His self-deification may have been viewed in attempts to consolidate the empire he had inherited from his father. Naram-Sin seems to have emphasized Ishtar in her war-like aspect ( ‘ashtar annunitum) and began to refer to himself as the husband/warrior of Ishtar.Īfter Naram-Sin no ruler declared himself divine until about 200 years had passed, when Shulgi (2095–2049 BCE), the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, took up the custom of self-deification once more. It was also accompanied by certain changes in religion, in which the king proliferated the cult of the Ishtar, the goddess of war and love. This first instance of self-deification also coincides with the first world empire of the rulers of Akkad, the first time that a dynasty established a territorial ruler over large parts of Mesopotamia. According to his own inscription the people of the city of Akkad wished him to be the god of their city. Naram-Sin reigned sometime during the 23rd century BCE but the exact dates and duration of his reign are still subject to research. The first Mesopotamian ruler who declared himself divine was Naram-Sin of Akkad. Therefore it is all the more surprising that ancient Egyptian-to a lesser extent-and ancient Mesopotamian kingship are often ignored in comparative studies of the phenomenon of divine or sacred kingship.
This form of regicide, however, does not seem to play an important role in all of the societies that exhibit the phenomenon of divinization of the king.Īmong the earliest civilizations that exhibit the phenomenon of divinized kings are early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Frazer made a certain form of regicide in which the divine king is sacrificed to ensure continued fertility and prosperity for the community a central element of divine kingship.
His interpretation of sacred kingship was strongly influenced by Christian imagery (Feeley-Harnick 1985).
The application of Frazer’s study to the civilizations of the ancient Near East is, however, problematical.
Frazer’s famous work The Golden Bough: A Study in Religion and Magic has been highly influential on the topic of sacred or divine kingship and continues to be so until today (e.g. Kingship (or any kind of absolutist power) and its close relationship to and use of religion for the purpose of legitimizing power seem an almost universal concept in human history. Kingship, especially the sacred aspects of the office of a king, has for a long time fascinated scholars in a variety of fields such as history, religious studies, or area studies. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
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