Hittite royal ideology (1)

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The ideology of Hittite kingship owed much to Mesopotamian forerunners. This applies to:
- astral and solar appellations, which were employed as repectful forms of address to a human superior;
- the equalization of rulers with the Sun-god (often among the Hittites, but only occasionally in Mesopotamia);
- divine patronage: one or more gods have created, raised and elevated the human ruler to his honor and duty;
- the king as a shepherd, both in depictions (the king wearing a shepherd’s staff as an emblem of royal office) and in texts;
- Tudhaliya wearing a gown that resembles the so-called ‘open wrap-around garment’ (offenes Wickelgewand), known in Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennia;
- the king being called a ‘hero’.

Bibliography

Erik van Dongen

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