This lack of evidence for Akhenaten's early life is quite usual, because Egyptian princes tended to leave little mark before they became pharaoh: there are only three known references to Amunhotep III before his accession, for instance, oncc in the tomb of his tutor and twicc in graffiti. Yet biographers continue to propose that Akhenaten's invisibility on his father's monuments is bccause 'he was intentionally kept in the background becausc of a congenital ailment that made him hideous to behold'. 5' This kind of speculation comes partly from over- literal readings of Akhenaten's official iconography later in his reign, but also from presumptions about the shame and horror associated with disability that the Egyptians did not necessarily share. New Kingdom burials of severely disabled children show that great care had been taken of them during life, even by relatively poor parents. In death they were given the full ritual attentions which would enable them to be reborn.38 Also, people whose bodies did not conform to conventional categories, such as dwarves and perhaps twins, could be regarded positively because they were believed to have solar or divine associations.'59 So even if Akhenaten had been physically different - and there is absolutely no evidence that he was - the Egyptians may not a priori have seen this as something bad.
Amunhotep and Tiyc had at least five other children who survived to maturity. Four were daughters - Satamun, Isis, Henuttaunebu and Nebetah. A princess called Baketaten is recorded at Akhet-aten in close association with Amunhotep and Tiye, though not actually named as their daughter. Instead of being a fifth daughter born late in life to Tiye, Baketaten may be one of these sisters given a new Aten-related name (Baketaten means 'She-who-scrves-Aten'): much name- changing went on at Akhet-aten. In their father's reign Akhenaten's sisters were depicted taking liturgical parts at important state occasions like the ^-festival, sometimes together, sometimes alongside Amunhotcp's other children by his co- wives (see Figure 2.5). The royal daughters shook sistra, percussion instruments
Figure 2.5 Akhenaten's parents Amunhotep III (in j«f-festival costume) and Tiye with daughters, from the temple of Amunhotep III at Soleb in Sudan. Redrawn from Lepsius 1849 III.
which were connected with the cult of the goddess Hathor, emphasising both their role in state ceremonies and the royal family's identification with the state gods. There was also a son Djehutmose, apparently older than Akhenaten: inscriptions call him s3 nesu semsu, 'king's elder son'.
When we think of Akhenaten, we think of him surrounded by his many female relatives - his mother, wife, daughters and sisters. The prominence of these women can easily lead one to forget how deeply patriarchal Egyptian society was, as indeed was Aten-worship itself.10 Yet Akhenaten's older brother Djehutmose is represented not as the heir to an empire in a system which privileged men, but as a sensitive intellectual, a proto-Akhenaten perhaps, with the implication that Akhenaten grew up somehow in Djehutmose's shadow.41 I prefer to see Djehutmose as a reminder of how male-centred the royal family was, in spite of all its prominent women. The nuances of names hint at this. Both of Amunhotep's and Tiye's sons were named after members of the direct paternal line. These naming patterns integrated boys into the privileged male lineage, enrolling them into an endless succession of kings, a continuum of glorious ancestors. Tiye's non-royal forebears are not acknowledged in her sons' names. It is also important to remember why pharaohs' female relatives appear on monuments in the first place. It was theologically awkward to depict a living king and his succcssor together, because the living king was identified with Horus, who could only claim his throne from the dead king, identified with Osiris. Daughters therefore had important liturgical roles to play — but these were in ceremonies which helped to uphold the kingship, such as the W-festival. Tiye and the princesses appear bccausc they can perform acts of ritual benefit to the king. They are defined in terms of their relationship to the principal male figure, the pharaoh - and arc tiny in comparison to him. In fact, Akhenaten's sisters Satamun, Isis, Henut- taunebu and Nebctah disappeared from monuments after their father died and their religious importance had diminished.
How and where Akhenaten was brought up is unknown, but it is still worth considering the general educational experience of New Kingdom princes, if only to nail the myth of a shrinking Akhenaten surrounded by a bevy of female relatives. There is not a shred of evidence for Akhenaten as Tiye's mummy's boy, yet another instance of how he has been fabricated in terms of post-Freudian ideas about the development of personality. Biographers assume that Akhenaten grew up dominated by the prominent and visible women of his father's court, and that being raised in this feminine atmosphere had a significant - probably malign - effect on his psyche. This disturbing assumption helps to underpin the many Oedipal interpretations of Akhenaten: that he was motivated to destroy his father's gods and rcjcct the name they both bore out of hatred for him and desire for his mother. In turn, this Oedipal Akhenaten allows him to be seen in terms of stereotypes of homosexual men. He is over-fond of his mother, therefore interested in 'feminine' things such as art and poetry instead of 'masculine' things such as war and politics, and consequently emotionally disturbed! Even though there is no evidence whatever for these ideas, they still permeate all the biographies.12 If anything, the little that is known of Egyptian princely education suggests an opposite scenario. Princes' contact with their parents was probably limited, as they seem to have spent their formative years with a male tutor and in the company of other males, whether in the priesthood, the military or other institutions. The relationships formed in these male-centred institutions remained important throughout life.45 Such practices as the naming of princcs and the ritual duties expected of them also point to their significant allegiances lying with the esteemed paternal line, not to their mothers or their mothers' families. The training of Akhenaten's brother Djehutmose is a case in point. Named after his father's father, his education included being a .rewz-priest, which involved playing the part of a ritual 'son' in honouring the unbroken paternal lineage of kings.
Other New Kingdom princes were educated by tutors, but if Akhenaten had one his name is not yet known. The tombs of these men advertise their prestigious closeness to the royal family in sccncs showing them with the prince seated on their laps, sometimes dressed in full regalia. It is just possible that one such scene depicts Akhenaten on the lap of his tutor, whose name may be Heqareshu. In this tomb, decorated in the middle of Amunhotep Ill's reign, the owner is shown with four princes wearing a sidelock, a visual signifier of childhood (see Figure 2.6). This image emphasises the owner's length of service in the royal family, starting forty years before in the reign of Amunhotep II, so the four princcs could represent generations of children born into the family during his time with them. Whether one of these princes is Akhenaten, or indeed a real prince at all rather than an iconographic convention for 'long and faithful royal service', is difficult to say. The appearance oifour princes may be telling: if there were three, it would be possible to read the image as the hieroglyph for 'princes', but showing four perhaps hints that specific boys are being indicated. Apart from some time with such a tutor, Akhenaten's education and preparation for kingship could have included a spell as a priest at Memphis, like his older brother, or at Heliopolis if Djehutmose was still alive.44 Other royal heirs of the New Kingdom had similar educations.