Hello everyone, I am sorry to say I am calling in a sick day today. I've had a rough couple of days with very little sleep, and there is a good chance that when you read this, I am catching up on some of it. While I sleep, I would like to ask for your help. I have received a question that I think I'd like to put to the group, although I have some ideas of my own. Since I did not get to ask permission for using their name, I'm posting the question anonymously.

"I have a question, which will probably need some context to make sense, so first some background information:
 
A while ago, I saw a very interesting documentary about Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled in the Amarna Period. After becoming Pharaoh, Akhenaten abandoned the traditional polytheistic religion and tried to introduce Atenism, a henotheistic worship of the Aten, originally the sun-disk and an aspect of Ra. He raised Aten to a status as the new supreme Deity, placing him above all traditional Gods. He even left Thebes behind and built a new city for the worship of Aten, the city of Akhetaten. Although he did not (actively) deny the existence of the other Gods, he did refrain from worshipping any besides Aten.
 
Now, the part of this story that fascinates me the most, is what happened after Akhenaten died. His son and successor changed his name from Tutankhaten (Living Image of Aten) to Tutankhamun (Living Image of Amun), and abandoned the city of Akhetaten, which fell into ruin over the course of time. His followers turned away from the henotheistic worship of Aten, and traditional polytheism was gradually restored throughout Egypt. Tutankhamun’s successors, Ay en Horemheb, destroyed the temples that Akhenaten had built. Horemheb eventually instigated a damnatio memoriae campaign against Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay, excising them from the official lists of Pharaohs in an attempt to delete all trace of Atenism, and the Pharaohs associated with it. Akhenaten was wiped from all historic records so effectively, his identity and reign weren’t rediscovered until the late 19th century, more than 3000 years after his death. The Amarna Period was also accompanied by a massive pandemic outbreak, causing later generations to believe that the Gods had turned against the Pharaohs associated with Atenism. Akhenaten had rebelled against the Gods, trying to change society, and as punishment his era was marked by disease and he was erased from history.
 
Now, as for my question. This story really intrigued me, and I’ve been wondering if there are any similar stories out there; other people who tried to rebel against the Gods of their society and were either more-or-less successful, or harshly punished. I have been Googling around, but I have not been able to find anything but the most obvious and successful ones (for example, Moses). So I was wondering, do you know if anything similar to the story of Akhenaten happened in ancient Hellas before the spread of monotheism through Greece? Are there records of anyone rebelling against the Hellenic Gods?"

Do you have an answer for this Baring the Aegis reader? I'll get back to this tomorrow, hopefully with some of your answers incorporated.