The Substitute King

Ronak Patel

Near Eastern Studies R1B

Response Paper; Rituals of War (Ch.7 and Ch.8)

Zainab Bahrani’s book Rituals of War continues by describing the omens related to war, and the reasoning behind warfare. A key aspect of Bahrani’s description involves describing the use of a substitute king to protect the actual king. The bad omens were localized in the body of the substitute king (Bahrani 198). Bahrani does describe the occurrence of the event in some detail, but does not give a thorough explanation of the reason behind it and how effective it was.

It seems a bit odd that the ritual practice of using a substitute king would be used to protect the actual king since the purpose of a negative omen is a response to a sin. Bahrani fails to explain why the substitution of a king was allowed, especially since omens were seen as the judgment of the gods. Bahrani does not explain the reason behind preserving the existing king.

Also, Bahrani mentions that the substitiute king was dressed exactly like the actual king, and had the actual king’s name inscribed on him (198). Bahrani fails to mention the reasoning behind this.. He does not say whether this was to deceive the gods or not. Bahrani also does not explain whether the imminent evil was produced by one of the gods or the entire pantheon.

Furthermore, Bahrani said that the priests choose a citizen to be the substitute king (198), but he does not explain anything about what criteria the priests used. All he states is “He (substitute) was never a prisoner or a slave” (Bahrani 198). This is very important because knowing the characteristics of the substitute king would give for insight into whether the purpose of the ritual was truly preserving the omens, or to find a way to indirectly bring another king to power. The possibility of replacement can be seen from Bahrani’s historical recount an actual king who died in the 19^th century BC, while the substitute king lived (198).

Bahrani does give some information on how the substitute king is used, but there are many gaps in how the substitute king is utilized. There is also a lack of knowledge of what actually happens to the substitute king. Some of these gaps cannot be blamed on Bahrani because of lack of archeological evidence, but there are instances where Bahrani leaves out key explanations.