KING OF THE TWO LANDS

The Pharoah Akhenaten ruled Egypt in the mid-14th century B.C. He was, Jacquetta Hawkes says, an extraordinarily modern figure--weak of body, he overcompensated through strength of will. He was staunchly monogamous, haunted by his social conscience, a mild patron of modern art, a decent sort of chap with a really stunning wife, his (probable) half-sister, Nefertiti. Obsessed with the burdens of his high office, including moving Egypt's capital as a part of his self-imposed task of changing the religion from polytheism to monotheistic sun worship, he finally succumbed to executive malaise, ruined his marriage, lost his grip and even his life. Poor Akhenaten! So modern in spirit and so fearfully dull. For in tailoring her hero to resemble contemporary man, Miss Hawkes has dressed him in a grey-flannel tunic, filled her book with our stereotypes. There are vaguely homosexual attachments, neurotic soul-searchings, and all sorts of dreary doings we have always assumed our contemporaries indulge simply because the only pyramids left to climb are corporate ones. ""After all the fine entertainment we have given you, wasn't that the best?"" Pharaoh asks. ""A few people who like one another talking together."" Would you believe it?