Examining the evolution of kingship in the Ancient Near East from
the time of the Sumerians to the rise of the Seleucids in Babylon,
this book argues that the Sumerian emphasis on the divine favour
that the fertility goddess and the Sun god bestowed upon the king
should be understood metaphorically from the start and that these
metaphors survived in later historical periods, through popular
literature including the Epic of Gilgames and the Enuma Elis. The
author's research shows that from the earliest times Near Eastern
kings and their scribes adapted these metaphors to promote royal
legitimacy in accordance with legendary exempla that highlighted
the role of the king as the establisher of order and civilization.
As another Gilgames and, later, as a pious servant of Marduk, the
king renewed divine favour for his subjects, enabling them to share
the 'Garden of the Gods'. Seleucus and Antiochus found these
cultural ideas, as they had evolved in the first millennium BCE,
extremely useful in their efforts to establish their dynasty at
Babylon. Far from playing down cultural differences, the book
considers the ideological agendas of ancient Near Eastern empires
as having been shaped mainly by class - rather than race-minded
elites.
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