This classic study clearly establishes a fundamental difference in viewpoint between the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. By examining the forms of kingship which evolved in the two countries, Frankfort discovered that beneath resemblances fostered by similar cultural growth and geographical location lay differences based partly upon the natural conditions under which each society developed. The river flood which annually renewed life in the Nile Valley gave Egyptians a cheerful confidence in the permanence of established things and faith in life after death. Their Mesopotamian contemporaries, however, viewed anxiously the harsh, hostile workings of nature. Frank's superb work, first published in 1948 and now supplemented with a preface by Samuel Noah Kramer, demonstrates how the Egyptian and Mesopotamian attitudes toward nature related to their concept of kingship. In both countries the people regarded the king as their mediator with the gods, but in Mesopotamia the king was only the foremost citizen, while in Egypt the ruler was a divine descendant of the gods and the earthly representative of the God Horus.

From despots to powerless figureheads, and from the Neolithic era to the present, this book traces the history of kingship around the world and the tenacity of its connection with the sacred. Considers the many forms that kingship took during this period, including: the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt; the emperors of Japan; the Maya rulers of Mesoamerica; the medieval popes and emperors; and the English and French monarchs of early modern Europe Explores the panoply of governing roles that kingship involved – administrative, military, judicial, economic, religious and symbolic – but focussing on its connection with the sacred. Draws on the insights of cultural anthropology and comparative religion, as well as the on the resources provided by historians.

This well-illustrated volume represents an extensive analysis of kingship in ancient Egypt. Each of the six contributing authors investigates particular areas of his own expertise. Among the topics covered are the origin of kingship, its distinctive traits and its general nature, and its reflection in royal art and architecture.

The present work relates to the political organization in Northern India during the period from 600 A.D. to 1200 A.D. It describes, in detail, how several Kingdoms emerged and how their rulers claimed divinity, possessed absolute powers over their subjects. The author discusses the culminative effects of the separatist tendencies of the monarchs on Indian Polity which ultimately resulted in their weak resistance to the Muslim invaders from the North-West.The work is based on literary, epigraphic and foreign accounts. It is critical, informative and intelligible. The reader would find it interesting as well as instructive.

There has been a tendency to neglect the political life of Asia, in favour of religious and aesthetic considerations. The myth of the ‘changeless East’ dies hard. Few people are aware that the earliest legislation for the rights of the common man go back to the Sumerians and that outlines for a social contract were drawn up by Indian Buddhists two thousand years before Locke and Rousseau. First published in 1985, Patterns of Kingship and Authority in Traditional Asia provides an excellent survey of traditional Asian ideas of government, from the earliest kingdoms of the Sumerians and the Egyptians to the time when Western influence first made itself felt. Each chapter is written by a specialist on a particular country or region of Asia, who seeks to identify some of the essential features of its traditional royal or imperial authority. Particularly fascinating is the way in which traditional institutions continue to have a vital influence upon Asian countries. The serious reader will obtain a clear outline of traditional Asian ideas and systems of government and will indirectly acquire a deeper understanding of other aspects of Asian civilisations.

In this book, Mehmet-Ali Ataç argues that the palace reliefs of the Neo-Assyrian Empire hold a meaning deeper than simple imperial propaganda.

The focus of this work is the importance of mental and physical purity in religious matters. For the Hittites, religious matters come close to daily life, and in this case the 'daily life' of the King of the Hittites is the subject of study. In the unique group of texts brought together here for the first time, the Great King himself (the person nearest to the gods) was felt contaminated. Professor Van Den Hout investigates the fascinating rituals and background connected with this situation.

Valeri presents an overview of Hawaiian religious culture, in which hierarchies of social beings and their actions are mirrored by the cosmological hierarchy of the gods. As the sacrifice is performed, the worshipper is incorporated into the god of his class. Thus he draws on divine power to sustain the social order of which his action is a part, and in which his own place is determined by the degree of his resemblance to his god. The key to Hawaiian society—and a central focus for Valeri—is the complex and encompassing sacrificial ritual that is the responsibility of the king, for it displays in concrete actions all the concepts of pre-Western Hawaiian society. By interpreting and understanding this ritual cycle, Valeri contends, we can interpret all of Hawaiian religious culture.

An illustrated guide to Minoan images and symbols

Preliminary Material /Editors The Sacral Kingship -- Zum sakralen Königtum in der Forschung der letzten hundert Jahre /Carl-Martin Edsman -- Zur Dialektik des Gottkönigtums /Hans Heinz Holz -- Der religionspsychologische Aspekt des sakralen Königtums /Adolf Allwohn -- Le caractère sacré de la souveraineté à la lumière de la psychologie collective /Edmond Rochedieu -- The High God and the King as symbols of totality /K. A. H. Hidding -- The Sacred Kingship and the priesthood /E. O. James -- Volksreligiöse Herrschaftsformen /Gustav Mensching -- The Sacral Chief among the American Indians /Paul Radin -- La place du roi divin dans les cercles culturels d'Afrique Noire /V. Van Bulck -- Divine Kingship and its partiopation in Ashanti /Rev. Patrick Akoi -- Il sacrificio del vecchio re-mago nella Cina leggendaria /P. Benedetto Fedele -- Le Roi Sacré dans l'ancien Viet-Nam /Nguyen Tran Huan -- Hindu Doctrine of Divine Kingship /A. Basu -- The Sacred Character of Ancient Indian Kingship /J. Gonda -- Le caractère royal et divin du trône dans l'Inde ancienne /Jeannine Auboyer -- La regalità sacra nell'antico Tibet /G. Tucci -- The Notion of Divine Kingship in Tantric Buddhism /D. L. Snellgrove -- La personne sacrée du Roi dans la littérature populaire Cambodgienne /Solange Thierry -- L'origine céleste de la souveraineté dans les inscriptions Paléo-Torques de Mongolie et de Sibérie /Jean-Paul Roux -- The Sacral Kingship of Iran /Geo Widengren -- The Position of the Queen in Ancient Egypt /C. J. Bleeker -- Das Königtum im Mittleren Reich /Günter Lanczkowski -- General Oriental and Specific Israelite Elements in the Israelite Conception of the Sacral Kingdom /Sigmund Mowinckel -- King David and the Sons of Saul /Arvid S. Kapelrud -- Herrschaftsform und Ichbewusstsein /Johannes Hempel -- Das erste Buch des Psalters. Eine Thronbesteigungsfestliturgie /Miloš Bič -- Les apports du psaume CX (vulg. CIX) à l'idéologie royale Israélite /J. Coppens -- Hasidic Conceptions of Kingship in the Maccabean Period /M. A. Beek -- The Consecration in the eighth Chapter of Testamentum Levi /H. Ludin Jansen -- Was there a Sacral Kingship in Minoan Crete? /Arne Furumark -- The Evidence for Divine Kings in Greece /H. J. Rose -- Mission sociale et pouvoirs magiques du poète comparés à ceux du Roi dans le lyrisme de Pindare /Jacqueline Duchemin -- Alexanders Gottkönigsgedanke und die Bewusstseinslage der Griechen und Makedonen /Fritz Taeger -- Le rex et les flamines maiores /Georges Dumézil -- Prodromes sacerdotaux de la divinisation impériale /Jean Bayet -- The Idea of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament /Frederick C. Grant -- Théocratie et monarchie selon l'Évangile /H. Clavier -- Le Conflit entre Dieu et le Souverain divinisé dans l'Apocalypse de Jean /L. Cerfaux -- The Effect of the Destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 on Primitive Christian Soteriology /S. G. F. Brandon -- L'idée de Dieu et la divinité du Roi (résumé) /H. I. Marrou -- Expressions of Cosmic Kingship in the Ancient World /H. P. L'Orange -- Der Abbau des Herrscherkultes im Zeitalter Konstantins /Kurt Aland.