La realeza aqueménida: ¿reyes o dioses?

Abstract

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.