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Sacred king
In many historical societies, the position of kingship carries a sacral meaning, that is, it is identical with that of a high priest and of judge. The concept of theocracy is related, although a sacred king need not necessarily rule through his religious authority; rather, the temporal position itself has a religious significance.
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History
The notion has prehistoric roots and is found worldwide, on Java as in sub-Saharan Africa, with shaman-kings credited with rain-making and assuring fertility and good fortune. On the other hand, the king might also be designated to suffer and atone for his people, meaning that the sacral king could be the pre-ordained victim of a human sacrifice, either regularly killed at the end of his term in the position, or sacrificed in times of crisis (e.g. Domalde).
Among the Ashanti, a new king was flogged before being enthroned.
From the Bronze Age Near East, enthronement and anointment of a monarch is a central religious ritual, reflected in the titles Messiah or Christ (christos, the anointed one) which became separated from worldly kingship. Thus, Sargon of Akkad described himself as "deputy of Ishtar", just as the Pope is considered the "Vicar of Christ".
The king is styled as a shepherd from earliest times, e.g., the term was applied to Sumerian princes such as Lugalbanda in the 3rd millennium BC. The image of the shepherd combines the themes of leadership and the responsibility to supply food and protection as well as superiority.
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Pharaoh
Imperial cult
there is evidence for sacral kingship in Proto-Indo-European society
High King of Ireland
Germanic Kingship
Shah
King of Rome
Rex Sacrorum
Pontifex Maximus
Roman triumph, according to legend first enacted by Romulus
Augustus
Holy Roman Emperor
The temporal power of the Papacy
Khagan (Ashina)
Mikado
Devaraja
Luba Kingdom
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A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Frazer in The Golden Bough (published 1890), was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. Frazer seized upon the notion of a substitute king and made him the keystone of his theory of a universal, pan-European, and indeed worldwide fertility myth, in which a consort for the Goddess was annually replaced. According to Frazer, the sacred king represented the spirit of vegetation, a divine John Barleycorn. He came into being in the spring, reigned during the summer, and ritually died at harvest time, only to be reborn at the winter solstice to wax and rule again. The spirit of vegetation was therefore a "dying and reviving god". Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus, Attis and many other familiar figures from Greek mythology and classical antiquity were re-interpreted in this mold. The sacred king, the human embodiment of the dying and reviving vegetation god, was supposed to have originally been an individual chosen to rule for a time, but whose fate was to suffer as a sacrifice, to be offered back to the earth so that a new king could rule for a time in his stead.
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Robert Graves used Frazer's work in The Greek Myths and made it one of the foundations of his own personal mythology in The White Goddess. Most curiously of all, Margaret Murray, the principal theorist of witchcraft as a "pagan survival," used Frazer's work to propose the thesis that many Kings of England who died as kings, most notably William Rufus, were secret pagans and witches, and whose deaths were the re-enactment of the human sacrifice that stood at the centre of Frazer's myth, a speculation taken up by Katherine Kurtz' in her novel Lammas Night.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_king
Helen Reddy
(998 posts)niyad
(113,302 posts)has its roots in other mythologies. the jesus myth is almost word for word the mithra myth (and that was "borrowed" from still earlier myths. even the "beatitudes" are from other mythologies.
edhopper
(33,576 posts)was a source for the Moses myth I believe.
And of course the celebration of both is the Spring ritual.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)I'm reading it.
niyad
(113,302 posts)siligut
(12,272 posts)So often I think mythology is a fanciful story told to people who had no way of knowing what was really going on.
Sort of like what Faux News does.
jollyreaper2112
(1,941 posts)Where Religion Comes From (myths are just religions nobody else believes in)
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/rokos-basilisk-wants-you.html#comment-1168444
commenter:
The parallels between transhumanism and religion are remarkable indeed. There is, however, an important difference: religion is a belief, while transhumanism is a plan.
The difference is the same as the difference between "We will win the game because God told us that we will win" and "We will win the game because we will do our fucking best to win."
stross:
Well yes, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck I call it a duck; and if the game plan seems to be convergent with god's plan, I'll call it a religion.
We may be tap-dancing around a human cognitive failure mode: our religions are second-order reflections of our theory of mind, and even if we try to base our metaphysical constructs on evidential reasoning we end up imposing the same (or similar) patterns on the evidence.
commenter:
What patterns do you have in mind, and how do they correspond with our theories of mind?
stross:
Intentionality.
We ascribe intentions to events in our environment that are indicative of intentional activity (e.g. the actions of animals). This is a good chunk of what mammals use their theory of mind for -- to simulate predator/prey relationships. Add language and you have human communication and better modeling power. We then ascribe intention to other phenomena around us -- not so good: if it thunders, it's because the god-person responsible for thunder is angry.
It's very hard to stop anthropomorphizing our environment. "Gods" are just our projection of intention on events that lack an actual intentional causative agent.
siligut
(12,272 posts)I agree, telling people what they want to believe usually means success in getting them to accept your story.
But the metaphysical and thus beneficial death of a king is better than explaining a bloody exchange of power.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)niyad
(113,302 posts)RainDog
(28,784 posts)Spring is the New Year in ancient (and current) Persian history (Iran.)
Ishtar is the goddess of fertility who was taken to the underworld. All sex on earth stopped while she was captive and began again when she emerged. (This story has parallels to the story of Persephone in Greek mythology.) Estore was an anglo goddess of dawn - new beginnings.
Eggs are symbols of fertility that were co-opted to indicate resurrection - but, honestly, do eggs remind you of resurrection or fertility?
Spring is the time when the earth comes back to life - and this connection existed long before anyone wrote down a myth to codify it.