Image Details

Akhenaten’s jubilee processional. Sometime during Akhenaten’s five years in Thebes he decided to honor his recent accession to the throne with a jubilee celebration. In a great complex of buildings erected for the occasion guests converged from all over the kingdom to reenact the pharaoh’s coronation and to pledge allegiance to the young ruler. Artist Leslie Greener depicts Akhenaten’s cortege as the day’s ceremonies end and the royal family returns to the palace. The king in white crown is borne along on his basket palanquin, followed, in successive palanquins, by the queen and the royal children. A jubilant crowd waits to cheer their young monarch, while in the background priests ranged at offering tables honor the passing pharaoh with their libations.