Interesting bits for today

Nefertiti and Ankhenaten formed a divine triad with the Aten, who was genderless. This resolved the problem of an unreachable, unknowable god for the masses who generally revered fertility. As the Aten was genderless, it was sole creator - something difficult to accept. Ankhenaten and Nefertiti, then, were seen as completing the traditional triad. Where, in the previous state faith, this was usually a god, his consort, and his son (see Isis, Osiris, Horus), now it was the creater god and the royal couple. The royal couple was the agent of this fertility, represented by the preponderance of images showing the royal couple with their daughters. Temples to the Aten now, instead of having a figure of the god (who, as literally the *light* of the sun could not have a human/humanoid body) had images of the royal couple. In effect, the state religion became one of worshipping Ankhenaten and Nefertiti as the divine inheritors of the Aten.

All other state deities were outlawed and no offerings were to be made to them (making their temples and clergy poor very quickly, and the throne very wealthy). However, the "minor religion" relating to Bes, Taweret, et al appears to have continued to flourish. Since these were regional deities that were primarily associated with superstition and magic, they posed no threat to the Aten's role of sole creator, and were therefore regarded - by the king, at least, as unimportant.

Tombs, rather than having images of the gods or the inhabitants, began to feature the royal family instead, and they were prayed to even while alive (thus transfiguring the "divine ancestor" narrative of pharoahs to "divine in the flesh.")

I have two story arcs in my head (soon to be written down). When I get the third, I'll be ready to start actually plotting this thing and really writing. I hope to have it all ironed out by the completion of my first read through of Nefertiti. So excited!

Oh, and "Step 2" of the process started as soon as I narrowed down my research to Nefertiti, which was sometime around ... last Friday, I think. My research gathering is now focussed, which is why I've started these (probably boring) posts with research information that I want to not forget. I need to spend some serious time in front of my computer with Liquid Story Binder and a soda or five.

Consecutive days of writing: 008
Longest previous streak: 007
Word count since 4/30/09: 7494