Clergy and Prophets

Religion is a huge part of the Assyrian kingdoms, specifically in how kings run their duties. As seen in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in King Hammurabi, Gilgamesh and Hammurabi both claimed to have some special connection to the gods that legitimized them. Gilgamesh was part god and Hammurabi had several claims on the stelas of how he was chosen by the gods and of his close relationship with the gods. The king would conduct rituals and made many offerings to the temple. With the Assyrian kings it is the same thing. With out religion being a priority of the king, he could not be legitimized by the people.

There was a clergy and prophets that counselded the king and they did have a considerate amount of power. The use of lambs’ livers to tell the future and the dependence the kings had on the prophets seems so easy for a prophet to exploit the king or abuse their power to their benefit. What is interesting is that this has not been brought up which makes me skeptical of what actually occurred behind closed doors in the kingdom. It seems impossible for there to be no occurrence as it is human nature to want power. Considering that kings were raiding other kingdoms and starting wars to gain more access to trade routes and more control of the land which increases their power. It can be assumed that the laws will be really harsh on those that did anything to take advantage of the king. And so it is possible that there was very little occurrence. In my opinion I doubt that the prophets and clergy were always trustworthy people and that there could have been several occurrences of conspiracies against the king by them.