Egyptian solar religion in the New Kingdom : Re, Amun and the crisis of polytheism
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Egyptian solar religion in the New Kingdom : Re, Amun and the crisis of polytheism
（Studies in Egyptology）
Kegan Paul International , Distributed by John Wiley & Sons Ltd , Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1995
- Other Title
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Re und Amun
- Uniform Title
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Re und Amun
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-219) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Revised and expanded, this volume deals with the religious traditions of ancient Egypt, which have come down to us in a state which is both extremely fragmentary and complex. New material - especially hymns collected in Theban tombs - now allows a much more precise allocation of religious texts and ideas in terms of time, place and social context. Within the field of solar religion, no less than five different traditions have to be distinguished: 1) the liturgical traditions of the royal solar cult, which for their secrecy and exclusivity are labelled the mysteries of the sun cult; 2) the traditional mythology of the solar course expressed in hymns and pictorial representations; 3) the revolutionary process culminating in the Amarna period, which discards the mythic images and gives a monotheistic construction of the solar course, a process which starts before Akhenaten's revolution; 4) the theology of Amun-Re, the God of Thebes, before the Amarna Period, a theology of primacy where one god acts as chief of a pantheon; and 5) the quite different theology of this same Amun-Re after Amarna, a theology which answers the monotheistic experience by developing a kind of pantheism - the concept of the hidden god - who is both cosmic god and personal saviour.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 The mysteries of the sun cult: preliminary considerations. acting. knowing. Part 2 The iconography of the solar journey: "icon" and "constellation"
- the icons of the solar journey reflected by the traditional solar phases hymn. Part 3 The phenomenology of the solar journey: historical aspects - the discarded image. theological aspects. stylistic aspects - the transformation of the solar phases hymn. Part 4 Amun theology of the Early Period: eulogies from tombs - Hatshesput to Amenophis II. Part 5 Ba - hiddenness and oneness: Theban Amun-Re theology in the Ramesside Period I. preliminary observations. oneness and hiddenness. transcendence and hidden unity. Part 6 Cosmic god and saviour: Theban Amun-Re theology of the Ramesside Period II. creation. life. Part 7 Judge and saviour - the god of the individual: the problem of personal piety life. saviour and helper of the oppressed. judge. "division of power" and "representation.
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