Akhenaton thought of himself as the apostle of Atonism, and he exhibited a mystical devotion to his god. Yet Akhenaton was not the founder of the Aton cult, which may be traced to antecedents in Egypt’s earliest religious traditions.[7] The Sinuhe story, recounting the death of Amenemhet I (_ca._ 1960 B.C.), states that the deceased Pharaoh ascended to heaven and was united to the disk of the sun (_itn_). While this may mean only that the sun disk was the abode of deity, it suggests the possibility that the Aton (sun disk) might itself become an object of worship. Ancient Egyptian Religion The Egyptian religion of historical times represents a fusion of previously independent local gods. Each town was devoted to a particular deity, many of whom were represented in the form of animals. The cat goddess Bast was honored at Bubastis; the cobra-headed Edjo, at Buto; the ibis Thoth, at Hermopolis Magna; and the jackal god Wepwawet, at Lycopolis. Animal deities were frequently given the bodies and limbs of humans. The sun and the Nile River were the two important factors in the life of all Egyptians, and gods associated with these phenomena tended to transcend Egyptian provincialism and become truly national in scope. The priests at Heliopolis, near ancient Memphis, were devoted to the worship of the sun god under his ancient name Re. Heliopolis (“city of the sun”) is the Greek form of a name that appears in the Old Testament in transliteration from the Egyptian as On (cf. Gen. 41:45ff.) and as Hebrew, Beth-Shemesh, “House of the sun” (Jer. 43:13). Joseph was married to an Egyptian girl named Asenath, “she belongs to (the goddess) Neith,” the daughter of a priest named Potiphera (“He whom Re has given”) who ministered at the shrine to the sun god at On, or Heliopolis (Gen. 41:45, 50; 46:20). Re as the sun god came to be associated with other deities. As Re-Atum he came to be regarded as a manifestation of Atum, the creator. As god of the horizon, Re took the compound name Re-Harakhti. Such compounds as Sobek-Re and Khnum-Re indicate the tendency to identify local deities with the more universal Re. Beginning with the Fifth Dynasty (_ca._ 2500 B.C.) each Pharaoh bore the title “Son of Re” as part of his name, further enhancing the name and reputation of the sun god. Until the Egyptian New Kingdom (_ca._ 1600-1100 B.C.), when Amon of Thebes became the principal god of Egypt, the priests of Re at Heliopolis shared with the priests of Ptah in nearby Memphis the position of highest influence and wealth in the religious life of the country. [Illustration: Hapi, God of the Nile. The Nile god is depicted on a relief from the throne of the Pharaoh Eye.]