There's no question about, pharaoh Akhenaten was one strange looking fellow. Protruding stomach, long ears, alien, slanted eyes, a head shaped like an ostrich egg, long arms, and.. are those feminine shaped breasts we see?

Well, the truth is, there is a question about it. Did Akhenaten really look like this at all? Some artwork displays him looking severely abnormal, others such as this sculpture by the famed artist Thutmose looks quite healthy and normal.

And if Akhenaten did look like this, why did he?

There have been theories as to why this is since Flinders Petrie began excavations at Tel el Amarna. They range from the absurd to the plausible, depending on who's reading of course. Here I will discuss two of the most prominent theories; divinity or disease.

Divinity-

The concept behind this is that the royal family is depicted differently to reinforce the idea that they are not even normal human, but bodies of a divine nature. Such as aspects of both feminine and masculine together in one body, and taller misshapen bodies to look altogether of another, higher race.

So what do we mean by divine nature? The answer is tricky. All pharaohs embraced themselves as divinities, but Akhenaten took it to a new level. Where other pharaohs are depicted on temple walls being led by the gods, or referring to a god as being their mother, father or spouse (ie; God's wife title), Akhenaten set himself up as being fully equal to the Aten. Their cartouches are of equal size next to each other. There were no priests of the Aten, you could only learn the god's words and desires through pharaoh and his family.

The realism in art of the Amarna period is in fact the complete overthrowing of the normal concept of Ma'at.. the normal 2d sameness throughout all Egyptian history to pre-dynastic times is quite on purpose. It represents the safety in repetition, the familiarity of the rulers, the constant presence of the gods. Maat (as a concept, not as the goddess) seems to speak; "We survived and flourished as a peoples in the midst of murky chaos, let's not change anything now and risk destruction" What our modern eyes may find to be boring and repetitious, they would have generally found to be reassuring.

But in Akhenaten's new world vision, only he could provide these divine comforts. He considered himself "One with Ma'at" or "Living on Ma'at", and instead of letting every artistisc endeavor represent Ma'at, he lived it and hand-fed it out to his people. He designed the entire city of Akhet-Aten. He designated where every office would be, every garden, fountain, tomb and so on. He dictated how people would pray. He would remake the world through his own deep insight into the Aten and as a god himself. By force if necessary. This is setting himself up as not a human, but a completely divine being. Now he just needed him and his family's appearance to fit.

There is a strong case for appearance for divinity's sake, as the pharaoh and royal family's striving for divine status is omnipresent, while proof of disease continues to elude scholars and scientists.

Disease-

There are two different diseases blamed for distorting the image of Akhenaten, one widely dismissed and another slowly being adopted as a true possibility. The difference is in the symptoms, as we shall list and discuss.

The first is Froehlich's Syndrome (adiposogenital syndrome), a non-congenitive (not hereditary) endocrine related disorder.

It's affects on the afflicted can include; obesity, retarded sexual growth, atrophy of the gonads, mental retardation, impotence, severely impaired vision and various other bodily symptoms.

The second disease is Marfan's Syndrome, recently proposed in a paper by Canadian scholar Alwyn L. Burridge, which is a disorder caused by a dominant abnormal gene. It's symptoms include: tall stature, elongated limbs, long faces, slender bones, spinal anomalies, 'funnel chest', abnormally elongated skull, deformity of ears, protrusion of chin, poor muscle tone, hypogenitalism, and other bodily symptoms.

If you look closely at the symptoms of the two diseases, you can spot the 'widely dismissed' one for it's problematic traits. Froehlich trademark afflictions of mental retardation and impotence clearly will have a hard time fitting Akhenaten, who had at least 8 children that we know of, possibly another 2 with daughters he might have married later in his reign. Mental impairment also does not fit too snugly, while Akhenaten's morality or ability as a country's leader is questionable at best, all evidence shows he did possess a keen mind to have pulled off the massive upheaval in religious power from Amun Re to himself and the Aten.

Marfan's Syndrome fits quite well however. Not only does it explain his appearance, but also explains the appearance of the royal family as the disease was hereditary.

However even Marfan's has not been proven as yet, perhaps in years to come DNA testing will locate the disease's initial foray into the royal lineage of the 18th dynasty from an unknown ancestor. Or possibly in Lord Yuya, Amenhotep III's father in law and Akhenaten's grandfather. Lord Yuya and his wife, Thuia or Tuya's tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, considered one of the most important finds prior to Tutankhamun's due to it's wealth of fine pottery and tomb wall art despite ancient looters. Lord Yuya's mummy has been noted to have a striking resemblance to that of American president Abraham Lincoln, who was one of the world's most famous sufferer's of Marfan's disease.

For now they are all just theories until it can be proven otherwise. Or perhaps we are all wrong, and the reason is otherworldly?

Sources Reeves, Nicholas (2001), "Akhenaten, Egypt's False Prophet"
(Thames & Hudson)
Lorna Oakes & Luciua Gahlin (2003), "The Mysteries of Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the Myths"
(Lorenz publishing)
Hornung, Erik (1999), "Akhenaten and the Religion of Light"
(Cornell University Press)
Wikipedia.org/Froelich's Syndrome
Wikipedia.org/Marfan's syndrome
Lord Yuya's mummy at Wikipedia.org