Amun: Encyclopedia II - Amun - Sun God

Amun - Sun God

As Amun's cult grew bigger, Amun rapidly became identified with the chief God that was worshipped in other areas, Ra-Herakhty, the merged identities of Ra, and Horus. This identification led to a merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. As Ra had been the father of Shu, and Tefnut, and the remainder of the Ennead, so Amun-Ra was likewise identified as their father.

Ra-Herakhty had been a sun god, and so this became true of Amun-Ra as well, Amun becoming considered the hidden aspect of the sun (e.g. during the night), in contrast to Ra-Herakhty as the visible aspect, since Amun clearly meant the one who is hidden. This complexity over the sun led to a gradual movement towards the support of a more pure form of deity. Thus the pharaoh, Amenhotep IV introduced the worship of Aten, the sun's disc itself, identifying it as Amun-Ra.

Although Atenism, the worship of Aten, had started out as standard henotheism, it very quickly became, for reasons that are not very clear, entirely monotheistic. Indeed, it is even possible that this is the first instance of monotheism in the world. Subsequently, Amenhotep IV started persecuting the worship of Amun, and erased the name from monuments, even changing his own name to Akhenaten in favour of Aten.

However, this abrupt change was unpopular, particularly with the previous priesthoods, who had now suddenly found themselves without power. Consequently, when Akhenaten died, his name was struck out, and all his changes undone, almost as if they had not occurred. Worship of Aten was replaced, and that of Amun-Ra restored.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sun God", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki