Amenôthes like his father, but that he afterwards took the
name of Baknaten, which is now read Khûnaten or Khûniaton.
His singular aspect made it difficult to decide at first
whether a man or a woman was represented. Mariette, while
pronouncing him to be a man, thought that he had perhaps
been taken prisoner in the Sudan and mutilated, which would
have explained his effeminate appearance, almost like that
of an eunuch. Recent attempts have been made to prove that
Amenôthes IV. and Khûniaton were two distinct persons, or
that Khûniaton was a queen; but they have hitherto been
rejected by Egyptologists.

He made up for the inferiority of his birth on account of the plebeian
origin of his mother Tîî,* by his marriage with Nofrîtîti, a princess
of the pure solar race.** Tîi, long accustomed to the management of
affairs, exerted her influence over him even more than she had done over
her husband. Without officially assuming the rank, she certainly for
several years possessed the power, of regent, and gave a definite
Oriental impress to her son's religious policy. No outward changes were
made at first; Amenôthes, although showing his preference for Heliopolis
by inscribing in his protocol the title of prophet of Harmakhis,
which he may, however, have borne before his accession, maintained his
residence at Thebes, as his father had done before him, continued to
sacrifice to the Theban divinities, and to follow the ancient paths and
the conventional practices.***

* The filiation of Amenôthes IV. and Tîi has given rise to
more than one controversy. The Egyptian texts do not define
it explicitly, and the title borne by Tîi has been
considered by some to prove that Amenôthes IV. was her son,