re, which rules out a statue, and it is doubtful that any priest could talk as the god who was imagined to inhabit only the king.
This entire episode was central to contemporary Egyptian religion and, to have any chance of success, Akhenaten's new religion needed an appropriate equivalent. We can seen from the initial proclamations on the Amarna boundary stelae that the Aten is, 'he who fashions himself with his own two hands'. From this statement alone we can gather that the god was not fashioned just once, at some point in the past, but, like Amun-Re, continued to regenerate himself. Also, as the god procreates himself unaided, he had adopted the roles of both Amun-Re and Mut. Although often described in the masculine, the Aten is clearly imbued with both male and female characteristics. In addressing the Aten, the 'Hymn to the Aten' refers to Akhenaten as, 'your son who came forth from your body': the god is envisaged as not only siring its child, as would a man, but actually giving birth, as would a woman. The Aten has replaced all the gods, but in particular the familiar state god Amun-Re and the state goddess Mut – it is an androgynous deity.
Surely, as the personification of this hermaphrodite god, Akhenaten must himself have been considered bisexual, and as previous kings had been depicted as the masculine Amun-Re, Akhenaten would need to be depicted with both the male and female attributes of the Aten. Even the bird-like legs, the serpentine neck and the excessively long face may have been to reinforce the notion that the Aten had assumed the role of the divine mother. Mut's sacred animal and familiar image had been the vulture, a bird with a particularly long neck and an extended face.
Akhenaten being seen as the personification of an androgynous deity would certainly explain why the coffin and Canopic jars prepared for him in Tomb 55 had been adapted from female effects. The ferocity of anti-Atenist reprisals following the Amarna period clearly show that the religion was not simply dismissed as a fallacy, but was considered a heresy. Likewise, the Aten was not merely considered non-existent, but an evil entity which had possessed the king. The bizarre entombment may not simply have been designed as a punishment to imprison the king's soul; rather than destroying it, it may been an attempt to keep the evil, but nevertheless immortal, god trapped inside its human host. Only by employing both male and female paraphernalia would the interment meet the criteria for a bisexual being.
Even so, it is not Akhenaten who ended up occupying the coffin specifically adapted for him, but his successor Smenkhkare. Why? Everything discovered at Amarna has shown conclusively that it was Akhenaten who was primarily responsible for the heresy. He was firmly in control, he personally instigated the religion, and he acted as sole spokesman for the god. To resolve this enigma we must first attempt to identify whoever was responsible for the first phase of the proceedings: adapting the female burial effects to accommodate Akhenaten. A vital clue in this direction may lie with the identity of the woman for whom the coffin and Canopic jars were originally intended. She obviously played a crucial part in the strange affair. As she is clearly someone of high status, our investigation now turns to the Amarna queens, and the extraordinary influence of Nefertiti, the royal princesses and the king's secondary wife, Kiya.
SUMMARY
• Akhenaten abandoned superstition, rejected graven images, and instigated a monotheistic faith. Just one of these innovations would have been unique for the period. At face value Akhenaten would seem to have been a religious visionary, years ahead of his time.
• In all the Amarna depictions the king's physique is distinctly feminine, with heavy breasts, swelling hips and ample thighs. It would seem that the depiction of these curious physical characteristics was connected in some way to Akhenaten's personification as the son of the Aten, as the new god was itself considered to be both male and female.
• Akhenaten's being seen as the personification of an androgynous deity would certainly explain why the coffin and Canopic jars prepared for him in Tomb 55 had been adapted from female effects. The Aten was not merely considered non-existent, but an evil entity which had possessed the king. The bizarre entombment may not simply have been designed as a punishment to imprison the king's soul; rather than destroying it, it may been an attempt to keep the evil, but nevertheless immortal, god trapped inside its human host. Only by employing both male and female paraphernalia would the interment meet the criteria for a bisexual being.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Amarna Queens
Around the year 15 of Akhenaten's reign, the halcyon days of Amarna seem to come to an abrupt end. Gone is the ambience of euphoria and camaraderie, and in its place there is an overwhelming sense of oppression and paranoia. Within three or four years, the would-be Utopia is abandoned to the desert and most of the royal family ominously disappear. Precisely what happened is unclear, but from what we can tell it seems to begin with the death of Nefertiti.
Although, like all pharaohs, Akhenaten had a harem of secondary queens, the royal consort and heiress was the 'Chief Wife' or 'Chief Queen' Nefertiti. From her depictions, it is quite apparent that Nefertiti enjoyed far more influence than did almost any other Egypti
an queen. Often she seems to have pharaonic authority equal to her husband's, and in some areas she appears to exceed him. Although, at Amarna, Nefertiti is represented as a loving mother in scenes of everyday family life, early reliefs from Thebes depict her as an authoritarian figure. One particular relief shows her grasping foreign captives by the hair and smiting them with a mace, while another shows her clubbing an enemy to death. Such militaristic postures are commonplace for Egyptian kings, but most unusual for Egyptian queens. Certain women who reigned as pharaohs in their own right, such as the eighteenth-dynasty queen Hatshepsut and twelfth-dynasty queen Sobeknefru, did involve themselves in military matters, but as a pharaoh's wife, Nefertiti stands virtually alone is being portrayed in such a warlike manner.
Genealogy of Amarna Royal Family
Nefertiti seems to have mellowed by the time she moved to Amarna. The title she adopted in the year 5, Neferneferuaten – 'Fair like the beauty of the Aten' – was presumably intended to demonstrate that, like her husband, she had renounced nefarious ways. Certainly her official profile is one of sweetness and light. In the tombs of Huya and the chamberlain Tutu she is described as a 'lady of graciousness', and the royal scribe Apy tells us that 'the Aten rises to multiply her love'. All the same, she is still involved in state affairs, and is even depicted wearing a king's paraphernalia. Although she usually wears her distinctive blue cap, she is often seen at official occasions wearing the double-plumed Atef crown, one of the sovereign crowns of a pharaoh.
However, any image of a muscle-bound macho-woman can certainly be dismissed. Her name Nefertiti, meaning 'A Beautiful Woman Comes', seems to have been aptly chosen. Together with Cleopatra and Helen of Troy, she has come to be regarded as one of history's most beautiful women, thanks to her famous head-statue discovered by Borchardt in 1911. Now on public display at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, the bust is painted in natural colours and is so lifelike one almost expects it to move. The queen wears her unique blue crown, decorated by the cobra worn by the 'Great Royal Wife', and a typically wide Amarna necklace made of coloured beads. Around thirty years of age, Nefertiti appears both lovely and regal, gazing ahead with a serene countenance, a slight, knowing smile hovering on her lips.
Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings Page 7
