Akhenaten - In The Shadow Of The Sun God: Historical Adventure

By Alfred Bekker

Akhenaten - In The Shadow Of The Sun God: Historical Adventure

by Alfred Bekker

 

Volume: 140 pages

Young Akhenaten is conspicuously ugly and is therefore ostracized by the priesthood at the court of his father, Pharaoh Amenophis. When his confidant and teacher Ptah-Koram is murdered, he does everything he can, together with Nefertiti, to find the person responsible. But he can do nothing against the perpetrators and clients. But when Akhenaten's brother dies, he, who until now had to be hidden from the eyes of the gods, suddenly becomes Pharaoh ...

About the Author:

Alfred Bekker, born in 1964, began writing as a child. He wrote his first novel at the age of 14. In addition to more than 300 novels in various genres, he has also written short stories and narratives. He lives with his family in North Rhine-Westphalia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alfred Bekker
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223182733

Alfred Bekker

Alfred Bekker wurde am 27.9.1964 in Borghorst (heute Steinfurt) geboren und wuchs in den münsterländischen Gemeinden Ladbergen und Lengerich auf. 1984 machte er Abitur, leistete danach Zivildienst auf der Pflegestation eines Altenheims und studierte an der Universität Osnabrück für das Lehramt an Grund- und Hauptschulen. Insgesamt 13 Jahre war er danach im Schuldienst tätig, bevor er sich ausschließlich der Schriftstellerei widmete. Schon als Student veröffentlichte Bekker zahlreiche Romane und Kurzgeschichten. Er war Mitautor zugkräftiger Romanserien wie Kommissar X, Jerry Cotton, Rhen Dhark, Bad Earth und Sternenfaust und schrieb eine Reihe von Kriminalromanen. Angeregt durch seine Tätigkeit als Lehrer wandte er sich schließlich auch dem Kinder- und Jugendbuch zu, wo er Buchserien wie 'Tatort Mittelalter', 'Da Vincis Fälle', 'Elbenkinder' und 'Die wilden Orks' entwickelte. Seine Fantasy-Romane um 'Das Reich der Elben', die 'DrachenErde-Saga' und die 'Gorian'-Trilogie machten ihn einem großen Publikum bekannt. Darüber hinaus schreibt er weiterhin Krimis und gemeinsam mit seiner Frau unter dem Pseudonym Conny Walden historische Romane. Einige Gruselromane für Teenager verfasste er unter dem Namen John Devlin. Für Krimis verwendete er auch das Pseudonym Neal Chadwick. Seine Romane erschienen u.a. bei Blanvalet, BVK, Goldmann, Lyx, Schneiderbuch, Arena, dtv, Ueberreuter und Bastei Lübbe und wurden in zahlreiche Sprachen übersetzt.

Book preview

Akhenaten - In The Shadow Of The Sun God: Historical Adventure

by Alfred Bekker

Volume: 140 pages

Young Akhenaten is conspicuously ugly and is therefore ostracized by the priesthood at the court of his father, Pharaoh Amenophis. When his confidant and teacher Ptah-Koram is murdered, he does everything he can, together with Nefertiti, to find the person responsible. But he can do nothing against the perpetrators and clients. But when Akhenaten's brother dies, he, who until now had to be hidden from the eyes of the gods, suddenly becomes Pharaoh ...

About the Author:

Alfred Bekker, born in 1964, began writing as a child. He wrote his first novel at the age of 14. In addition to more than 300 novels in various genres, he has also written short stories and narratives. He lives with his family in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Pharaoh Akhenaten

I will be called Akhenaten from today, said the Pharaoh. On his head he wore the double crown in red and white, in his right hand the crozier and the scepter. A cloak made of the skins of panthers reached to his feet. Akhenaten - who serves Aton, that shall be my name from now on, for now begins a new era. The time of the only god Aton, in honor of whom I had this city built! He turned his head to the side and smiled cautiously as he looked at Nefertiti, his wife. Come, Great Royal Wife! The time has come to praise Aton.

The eyes of hundreds of dignitaries of the empire were fixed on the pharaoh and his consort. Akhenaten stood on a stepped pedestal in the middle of one of the large squares in the city of Achet-Aton. The new capital had extensive temple complexes in honor of Aton, the only god. The symbol for him was the solar disk, and in the power of its light Aton's power was manifested, which permeated everything, ruled everything, and gave rise to all life. Unlike the ancient gods, whose worship Akhenaten had forbidden, Aton did not need a fixed form. He did not appear in a human body with a greenish face like Osiris, the god of the underworld, or as a ruler with a crown and scepter like Amun, to illustrate his power. Nor did he need to take animal form like the jackal-headed Anubis or the falcon-headed Horus to show his power. When the sun's disk appeared in the sky, it was impressive enough to make Aton's power palpable.

The new capital was located in a place where this could be experienced in a particularly impressive way. Achet-Aton was built in the middle of the desert on an area surrounded by mountains and covered with sand. It took half a day to reach the Nile and half a month to sail on the great river to Thebes, the old capital.

Most of the temple buildings and porticoes had no roof - because in this sacred place the power of Aton should be felt everywhere. The rays of the sun's disk should fill these buildings with its light and its walls should guide and collect it.

Many things have happened that have now been accomplished, Akhenaten said, descending the steps with his wife Nefertiti. All the high dignitaries of the empire bowed before him. Among them were Haremhab in his bronze armor, who commanded the army of Egypt, and the Grand Vizier Eje, one of the most important officials of the empire. He was also the father of Nefertiti and thus became part of the royal family.

Some bald men, who until recently had been priests of the god Amun, also took part in the ceremony. However, not voluntarily. Akhenaten had taken away their temples, had the Amun statues polished by stonemasons and forbidden the worship of their god. That the former Amun priests hated him for this could be seen on their faces. So you shall understand that what I took away from you I gave to a more powerful one: Aton! exclaimed Akhenaten to them. And if you will serve Aton from now on, he will listen to you - but only if I deliver your message! For the way to Aton's glory and love leads only through his mediator on earth - the Pharaoh of Egypt!

Like everyone else, the former priests knelt down. Akhenaten thought of what power these priests had had in former times. A power on which even the pharaohs had been dependent often enough. When Akhenaten had been a boy, these priests had forbidden him to take part in the sacred ceremonies in honor of Amun. The boy is cursed! He must be hidden, for the sight of him is repugnant to Amun, they had claimed. But that was all in the past now. No one would ever again exclude him from a sacred festival. And certainly not Amun!

Amenhotep was the birth name of Akhenaton, which he had put down today solemnly. Since his father had carried the same name, he had been called as a boy often simply also Amenho.

Akhenaten pointed to the sky where the sun disk was lowering.

Let us go into the light, Great Royal Consort, Pharaoh then said. The sun slowly sank lower. Its rays fell right into the wide portico. As the Pharaoh and his consort walked gracefully, the sunlight completely enveloped them. It looked as if they became one with the glistening brightness - one with Aton, the life-giving power of the sun disk.

Meanwhile, Akhenaten thought back.

Back to that time when he had still been a child and actually no one would have expected that he could one day become Pharaoh.

After all, the boy they called Amenho had supposedly been cursed by the gods....

The holy greyhound

Many years before ...

Come here, whispered Amenho. The slender greyhound with the spirally coiled tail looked at him intently, but hesitated. Come on, Ankh-Weset, whispered the boy, who was hiding behind one of the massive columns covered in hieroglyphs and colorful images in the Temple of Amun. Ankh-Weset was one of the many sacred animals that populated the temple. No one would have thought of driving it away, because that would have brought bad luck. They preferred to accept that they disturbed the ceremonies from time to time. Especially when one of the greyhounds chased a sacred cat.

Nine greyhound gods were worshipped - one for each of the nine known greyhound species. The priests fed the dogs and at the end of their lives they were mummified and given a better burial than many of the residents from the poor quarters could afford.

Ankh-Weset howled loudly and audibly, drowning out even the priests' chants for a moment.

Shhh, Amenho made - not because it would have been particularly bad if Ankh-West had started barking now, too. The holy greyhound would have been forgiven for that. He belongs here, too - but I don't, it went through Amenho's mind. The boy didn't want anyone to look in his direction and perhaps become aware of him.

The greyhound unfurled his tail a bit and his ears indicated how alert he was at the moment. Then Ankh-Weset lowered his head and came closer. Amenho stroked his fur. He knew many of the animals, especially the greyhounds, that were at home in the great temple of Amun in the capital of Thebes, but he liked Ankh-Weset best. Indeed, Amenho was quite often in the temple of Amun and then looked at the pictures and inscriptions on the walls. Only on festive occasions like today he was not allowed to be here at all. Funny, you also have big ears and a long nose like me, and yet no one says of you that you are cursed by the gods because of that, whispered Amenho. The greyhound whistled softly, so that one could almost have the impression that he wanted to confirm the boy's words. Amenho stood up. Cautiously, he looked past the pillar into the large main hall of the temple. The chants of the bald priests were swelling. Amenho saw his father, the Pharaoh, seated on a wooden throne that a dozen burly bearers had brought in. The highest dignitaries of the empire surrounded him - first and foremost, of course, the royal family, including Amenho's mother, Teje. To the right of the pharaoh stood his brother Thutmosis. He was a few years older than Amenho - a young man who had recently been appointed chief priest in the largest temple of the capital. It was already clear that one day he would become Pharaoh himself. Behind Thutmosis were Amenho's four sisters: Sitamun, Iset, Henuttaunebu and Nebet-tah. Each of them had been given honorific titles indicated by amulets. Amenho had to swallow. Actually, I would belong there too, he thought bitterly. But the Amun priests had forbidden that. And even a pharaoh like his father could hardly resist their word, for their influence was too great. Am I really so ugly that Amun must shudder when he sees my protruding ears? the boy whispered to the greyhound, while he bent down to scratch his fur once more.

Ankh-Weset understood him - better than anyone else, except perhaps for his teacher Ptah-koram, from whom the boy received lessons every day in reading, writing and some other arts that an Egyptian prince had to master. For a prince he was in spite of everything - even if a prince in the shadow, which had to be hidden.

His teacher Ptah-koram was one of the few people with whom he could talk about how much it burdened him to be considered unlucky and cursed. Ptah-koram had told him again and again that more and more people in the two countries, as Upper and Lower Egypt were called together, were convinced that all the many gods were only different manifestations of one God who loved all living things.

"Even an ugly boy with ears sticking out, whose posture is so bad that his back usually