AHC: Atenism regains its popularity

[Mort the Reaper]

Your challenge is to have Atenism experience a revival at some point after its decline. It doesn't necessarily have to become the state religion again, it just has to have a significant following.

 

[John7755 يوحنا]

As far as I know, Atenism functions much similar to the notion of Sin worship in Mesopotamia. Namely, it was the devotion of the monarch to a the sun god, the eternal sun and sanctifying kingship to this god.

in the case of Mesopotamia, Sin worship came with the deification of the monarch and the placing of Sin above other gods... Henotheism in Mesopotamia was similar, certain gods are greater than others and thus should be worshiped above them. Frequently, we have references to Assyrian texts saying gods of foreigners who are symbolized by a natural element, say a mountain, are inferior to their god Assur who overcomes physical constructs and rides out to battle as a man of war.

Atenism I do not know how similar it is to this. However, it certainly could remain in its place if it is able to consistently hold its position as the guarantor of monarchical power. Zoroastrianism, is in my opinion, an example of a successful example of Atenist principles, at least in general. Perhaps, learning from Sassanid era Zoroastrianism, we can learn how this develops and maintains itself. Namely, via the perpetual rule of a dynasty that maintains this religion and devotion to the sun and does not step on too many of the toes of the other local religions. Zoroastrianism attempted this by reinterpreting all of the many Iranian gods as sort of attributes of the god Ahura Mazda. The same may be possible in Egypt.

 

[redjirachi]

Was it ever popular, or was it just Akhenaten enforcing the faith under penalty because he's a hipster who liked monotheism before it was cool

 

[Lalli]

Was it ever popular, or was it just Akhenaten enforcing the faith under penalty because he's a hipster who liked monotheism before it was cool

It had some popularity altough not sure how popular it was before Ekhnaton's ascension. But it is clear that Ekhnaton's acts effectively killed Aten's popularity. So make the pharaoh more reasonable and. He could continue promoting the Sun worshipping but not enforce that to whole people and try ban other gods.

 

[Shevek23]

There was a great timeline going some 5 or 6 years ago focused on this...except, as is necessary I think, you can't really have Atenism be "revived" after it fades--it has to continue. I suppose if it did continue several generations or more, then got discredited or abandoned somehow, it would have deeper grassroots as it were and be more likely to persist in eclipse and thus have potential to be revived and come back.

But the problem was it was a two generation wonder, with one of those generations being darn short, and failed to be deeply founded enough to persist.

For the TL that took on this challenge:

The Realm of Millions of Years

Some unwise person broke the no-necromancy rule and got the thread locked--half a decade ago. The author is still around though not terribly active, but I doubt they want to dive back into this story again. Shame, it was great while it lasted!

 

[Mort the Reaper]

There was a great timeline going some 5 or 6 years ago focused on this...except, as is necessary I think, you can't really have Atenism be "revived" after it fades--it has to continue. I suppose if it did continue several generations or more, then got discredited or abandoned somehow, it would have deeper grassroots as it were and be more likely to persist in eclipse and thus have potential to be revived and come back.

But the problem was it was a two generation wonder, with one of those generations being darn short, and failed to be deeply founded enough to persist.

For the TL that took on this challenge:

The Realm of Millions of Years

Some unwise person broke the no-necromancy rule and got the thread locked--half a decade ago. The author is still around though not terribly active, but I doubt they want to dive back into this story again. Shame, it was great while it lasted!

Thanks. Maybe I'll check it out.