Abstract
Standing at the head of the social hierarchy, the Mesopotamian king had a close relationship with the gods and was considered a mediator between the earthly and divine spheres. The interaction between kings and gods had a supreme role in ensuring social welfare and a vital function in the empowerment of the ruler. The worldly needs of the ruler led to continuous efforts to upgrade him by comparing him to the divine, as epitomized in the unique representation of Naram-Sin. As a one-time representation, however, this portrayal emphasizes how ambivalent and restrained the display of godlike kings in Mesopotamia was in general. The qualified approach of Mesopotamian iconography to royal deification is expressed in the consistent use of implicit and indirect measures to convey the godlike image of the king. A comparison between selected Mesopotamian pictorial and textual records sheds light on the difference between these two modes of expressions in conveying the divine status of the king, the visual mode being much more limited than the written one. It was perhaps the immense power of the visual mode, and its potentially explosive nature in relation to the fate of all mortals, including kings, that prevented direct and explicit representation of quasi-divine kings in the art of ancient Mesopotamia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
| Pages | 569-595 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781614510352 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781614510291 |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2014 Walter de Gruyter Inc.
Keywords
- Godlike
- Gods
- Royal deification