The Great Hymn to the Aten

About the Hymn

The Great Hymn to the Aten is the longest and most theologically explicit composition surviving from the Amarna period (the reign of Akhenaten / Amenhotep IV, c. 1353–1336 BCE). It is preserved in its fullest form on the western wall of the rock-cut tomb of the courtier Ay at Tell el-Amarna (TA 25). Tradition — supported by the text’s first-person sections — credits its composition to Akhenaten himself.

The hymn celebrates the Aten (the visible sun-disk) as the sole creator and sustainer of life, in a form of religion so close to monotheism that James H. Breasted famously called it “the world’s first monotheism.” The hymn’s striking parallels with Psalm 104 of the Hebrew Bible have prompted nearly a century of scholarly comparison.

Selected Passages

The Sunrise (opening)

(English translation: James H. Breasted, A History of Egypt, 1909 — public domain.)

Thou appearest beautifully on the horizon of heaven, Thou living Aten, the beginning of life! When thou risest in the eastern horizon, Thou hast filled every land with thy beauty. Thou art gracious, great, glistening, and high over every land; Thy rays encompass the lands, even all that thou hast made. Thou art Re, and thou carriest them all away captive; Thou bindest them by thy love. Though thou art afar, thy rays are upon earth; Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day.

Night and the Lurking Dangers

When thou settest in the western horizon, The land is in darkness, like unto death. They sleep in their chambers, their heads are wrapped up, Their nostrils are stopped, and no eye seeth another. All their things might be stolen, even when under their heads, And they would not perceive it. Every lion cometh forth from his den, All serpents bite. Darkness reigneth, the world is in silence: He who made all things resteth in his horizon.

The Daily Resurrection

Bright is the earth, when thou risest in the horizon, When thou shinest as the Aten by day. The darkness is banished, when thou sendest forth thy rays: The Two Lands are in daily festivity, Awake and standing upon their feet, for thou hast raised them up. Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing, Their arms uplifted in adoration of thy dawning. Then in all the world they do their work.

The Aten as Sole Creator

How manifold are thy works! They are hidden from before us, O sole god, whose powers no other possesseth. Thou didst create the earth according to thy desire, While thou wast alone: Men, all cattle large and small, All that are upon the earth, That walk upon their feet; All that are on high, That fly with their wings. The foreign countries, Syria and Kush, The land of Egypt; Thou settest every man in his place, Thou suppliest their necessities…

The Foreign Lands

The land of Syria and Kush, and the land of Egypt; Thou settest every man into his place, and suppliest his necessities. Every one has his possession, and his days are reckoned. The tongues are diverse in speech, Their forms likewise and their skins, For thou divider, hast divided the peoples.

Ending — Personal Address

Thou art in my heart; There is no other that knoweth thee Save thy son, Nefer-kheperu-Re, Wa-en-Re [Akhenaten], For thou hast made him well-versed in thy plans and in thy strength. The world is in thy hand, even as thou hast made them. When thou hast risen they live; When thou settest they die. For thou art duration, beyond thy mere limbs; By thee man liveth, And their eyes look upon thy beauty Until thou settest…

The Egyptian Text

The hieroglyphic text was copied and published by:

• Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna VI: Tombs of Parennefer, Tutu, and Aÿ (Egypt Exploration Fund, 1908), plates XXVII, XLI.

A transliteration (in scholarly Egyptological convention) of the opening line reads:

ḫꜥ.k nfr m ꜣḫ.t n.t p.t pꜣ Jtn ꜥnḫ šꜣꜥ ꜥnḫ “You appear gloriously on the horizon of heaven, O living Aten, the beginning of life.”

(Hieroglyphic original visible in the photo plates of Davies 1908; reproduced in Maj Sandman, Texts from the Time of Akhenaten, Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca VIII, Brussels, 1938.)

Parallels with Psalm 104

A celebrated parallel passage, often cited:

Great Hymn to the Aten	Psalm 104:20–24
”When thou settest in the western horizon, the land is in darkness, like unto death. … Every lion cometh forth from his den, all serpents bite."	"Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God."
"How manifold are thy works! … Thou didst create the earth according to thy desire, while thou wast alone."	"O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”

Whether this represents direct literary borrowing, mediated transmission through Levantine hymnody, or independent expression of similar cosmological ideas remains debated — but the verbal parallels are striking.

Sources & Citations

• Hieroglyphic text: Norman de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, vol. VI (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1908) — archive.org / Egypt Exploration Society reprint.
• Standard transliteration: Maj Sandman, Texts from the Time of Akhenaten, BibAeg VIII (Brussels, 1938).
• English translation (PD): James H. Breasted, A History of Egypt (New York: Scribner, 1909), pp. 371–376 — archive.org. Also in Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912).
• Modern translation (copyrighted): Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. II: The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 96–100.
• Scholarly context: Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (Harvard, 2003); Donald B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King (Princeton, 1984).
• Wikipedia: Great Hymn to the Aten
• Online text (English): Internet Sacred Text Archive — Hymn to the Aten (Wallis Budge tr.)