In 1350 BCE, everything changed in Ancient Egypt.
There was a new Pharoah, called Akhenaten, and it was revealed to him that the many-headed animal gods (who had been looking after Egypt for ages) were not real. It was further revealed to him that there was actually only one true god. And that this god’s name was Aten. This was a massive coincidence because the Pharoah’s name was Akhen-aten.
Meaning: Helpful to Aten.
Akhenaten and Aten got on really well and Akhenaten had a great queen called Nefertiti and it turned out that Aten loved her too so Egypt in the 1350s was actually really fucking great but then one day, Akhenaten, being mortal, died.
Akhenaten’s son became the new Pharoah. His name was Tutankhaten.
Meaning: The absolute spit of Aten.
Tutankhaten decided that monotheism was boring so he reinstated all the fun old animal gods and he got everyone to call him Tutankhamun.
He was nine.
And thus the period of monotheism in ancient Egypt ended almost as soon as it began.
Things to think about:
Given the choice between one God who knows everything and loads of gods who know nothing which would you choose?
Is kissing more fun in a polytheistic society or is that a myth?
THE BREATH OF LIFE
In 1350 BCE, everything changed in Ancient Egyptian art.
It stopped looking like this:
And started looking like this :
All the pictures of animal gods were replaced by pictures of parents kissing their children.
Maybe monotheism isn’t so bad after all!
Perhaps not.
But let us interrogate what’s going on here a bit more closely.
Consider this picture, in which you see the Pharoah Akhenaten (left) and Queen Nefertiti (right) and their family.
Look closely. The family is not alone. God (or Aten) is the sun. He is with them.
Aten’s sunbeams shine onto Akhenaten and Nefertiti. And you can see that when the beams reach the noses of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, something very special happens - the beams become hands. And these hands offer a symbol : the Ankh.
The Ankh (☥) symbolises life or the breath of life or maybe life eternal or maybe death, something like that, anyway we don’t really know. But what we do know is that noses hold great power, which can be demonstrated by the tale of the Sphinx.
The great Sphinx of Giza used to have a nose, but one day a man came along who was extremely jealous of the Sphinx’s strange power and so he lopped off its nose and, since that day, it has had no nose.
If the spirit cannot breathe, they say, it will wither and perish.
So in many pictures from our period of study, you can see the sunbeams of Aten hand life to the noses of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. And many of those noses have been bashed in by the future generation.
Why is it so powerful. The nose?
Well, the Pharoah’s nose breathes the life in… and the mouth breathes it out. Directly into the open mouth of his child.
A kiss of life.
The pictures of Akhenaten and Nefertiti kissing their children (transferring the power of the one true god) are perhaps the oldest pictures of kisses in the whole wide world. Imagine that.
And Egyptian monotheism has also given us the oldest sculpture of a kiss in the whole wide world.
It shows Akhenaten kissing his daughter.
Look how soft the lines are.
So soft.
This is nice isn’t it.
It is so soft and nice.
I think monotheism is great.
So Pharoah Akhenaten took the power of the one true god, Aten, and he kissed life into little Meritaten and he kissed life into little Meketaten and he kissed life into little Tutankhaten but little Tutankhaten wouldn’t thank him for it he’d say fuck you fuck you dad and your stupid god I’m going to be immortal with my friends the animals.
Poor little Tutankhaten.
How was he to know?
THE LIQUID OF LIFE
Let us now consider the importance of moisture.
It is said that, despite all the monotheism that was going on, Queen Nefertiti really identified with the old Egyptian god Tefnut. In fact, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is a picture of Nefertiti dressed up as Tefnut, alongside Akhenaten dressed up as Shu. Perhaps they were on their way to a party. We don’t know.
But what we do know is that the god Shu had the head of a human and was in charge of air while the god Tefnut had the head of a lioness and was in charge of moisture, before Aten the sun disc took charge of everything, in 1350 BCE.
Some say Tefnut was born from a godly sneeze but I don’t believe it, because the Coffin Texts say it was Shu who was sneezed (which makes a lot more sense). Tefnut was born from spit.
And archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley assures us that Nefertiti really identified with Tefnut.
So why was Nefertiti so interested in spit?
In our course in ancient kissing, we have established that spit has long been associated with immortality. We have seen that Christ used his saliva to heal the blind, in imitation of the Egyptian god, Thoth (Book of the Dead, Spell 17). We have heard of Daoist philosophers, calling upon saliva as the ‘divine juice’ or ‘heavenly dew’. And we have read the scriptures of ancient India, where kissing was introduced as a kind of drink.
So what all this adds up to is that it seems likely that Queen Nefertiti went to the library to study the old god Tefnut (just as we are now studying Queen Nefertiti) and that while she was there, she read the history of Indian kissing (just as we have read the history of Indian kissing) and that she got confused (just as we are now confused) and that she pressed her own lips to the lips of her daughter - little Meritaten - hoping, with the liquid of her own mouth, to give the child immortality.
The kiss of eternal life.
But if that was her intention, it was destined to fail, just as it had indeed failed for even the immortal Tefnut when she gave birth to her own daughter - little Nut.
For in 1350 BCE, everything changed in ancient Egypt and so Tefnut, Shu and little Nut sadly passed away.
For all is mortal.
Even the gods are mortal…
Just as the Pharaohs are mortal
And the Priests are mortal
And the Sculptors are mortal
And the Scribes are mortal
And the Tomb-raiders are mortal
And the Archeologists are mortal
And the Egyptologists are mortal
And the Curators are mortal
And the Artists are mortal
And the Dancers are mortal
And the Snake-charmers are mortal
And the Goldsmiths are mortal
And the Blacksmiths are mortal
And the Stonemasons are mortal
And the Photographers are mortal
And the Water-carriers are mortal
And the Boatmen are mortal
And the Train-drivers are mortal
And the Beasts of Burden are mortal
And the Lions are mortal
And the Elephants are mortal
And the Crocodiles are mortal
And the Falcons are mortal
And the Jackals are mortal
And the Cows are mortal
And the Bulls are mortal
And the Dogs are mortal
And the Cats are mortal
And the Snakes are mortal
And the Fish are mortal
And the Frogs and the Locusts and the Flies
For we are all mortal.
Nothing endures.
Isn’t that right, Nefertiti?
.
.
.
.
Finally I will drink life from your lips
and wake up from this ever lasting sleep.
(Anonymous ancient Egyptian love poem, excavated at Dier el-Medina)
EXERCISE LESSON TWELVE
For today’s exercise you will become the Egyptian god Tefnut.
Today’s lesson is dedicated to the memory of Barry Booth with love and gratitude.
Music : African Dance (twist) - رقصة افريقية
Abd al-Rahman al-Khamissi - عبد الرحمن الخميسي
Other sound kindly donated by Max & Ben Ringham
A photograph of the tomb of Tutankhamun - Harry Burton
& Pictures from the Armana Period of Egyptian Art
Including The Bust of Nefertiti
Date of publication : 12.3.21