unicorns and religious references in HP (was checking out the library book

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...>
wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/1926 

<< The polytheistic Egyptians attempted to wipe out the monotheistic
religion of Aten, and decreed that Aten could not be named or 
depicted. >> 

Only after the religion of Aten, via the absolute power of the
monarchy, had attempted to wipe out all the other gods whom the
general population loved. Us twentieth-century EuroAmericans were
given the general idea that Atenism, being monotheistic, worshipped
the 'true God', the 'one' worshipped by Judaism and Christianity and
Islam, and therefore was a wonderful thing and an example of heroic
rebellion against falsehood or bureaucracy or The Establishment or
some damned (!) thing.

But it wasn't. Atenism was purely a celebration of the King's and the
King's Chief Wife's power. Totally anti-democratic (!). All the
depictions in Akhetaten (Amarna) (Akhet-Aten = Horizon of the Sun)
were of the Aten showering gifts (e.g. Life) on the King and his wife
and daughters, which non-royals could merely HOPE that the royal
nuclear family would pass on to them. In the shrine corner of the
worker's houses, where tradition was to have idols of friendly gods
like Bes (protector of children) and Heqet (goddess of childbirth),
they had idols of the royal family instead. In the courtiers' tombs,
where tradition was to depict the deceased and his family members
being welcomed by the gods to a pleasant Afterlife, they had pictures
of the royal family doing the rounds of Akhetaten. (Sometimes they had
picture of the King's late father and mother; his father, Amenhotep
III, had added 'the dazzling Aten' to his titles late in his reign.
One professor told a class I was in that 'Aten' was pronounced like
'yada', which was what Ancient Egyptian babies called their daddies.)

Besides depriving the people of the psychological comfort of
worshipping gods whom they could hope would help them be healthy in
life and happy after death, Akhenaten (Akhen-aten : Helper of the Sun)
lost the empire conquered by his father and previous ancestors and
ruined the economy.

No wonder all the survivors hated his memory.