Kings, Gods and People

The articles in the volume discuss the ways of establishing and legitimating monarchic power in the Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Anatolia and Greece from the third millennium to the 6th century BC. A special attention is payed to the emergence or reinstatement of monarchies from periods of crisis. The chapters demonstrate a high importance of the rulers' supposed relations to the divine sphere in all the cultures discussed, especially significant during the times when monarchies were established, or re-established after the crises, and show how divine blessing was combined with the image of rulers as warriors supported by deities when crushing the enemies threatening the common good. On the other hand, the chapters show various trajectories of development of power relations in the different regions of the Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, illuminating the significance of two eras of crisis and reorganisation - the late third millennium and the 12th century BC - for the development of political power and royal ideology in respective states and cultures.