From the Tomb of Ay at Amarna

The Great Hymn to the Aten is the longest and most celebrated of several hymns composed during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, r. c. 1353–1336 BCE), who attempted one of the most radical religious revolutions in human history: the replacement of Egypt's entire polytheistic tradition with the worship of a single deity, the Aten — the visible disc of the sun. The hymn was inscribed on the wall of the tomb of Ay, a high official and later pharaoh, at the royal city of Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna).

The text is a psalm of praise to the Aten as the sole creator and sustainer of all life. It moves from dawn to night and back to dawn, tracing the sun's daily cycle as a drama of creation and dissolution. In its scope — embracing foreign lands, the seasons, the embryo in the womb, the chick in the egg — it anticipates the universalism of later monotheistic traditions. Scholars since Breasted have noted its striking parallels with Psalm 104 of the Hebrew Bible, though the nature of this relationship remains debated.

This translation is by James Henry Breasted (1865–1935), the first American to hold a doctorate in Egyptology, from his "Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt" (1912). Breasted's rendering remains one of the most widely cited English versions of the hymn. The text follows the longer version found in the tomb of Ay (Amarna Tomb 25).

Dawn

Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When thou risest in the eastern horizon,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty.
Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high above every land,
Thy rays, they 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 far away, thy rays are upon earth;
Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day.

Night

When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky,
The earth is in darkness like the dead;
They sleep in their chambers,
Their heads are wrapped up,
Their nostrils are stopped,
And none seeth the other,
While all their things are stolen
Which are under their heads,
And they know it not.
Every lion cometh forth from his den,
All serpents, they sting.
Darkness . . .
The world is in silence,
He that made them resteth in his horizon.

Day and Man

Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon.
When thou shinest as Aton by day
Thou drivest away the darkness.
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 to thy dawning.
Then in all the world they do their work.

Day and the Animals and Plants

All cattle rest upon their pasturage,
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet,
All winged things fly,
They live when thou hast shone upon them.

Day and the Waters

The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike.
Every highway is open because thou dawnest.
The fish in the river leap up before thee.
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.

Creation of Man

Creator of the germ in woman,
Maker of seed in man,
Giving life to the son in the body of his mother,
Soothing him that he may not weep,
Nurse even in the womb,
Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh!
When he cometh forth from the body . . . on the day of his birth,
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
Thou suppliest his necessities.

Creation of Animals

When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell,
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive.
When thou hast brought him together,
To the point of bursting it in the egg,
He cometh forth from the egg
To chirp with all his might.
He goeth about upon his two feet
When he hath come forth therefrom.

The Whole Creation

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 heart
While thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
All that are upon the earth,
That go about 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 into his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities.
Every one has his possessions,
And his days are reckoned.
The tongues are divers in speech,
Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished.
For thou makest different the strangers.

Watering the Earth in Egypt and Abroad

Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World,
Thou bringest it as thou desirest,
To preserve alive the people.
For thou hast made them for thyself,
The lord of them all, resting among them;
Thou lord of every land, who risest for them,
Thou Sun of day, great in majesty.
All the distant countries,
Thou makest also their life,
Thou hast set a Nile in the sky;
When it falleth for them,
It maketh waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
Watering their fields in their towns.

How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity!
There is a Nile in the sky for the strangers
And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet.
But the Nile, it cometh from the Nether World for Egypt.

The Seasons

Thy rays nourish every garden;
When thou risest they live,
They grow by thee.
Thou makest the seasons
In order to create all thy work:
Winter to bring them coolness,
And heat that they may taste thee.

Universal Sole God

Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein,
In order to behold all that thou hast made,
Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton,
Dawning, glittering, going afar and returning.
Thou makest millions of forms
Through thyself alone;
Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers.
All eyes see thee before them,
For thou art Aton of the day over the earth.

The God and the King

Thou art in my heart,
There is no other that knoweth thee
Save thy son Ikhnaton.
Thou hast made him wise
In thy designs and in thy might.
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 length of life of thyself,
Men live through thee,
While their eyes are upon thy beauty
Until thou settest.
All labour is put away
When thou settest in the west;
When thou risest again
Thou makest every hand to flourish for the King
And prosperity is throughout the land.

Closing

Thou didst establish the world,
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy limbs,
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, living in Truth,
Lord of the Two Lands, Nefer-kheperu-Re, Wan-Re,
Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems,
Ikhnaton, whose life is long;
And for the chief royal wife, his beloved,
Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete,
Living and flourishing for ever and ever.

Colophon

The Great Hymn to the Aten was inscribed on the west wall of the tomb of Ay (Amarna Tomb 25), a high official under the pharaoh Akhenaten and later pharaoh himself, at the royal city of Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna) during the fourteenth century BCE. The hymn is the longest and most complete expression of Atenism — the monotheistic worship of the sun disc promoted by Akhenaten — and is widely regarded as one of the earliest monuments of monotheistic thought in human history.

This translation is from James Henry Breasted, "Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt" (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912), pp. 324–328. Breasted (1865–1935) was the first American to hold a doctorate in Egyptology and founder of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. His translation follows the text as published by Norman de Garis Davies in "The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part VI" (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1908). The section headings (Dawn, Night, Day and Man, etc.) are Breasted's editorial additions, retained here as navigational aids.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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