Customer Reviews

Oedipus and Akhnaton: Myth and History- The Tragic Events in the Life of the Royal House of the Hundred-Gated Thebes

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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.

One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. A true-life detective story outlining the dramatic events surrounding the life of the heretic pharaoh Akhnaton and his children. As usual, Velikovsky's scholarship is first-class and his research meticulous. A far superior book to those of recent imitators, who have produced their own "theories" about Akhnaton and Tutankhamon, based largely on the (unacknowledged) inspiration of Velikovsky's work, and resting on much shakier foundations than the original.

I read this book years ago and then lost my copy but the memory stayed with me. Recently, a friend gave me another copy and I reread it. It was even more compelling this time. When I first read this most accessible of Velikovsky's books, I was much impressed with the author's linkings of coincidence and the uncanny effect of each of the connections identified by the author. Upon rereading, I am even more impressed. Would that we had a generation of young readers who might be interested in such a puzzle and I would much appreciate their feedback. This is remarkable, intuitive scholarship that is very well worth the investment of time required to glimpse a first class mind at work and be rewarded with an answer as to why this one, singular Greek myth has so many elements that are not particularly Greek and here are matched with so much that is unmistakenly Egyptian. The Sphynx knew more than one secret and Velikovsky reveals it to us. Bravo!

I am both a fan and critic of Velikovsky. His ideas on the electric universe and catastrophism are excellent. On the other hand, his ideas on revised chronology are hard to swallow, as are those of his "disciples." So I did not know what to expect, but the Egyptology crowd are not so nice or credible themselves at time and I always seek out alternative viewpoints. So I held my breath and bought this at Amazon.

I was amazed and astonished. I do not fully subscribe to all is ideas on this but I do think he has hit upon something substantial. Greeks were, in my mind, great borrowers of other cultures, themselves mixing with others as they came down into Greece from the north and east. Velikovsky makes many astute detailed observations I have never heard before but being a well read student of Egyptology, I recognized it all as having much validity. Egyptologists tend to ignore that they can not explain and the Amarna period is not without may challenges. Recent DNA tests and x-rays and the like have helped to solve mysteries that would change some of V's ideas, but not enough to refute his basic premise, that the "myth" of Oedipus is largely based on the life of Akhenaten and his court and family.

This was published in 1960 and yet, it is still relevant and useful today, some 50 years later. If you have an interest in the Amarna period, you simply can not afford to ignore this book. Even if you don't agree that much with V, you will get a new perspective on things. That's what learning is for, right?

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.

From the author of "Worlds in Collision" (1950) and "Age is in Chaos : From Exodus to King Akhenaton", we see compelling evidence that just as Henry Schliemann may have found "Troy", Velikovsky may have found the real Akhenaton.

We find a lot of pictures and supporting evidence that the timeline of the pharaohs may have been a tad off. And in the process of finding the actual timeline, we also find an intriguing mystery. As we search through the Greek epics to find if there's really been a Troy war did Odysseus really exist, we must also ask ourselves what about the legend of Oedipus?

I will not go into the details of how this legend may be based on a historical truth as that's why you are buying the book. I can tell you that you will never look at history the same way afterwards.

For a better understanding of Akhenaton, you may want to read Sigmund Freud's "Moses and Monotheism."

Moses and Monotheism

From the author of "Worlds in Collision" (1950) and "Age is in Chaos : From Exodus to King Akhenaton", we see compelling evidence that just as Henry Schliemann may have found "Troy", Velikovsky may have found the real Akhenaton.

We find a lot of pictures and supporting evidence that the timeline of the pharaohs may have been a tad off. And in the process of finding the actual timeline, we also find an intriguing mystery. As we search through the Greek epics to find if there's really been a Troy war did Odysseus really exist, we must also ask ourselves what about the legend of Oedipus?

I will not go into the details of how this legend may be based on a historical truth as that's why you are buying the book. I can tell you that you will never look at history the same way afterwards.

For a better understanding of Akhenaton, you may want to read Sigmund Freud's "Moses and Monotheism."

Moses and Monotheism

I spent years researching the redating of ancient Egyptian history as proposed by Immanuel Velikovsky and later by Courville, Bimson, Rohl and others. This is perhaps the most compelling book Velikovsky wrote, and that's saying something because all of his books are compelling.

This book answers the question about whether or not Oedipus, the Greek mythical king who murdered his father and married and sired children by his mother, was a product of the subconscious mind, as Sigmund Freud thought?

Could he have been a mythological figure? Or was he real?

Nobody answered these questions better than Velikovsky, but first we must accept his contention that ancient Egyptian history is misdate. If you look at how the conventional chronology of ancient Egypt was put together (told in an addendum to Peoples of the Sea), you will not again declare that to be impossible.

Here, Velikovsky identifies both the scenario and the personages of the Greek Oedipus legend with the life patterns of the family of the Egyptian King Akhnaton, reputedly the first monotheist during the most famous period of Egyptian history.

This required real detective work, but Velikovsky actually linked each of the figures in the Oedipus myth to their counterparts in the Akhnaton saga.

Velikovsky uncovered and documented the parallels between the fact and the myth, solving a number of mysteries about the tombs in the Valley of Kings, including Tutankhamen's famous tomb, which have befuddle archaeologists for more than a century.

The evidence is strong that ancient Egyptian history is dated wrong, that it is off by several centuries, and there is no reason not to equate the Oedipus story with that of Pharaoh Akhnaton, particularly when radio carbon dating in two specific instances did the same -- Wood from the Hittite fortress of Alazar and mat reed material from the tomb of King Tutenkhamen (Akhnaton's son) both dated 8th-9th century B.C. Velikovsky plotted this out like a great mystery and solved it. It belongs on the shelf of every scholar of Classical Era Greece.

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 44 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.