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The “Great Hymn to the Aten” is one of the most important texts from the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1550–1295 BCE). It offers insight into the revolution of the “heretic pharaoh” Akhenaten (ca. 1352–1336 BCE). Based in part on the “Great Hymn,” many scholars have argued that the king’s faith was a form of monotheism, or belief in only one god. Although this characterization may be too simplistic, the text does focus on a single deity, the Aten or “Solar Orb.” The “Great Hymn” consists of thirteen columns of damaged hieroglyphic text in the entrance of the tomb of Ay (the penultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty) at Amarna, in middle Upper Egypt. The document certainly predates Akhenaten’s tumultuous ninth regnal year, when he orchestrated large-scale revisions to remove written references to certain gods, for it uses the early didactic form of the Aten’s name.
Contents
- Chapter 1: Egypt and Early Africa
- Pyramid Texts
- “Instructions of Ptahhotep”
- “Hymn to the Nile”
- Egyptian Book of the Dead
- Nebmare-nakht: A Scribal Schoolbook (Papyrus Lansing)
- Divine Birth and Coronation Inscriptions of Hatshepsut
- “Great Hymn to the Aten”
- Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty
- Victory Stela of Piankhi
- Inscription of Ezana
- Chapter 2: The Hittite Empire in Anatolia
- Anitta Text
- Hittite Laws
- Deeds of Suppiluliuma
- Mursili II: Plague Prayers
- Hattusili III: Apology
- Chapter 3: Near East
- Instructions of Shuruppag
- Reform Edict of Urukagina
- “Sargon’s Defeat of Lugalzagesi”
- Enheduanna: Hymns to Inana
- Victory Inscription of Utu-hegal
- Curse of Agade
- Letter of Shulgi to Ishbi-Erra
- Hymn of the Righteous Sufferer
- Code of Hammurabi
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- Enuma Elish
- Bible: Genesis
- Bible: Exodus
- Middle Assyrian Laws
- Bible: Deuteronomy
- Bible: Jeremiah
- Bible: 1 Samuel
- Neo-Babylonian Chronicle 3
- Book of Enoch
- Chapter 4: Persia
- Verse Account of Nabonidus
- Cyrus Cylinder
- Darius the Great: Behistun Inscription
- Darius the Great: Tomb Inscriptions
- Xerxes I: Daiva Inscription
- Contract of Mibtahiah’s Third Marriage
- Zend Avesta
- Chapter 5: India
- Rig Veda
- Valmiki: Ramayana
- Upanishads
- Jain Sutras
- Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
- Kautilya: Arthashastra
- Rock and Pillar Edicts of Asoka
- Ashvamedha Parva
- Bhagavad Gita
- Laws of Manu
- Lotus Sutra
- Heart Sutra
- Chapter 6: East Asia
- Classic of Poetry: Chinese Agricultural Calendar
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Sun Tzu: The Art of War
- Analects of Confucius
- Mandate of Heaven
- Canon of Filial Piety
- Dao De Jing
- Han Feizi
- Classic of Rites
- Sima Qian on His Own Castration
- Sima Qian: Biography of Ji An
- Huan Kuan: Discourses on Salt and Iron
- Ban Gu: “Treatise on Food and Money”
- Ban Zhao: Lessons for a Woman
- Kojiki
- Nihongi
- Chapter 7: Archaic and Early Classical Greece
- Homer: Iliad
- Hesiod: Theogony
- Herodotus: “On Libya”
- Herodotus: “On Darius”
- Funeral Oration of Pericles
- Orphic Tablets and Hymns
- Aristotle: Constitution of Sparta
- Aristotle: “The Nature, End, and Origin of the States”
- Aristotle: Athenian Constitution
- Aristotle: Constitution of Carthage
- Chapter 8: Late Classical and Hellenistic Greece
- Hippocratic Oath
- Plato: Meno
- Plato: “Of Wealth, Justice, Moderation, and Their Opposites”
- Plato: “Allegory of the Cave”
- Aristotle: Metaphysics
- Cleanthes: “Hymn to Zeus”
- Polybius: The Histories
- Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles
- Chapter 9: The Roman Republic
- Twelve Tables of Roman Law
- Marcos Cato (the Elder): On Agriculture
- Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
- Cicero: On the Laws
- Law of Caesar on Municipalities
- Virgil: Aeneid
- Chapter 10: The Roman Empire
- Deeds of the Divine Augustus
- Plutarch: “Life of Alexander”
- Pliny the Elder: “An Account of the World and the Elements”
- Tacitus: Germania
- Juvenal: The Satires
- Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander
- Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
- Laws Ending Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
- Theodosian Code
- Sozomen: Ecclesiastical History