Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The reign of the founder of the Four­th Dynasty, Snefru, was a crucial episo­de in the history of the Egyptian divine kingship. Besides important economic and administrative transformations, the political ideology is a very dynamic sphere of activity, nearly unpreceden­ted until then. Examples of that process are the changes in the funerary realm, emphasising its cultic facets and the centrality of the King in the afterworld, the founding of hierogamic mrt-shri­nes at the capital and a possible social mutation by means of the creation of a new palace ceremonial. At the same time, some shrines devoted to the ro­yal cult appear in the provinces, next to small step pyramids. The image of the King becomes more complex and full of nuances, as shown by the special featu­res of his titles, the emerging of a lot of free royal epithets, the development of a more canonical and exclusive iconogra­phy and the creation of new crowns. All this activity seems to be due to an effort at solarizing intensely the figure of the monarch and making more explicit his sacred nature, maybe as a response to a period of troubles and as a result of the dynamics of several African divine kingships.

The analysis of the textual, icono­graphic and archaeological evidence in ancient Egypt reveals the gemination of the royal persona. This dual nature explains the multiplicity of images of the king in official and popular sources, and justifies the vagueness of our inter­pretations. In this work I examine the adaptative process of Egyptian kings­hip to diverse political, social and religious conditions from its origins to the Graeco-Roman times, focusing on the main mechanisms of power, propagan­da, control, and legitimation. The divine royal dogma provided the king with the character of a god although also con­fined him to earth as Horus in human form. As a political ruler, he aimed at the boost of the country, the control of its recourses, and social stability; as a de­miurgic god, he generated and extended cosmos, mediated on behalf of human­kind, and protected cosmic equilibrium against the forces of chaos. In order to achieve these goals, the Egyptian king made use of political and magical me­chanisms that ensured the hegemony of the country abroad and the triumph of Maat in cosmos.

The titles and moral qualities of the Great King of Persia along with the features of the Achaemenid kingship, reveal the King to be an absolute ru­ler of a great empire, a sovereign par excellence. Absolute and hyperbolic titles such as “King of Kings”, “Great King”, “King of Countries”, “King of the Countries Containing All Races”, “King on this Great Earth”, “King of the Universe and King of the Four Quarters of the World”, his duties as a King warrior of peace and justice (OP. dāta-) to defend the truth (OP. ṛta-) and dispel the lie (OP. drauga-), the social and civic order opposite to chaos, among others, lead us to believe that we find ourselves face to face with a god-king, both a king and a god, a god among men. However, it would be a mistake to believe that, because of the Great King’s qualities, some of the gestures and ritual deferences of the Achaemenid kingship and royal protocol, especially the proskýnesis, the King can be claimed to be a god-king. The Achaemenid Great King was not a god-king, but a King who could rule thanks to god’s support, for the grace of god, the supreme god Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, that is to say, an inter­mediary between gods and men.

This paper presents a historiographi­cal reflection about how historians have studied the worship of the Roman em­perors. Firstly, the main characteristics which defined this cultural manifesta­tion are presented. Secondly, the im­portance of the S. Price’s book - Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor - is analysed. In this book the author by applying anthropological theories radically modifies the way the imperial cult is understood. Conse­quently, one can observe the influence of Price’s book in the following publi­cations about the emperor worship in the oriental (S. J. Friesen, B. Burrell, F. Lozano) and occidental (I. Gradel, M. Clauss) provincials of the Empire. Fi­nally, the last interpretations and their methodology in the study of this new cult is analysed (S. H. Versnel, R. Gor­don, G. Woolf).

This presentation to the volume as­sesses the main lines of research and the critical questions of the study of Divine Kingship in Ancient Societies. It also ex­plores the fundamental literature on the topic, paying special attention to recent publications with a similar approach to the one use in this monograph. This introduction reflects on the particular characteristics of Divine Kingship in the Near East, Eastern Mediterranean, the Roman Empire, the Far East, as well as Central America and Islam.

This paper presents a revision of the calendar found at Dura-Europos, the so-called Feriale Duranum. Firstly, the rituals mentioned in the calendar are assessed. Secondly, the military origin of the document is questioned and the possibility, suggested in Reeves’ recent work, that it might be considered a co­lonial calendar is put forward. Lastly, the paper assesses that the importance of the Feriale rest mainly in its value for the understanding of the Severan pe­riod and the profound religious trans­formations of the III c. A.D.

Regarding to heroic genealogies, this paper is focused on the kingdom of Mo­lossia. Its dynasty was said to descend from Achilles and his son Neoptolemus. This mythical elaboration is analysed taking into consideration literary sour­ces, as well as other related aspects.