The loss of “aura” of the King-God

 

The discrediting of the person of the King-God was a gradual process and, from the point of view of the effectiveness of his power, something very relative. In China and Japan, the figure of the King-God will remain until the twentieth century of our era, and today, the United Kingdom maintains a royal-priestly figure as head of the State, as is also the case in several Asian countries. However, the exposure of the King-God to the government's own vicissitudes causes his mana, the aura, in Benjaminian (Walter Benjamin) terms, to decrease and his link with the divinity will no longer be that of the avatar, but that of a vicar who receives power. of the god, though divine enough for the dominated classes. The mythical plane of universal law is the result of a progressive development of more and more abstract divine persons from the epistemological and moral attributes of the King-God, as we saw in the case of Maat and Ra, or in the story of Marduk. and the Tablets of Destiny, in this case, an attribute usurped from his predecessor Kingu, who in turn had stolen it from Enlil. In the myth of Ra, it is the personification of an attribute, while the Babylonian narrative presents us with an objectification, a talisman or magical object of power. The Tables contain written information on the laws of the universe, Mes, but they are also a document that confer on the bearer the legitimacy in the exercise of power, previously conferred on the gods Enlil and Enki, gods-kings prior to Marduk of an agricultural and civilizing nature. The Babylonian objectification of the law is associated with writing, and this is sanctioned by a seal that confirms it as Me, as truth, virtue and wisdom. The Sumerian concept of Me is not limited to these three, in fact, the Mes are the final evolution of a process of abstraction that began in a more pragmatic way. As we read in “Enki and the order of the world”, the Mes are actions that entail order and abundance, in relation to livestock, irrigation, harvest and trade, as well as in relation to the passing of the months of the year and the order of the heavens. In the Poem of Inana and Enki (Water), which narrates the transfer of the powers of civilization from Eridu to Uruk, we find listed the actions that constitute the Mes: the arts of wood, metallurgy, writing, the construction of baskets, houses, but also institutions, concepts and objects, such as the lordship, the divinity, the monarchy, the scepter, the herding of elites, the royalty of certain people, the many priestly positions, the truth, the descent into hell and the return, sexuality and prostitution, the legal language and that of libel, art, music and musical instruments, heroism, judgment, decision, and a few more.