The worship of Aton, a new god the pharaoh was very fond of (to put it mildly), is speculated to be a precursor of Judaism and other monotheistic religions but it ceased to be popular after the death of his most important worshipper and propagator.

These were very turbulent times – Akhenaten’s reign was marked by internal conflict he and his descendants in the 18th dynasty were later denounced by Horemheb, and their names were erased in the Egyptian records. Why? I love ancient Egypt and this novel is set there, mostly during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV of the 18th Dynasty who officially changed his name to Akhenaten and whom some have claimed to be the first monotheistic ruler in the world. For my own sake only I write this and herein I differ from all other writers, past and to come.”įor the first time I read this one in my secondary school and have returned to it many times since.

During my life I have seen, known, and lost too much to be the prey of vain dread and, as for the hope of immortality, I am as weary of that as I am of gods and kings. I write neither from fear nor from any hope of the future but for myself alone. I do not write it to the glory of the gods in the land of Kem, for I am weary of gods, nor to the glory of the Pharaohs, for I am weary of their deeds. “I, SINUHE, the son of Senmut and of his wife Kipa, write this. But overall, this is a good movie, and it works pretty well both as a period piece and as a story.A quote instead of synopsis (because it is a pretty good quote and explains roughly everything): In particular, some of the speeches that summarize the conflict of ideas among the characters would have been more effective if they had not been quite so wordy. While there is plenty to the story, there are times when it moves quite slowly, and it doesn't seem as if it would have been all that hard to shorten some of the scenes. Victor Mature is particularly convincing as the no-nonsense Horemheb, and Peter Ustinov steals more than one scene as Purdom's assistant. As the central character, Edmund Purdom is all right, but some of the other characters often command more attention. The plot does a good job of weaving the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who tried to bring monotheism to Egypt, into the lives of the main characters. It makes for many interesting sights, which are filmed nicely and used well in the story. The setting in ancient Egypt works well and is used to good effect. Most of the cast is pretty good, and there is an assortment of interesting characters. There is plenty to the story, which involves a lot of action as well as some interesting themes, and there is a lot of good scenery and cinematography. 'The Egyptian' has several pluses that make up for a rather slow pace.

The Egyptian by Mika Waltari