The Great Hymn to the Aten

AKENATEN'S THE HYMN TO THE SUN

When you set in the western horizon of the sky,
The earth is in darkness like the dead.
They sleep in their chambers
Their heads are wrapped up.
Their nostrils are stopped
And none see the other.
While all their things are stolen
Which are under their heads
And they know it not
Every Lion comes forth from his den
All Serpents they sting
Darkness - The world is in silence.
He that made them rests in his horizon.

Bright is the earth when you rise in the horizon.
When you shine as Aten by day
You drive away the darkness.
When thou send forth you rays
The two lands are in daily festivity.
Awake and standing upon their feet
When you have raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing
Their arms uplifted in adoration to your dawning
Then in all the world they do their work..

All cattle rest upon their pasturage
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to you.
All sheep dance on their feet.
All winged things fly,
They live when you have shone upon them.

The barges sail upstream and downstream alike.
Every highway is open because you have risen.
The fish in the river leap before you.
Your rays are in the midst of the great green sea.
Creator of the germ in woman
Maker of the seed in man
Giving life to the son in the body of his mother
Soothing him that he may not weep.
You are Nurse in the womb.

Giver of breath to animals, every one that you make
When it comes forth from the womb
On the day of their birth
You open its mouth in speech
You supply its necessities.

When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell
You give him breath to preserve him alive.
When you brought him together
to (the point of) bursting in the egg
To chirp with all his might,
He goes about on his two feet
When he has come forth.

How manifold are your works,
They are hidden from before (us)
O Sole God, whose powers no other possesses.
You did create the earth according to your heart
While you were alone
Man, all cattle, large and small
All that are upon the earth
That go about on their feet
(All) That are on high
That fly with their wings

The foreign countries, Syria and Kush,
The land of Egypt
You set every man into his place
You supply their necessities
Everyone has his possessions
And his days are reckoned
The tongues are divers in speech
Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished
(For) you made different the strangers.

Akhenaten | Amenemhet III | Cleopatra VII  | Hatshepsut |
High-Priest Ranefer |  King Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye |
Horemheb | Khafre | Menkaure |  Narmer | Smenkhkare |
Montuemhat | Nefertiti | Pepi I | Queen Ankhesenamen | 
Queen Tetisheri | Ramesses the Great | Ramesses III |
Senwosret III |  Seti I | Taharka |
Tutankhamen | Tuthmosis III |

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