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"King Tut" was originally named Tutankhaten, which meant something like "the living image of Aten," Aten being an Egyptian god. He was referred to by this name while he was a prince.

After he became King, he took the name Tutankhamun, which is the name he's generally referred to by today. Unsurprisingly, this means "the living image of Amun," Amun being anotherEgyptian god.

Tutankhamun's predecessor had promoted the worship of Aten and suppressed the worship of other gods, including Amun, whose cult he had banned. King Tut reversed these changes, raising Amun to supremacy again and abolishing the worship of Aten.

It was customary in writing to put the "divine" portion of the name first, so in inscriptions his name usually reads either Amuntutankh or Atentutankh, depending on when it was written.

To add a bit more confusion to the mixture, an Egyptian by the name of Manetho in the 3rd century BC wrote a history of the kings of Egypt. There are no surviving copies of the original, but we do have copies of works which used the original as a source. One of these was written by a 1st century AD historian called Josephus, and his list includes a pharaoh by the name of Rathotis. Based on the time and length of his reign, "Rathotis" is probably King Tut. (It's worth noting that Amun was sometimes called Amun-Ra/Amon-Re/other variants).

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14y ago

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