Oedipus & Akhnaton: Myth & History

I absolutely loved Greek mythology and happened across this book a library. It quickly sparred my latent interest in Egyptian history. This is one of the best books I have ever read; I couldn't put it down! I even wrote a paper on it for college.

Oedipus and Akhnaton, the first book I ever read that was written by Immanuel Velikovsky, the person often accused of creating pseudo science, is an excellent reading. One need/should not believe everything he writes; but to see how he correlates different issues and facts and analyzes them in his own style is fascinating. Perhaps many of his conclusions are inaccurate, but so could be many of the so-called "scientific" findings. Science or Pseudo-Science, this book opened my eyes to many interesting issues. For example, it points out the possibility that Akhnaton (Akhen Aton or Amenhotep IV) could well be the person who introduced the concept of monoatheism to (at least, his part of) the world. I also learnt from this book a feature common to many saviors or heroes: A tyrranical king, who embarks on a infanticide, following a divine prediction, to avoid danger; a child separated from his family and drifted away to a far off land for his safety; the kid's return as a grown up to his own land to educate or rule his people etc. Velikovsky mentions Jesus Christ, Oedipus and Akhnaton; but I would also like to add the name of Hindu god, Lord Krishna, to the list. This book is full of parallels between the lives of Oedipus and Akhnaton. I don't know how many of these are true or accurate (for example, Velikovksy's reconstruction of Tutankhamen's murder episode is perhaps not valid anymore); but it's an excellent reading.

Velikovsky equated the 2800 year old mythological Greek king with Pharaoh Akhnaton of Egypt and in his book he shows us why. He constructs the story like a detective novel, putting pieces of clues together to form the whole puzzle and he makes an incredibly exciting job of it. He writes for the lay reader but he is far from condescening. His language is a joy to read. I agree with BlairBurton that the book is wildly entertaining but I resented his reference to the author as 'the premier theorist of crackpot science.' Velikovsy's 'crackpot' theories are yet to be disproved and his predictions have the uncanny habit of being proved right so that the world of the scientific community is as shaky as the description of the earth in "Worlds In Collision!" Readers will find great rewards in reading all of his works and judging for themselves. While "Oedipus and Akhnaton" is the least 'scientific' of his works it is no less fascinating and eminently readable.

At the beginning of this book Immanuel Velikovsky asks the intriguing, and quite reasonable, question: Why does the Oedipus legend have a sphinx outside of the Greek city of Thebes, when the sphinx is not part of Greek mythology? He then points out that Egypt, which has a very famous sphinx, also has a city named Thebes. Could the Oedipus legend be a Greek retelling of a historical event that took place in Egypt? From these speculations Velikovsky goes on to present an immense body of data and convincing interpretation of such data, to show that events and people surrounding the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhnaton, correspond to the major elements and characters in the Oedipus story. This is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I realize that many scientists are highly skeptical of Velikovsky's books showing various allegedly mythical stories to have a basis in historical evidence. I am a scientist with 43 years experience at a major research laboratory, and I find many of Velikovsky's positions to be both logical and based on sound historical and archeological evidence. Velikovsky was not a crackpot as some would claim; rather he was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century.

Velikovsky's connection between Oedipus and Akhnaton (linking ancient Egyptian history to the greek tragedy for those of you who haven't read it) is mindblowing! His historical and factual evidence that Edipus rex existed in Egypt seems irrefutable... Even if you don't agree with his conclusions, it still makes for a good (if somewhat difficult) old fashioned "murder mystery" read