Also called Aton, the Disc, Ra-Horakhty who rejoices in the horizon.
Their story
The Aten was the visible disc of the sun, worshipped long before Akhenaten but raised by him in the fourteenth century BCE above all other gods. He built a new city, Akhetaten at Amarna, with open-air temples where offerings lay in full sunlight. The Great Hymn to the Aten praises the sun for making the chick cry out in the egg and the fish leap in the river. After Akhenaten's death the court returned to Thebes and Amun, and the Aten faded from official worship.
Their day
Sunday. In modern practice, some honour him on Sunday as a solar god.
Best times to give to them
- sunrise
- sunset
What they like being given
- flowers
- fruit
- bread
- water placed in direct sunlight
How to honour them
- Stand in the morning light and read a few lines of the Great Hymn to the Aten.
- Offer flowers and fruit in an open, sunlit place, as Amarna temples were roofless.
How they can help you
- gratitude for the living world
- warmth and vitality
- starting the day well
Symbols
- sun disc
- rays ending in hands
- ankh held to the nose
- uraeus on the disc
The Aten cult under Akhenaten was an unusual and short-lived royal reform, not the everyday faith of most Egyptians.
Sources
- Great Hymn to the Aten (tomb of Ay, Amarna)
- Boundary stelae of Akhetaten
- Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
More Egyptian gods
- Osiris Lord of the afterlife and new growth
- Horus The falcon, protector of the rightful king
- Ra The sun who sails the sky
- Thoth Scribe of the gods, lord of wisdom
- Anubis Guardian and guide of the dead
- Khonsu The Traveller, the moon who heals
- Amun The hidden king of the gods at Thebes
- Ptah Creator by word and patron of craftsmen