Abstract
AbstractThis article deals with royal rituals from the Ancient Near East, focusing on the evidence from cuneiform sources from Babylonia and Assyria from the first millennium BCE. I will present rituals of coronation and investiture, which can be reconstructed from various text genres, such as epics, hymns or ritual handbooks. Royal investiture was not performed only at the beginning of the king's reign, but took place regularly during the festivals of the cultic calendar, particularly during the New Year's festivals in Spring and Fall. The king, albeit considered a superhuman being by the Mesopotamians, was nevertheless prone to illness. Illness was caused, according to Ancient Near Eastern ideas, by divine wrath and the alienation of a person from his or her protective deities. Thus, sickness was treated, among other cures, by rituals to bring about the reconciliation of the patient with the divine sphere. The performance of healing rituals for the kings of the Neo‐Assyrian empire is well attested from a comprehensive correspondence of kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal with their ritual experts, diviners and physicians. An example from this correspondence will be presented in this contribution.
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