From: Jack Kilmon (jkilmon@historian.net)
Date: Mon May 04 1998 - 11:01:29 EDT
Larry Ingram wrote:
>
> I watched a special on TLC last night on famous Egyptians. I am going to
> misspell the names but I am sure someone will correct me (grin). The
> Father of King "Tut" was Ogmoten
Akhenaten was more likely the brother or half brother
of Tutankhamen, but no one is really sure.
(sp) and he believed in one god,
> Theoten (sp). As a symbol of the one god religion he used the "symbol of
> life", a cross-like symbol.
The Aten was the disk of the sun. The Egyptian word
ANKH means "life." Since the sun was the giver of life, the
ankh heiroglyph was used for many purposes in ritualistic
epigraphy, even before the Amarna period.
>
> Now my point, just recently there was a brief discussion that "theos" my
> originally meant "power". Is there any chance this word could have come
> from this Egyptian god, Theoten?
No, you misunderstood the narrator. He was talking
about *the* Aten, not *Theoten.* It is always illuminating,
however, to place things in etymological context and to
search for relationships, as you are doing.
Jack
--
Dâman dith laych idneh dânishMA nishMA
Jack Kilmon (jkilmon@historian.net)
http://www.historian.net
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