Perceiving the Divinity of the Assyrian King: two Observations from the Sidelines on a Recent Book by Julian E. Reade

The Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh has recently been the biographical subject of a monograph by Julian Edgeworth Reade. This discussion uses Reade’s analyses to examine the new ways through which the last Assyrian kings presented themselves. The observations are built on the peculiar architectural traits of the palace’s throneroom and the upper rooms. It is concluded that the innovations introduced by Ashurbanipal contributed to turn the image of the king into a quasi-divine entity, with the consequence that Greek sources judged the Assyrian kings as unseen gods.