Tea at Trianon: Life Under Pharaoh Akhenaten

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Life Under Pharaoh Akhenaten

From The Greek Reporter:

Recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt are revealing new details about life under Pharaoh Akhenaten, offering a rare glimpse into a city frozen in time. More than 3,000 years ago, Pharaoh Akhenaten made a decision that uprooted an entire population. The ruler of ancient Egypt ordered citizens of So’oud Aten to seal their homes and move, leaving their belongings and everyday lives behind. The move was part of his effort to replace Egypt’s long-standing polytheism (worship of many gods) with monotheism, the worship of a single deity—Aten, the sun god.

“This is the pharaoh,” Egyptologist Zahi Hawass said in an interview with NBC News, “When the king makes a decision, everyone has to obey the decision.” (Read more.)

Nancy Reyes said...: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3300-year-old-egyptian-skeletons-reveal-lower-classes-hard-lives/

reality of skeletal remains of ordinary folk suggest a different story.; April 16, 2025 at 5:48:00 AM EDT