[Alex Murphy]

"The exact timing of Akhenaten's religious conviction is not so clearly documented, and most cases of sudden religious conversion are not due to epilepsy," he says. "Monotheism could be related to epilepsy, or bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, or drug intoxication from a fungus - but this paper does not sway me to any of these options." Markel agrees: "Do we know that a seizure led to monotheism? It's a nice idea, but we don't know," he says. "It's a very interesting hypothesis, but it's just that - there's no definite proof."

In other words, "never mind."

[SunkenCiv]

Aten had a cult before Akhenaten, but the pharaoh found it convenient to elevate it above all others, and then to eliminate all others. It was a politically (and economically) motivated religious schism by Akhetaten, who wanted to collect the revenues ordinarily collected by the many cultic temples. There’s signs that Akhenaten was more like Henry VIII upon his closure and sacking of, for example, Glastonbury.

Tut, on the other hand, restored the old cults, and built that huge central columnade in Luxor temple. It’s usually attributed to Ramses II, but he just had his name carved over Tut’s (he did this other times, and his reputation of being a great builder is somewhat inflated); some of the cartouches way up near the top were not visible from the ground and were either left on purpose or just missed.