Chapter 3 priest and king

[Generally refers to all administrative leaders in early human society, here it is translated as "king". ] The questions we pose to answer ourselves are mainly two: first, why did the priest of Diana of Nemi, the king of the forest, have to kill his predecessor?Second, why, before doing so, did he have to break off a branch that grew on a certain tree and was recognized by the ancients as "Virgil's golden branch"? The first thing we notice is the title of the priest.Why is he called the king of the forest?Why is his office said to be the throne? Combining the title of the throne with the priesthood was quite common in ancient Italy and ancient Greece.In Rome and other cities of ancient Rome, a priest was called "priest king" or "king of rituals", and his wife had the title of "queen of rituals".In the Athens of the republic, the second (in terms of its importance) magistrate (elected once a year) was also called king, and his wife was also called queen, and the functions of both were actually religious.Many other republic city-states in ancient Greece had nominal kings. According to what is known, their responsibilities seem to be to preside over sacrifices and sacrifices are limited to ordinary civilians within the territory.Many Greek countries even had several such nominal kings serving at the same time.According to legend, after the abolition of the monarchy, Rome appointed a "priest king" to preside over the sacrificial ceremonies that the kings were in charge of in the past.The same legend about the origin of the sacrificial king seems to have been circulated in Greece.This is evidenced by the example of Sparta, which at the time was almost the only Greek state that retained a monarchical form of government.In Sparta national sacrifices were offered by kings who were descended from the gods.The two kings of Sparta, one presided over the sacrifice of Zeus of Lacertigate [another name for Sparta], and the other presided over the sacrifice of Zeus in heaven.

People are familiar with this combination of priesthood and kingship.For example, in Asia Minor, once the birthplace of some great religions, there lived tens of thousands of god slaves ruled by high priests. These high priests, like the Pope of Rome in the Middle Ages, held secular and divine power at the same time.Such "priestly ruled" cities include Zela and Pesinas; and the kings of the Teutonic nation in the ancient pagan era, their status and power were like the chief priests; The emperors of China also presided over public ceremonies, and the etiquette rules were stipulated by the scripture "Rituals"; the king of Madagascar was the chief priest of the kingdom.On New Year's Day, when a steer is lucky enough to be sacrificed by the kingdom, the king stands by to supervise and pray for thanks.In the monarchies of the Gela people of East Africa who still retained their independence, the king held ceremonies on the top of the hills and presided over the killing of the victims; we can also learn from some ancient traditions of a fascinating Central American country. A similar concentration of secular and theocracy, throne and priesthood, in the king is seen in the hazy revelations of theThe ancient capital of the region has long been buried under the lush tropical forest, only in Palenque [now a village in the northern part of Chiapas Province, Mexico, where the ruins of the ancient Mayan culture are located. ]'s majestic and mysterious ruins.

When we point out that ancient kings were often also priests, we are far from exhausting the religious aspects of their office.In those days, the divinity that shrouded the king was by no means empty words, but a firm belief.In many cases, the king was revered not just as a priest, that is, as a link between man and god, but as a god.He can bestow blessings on his subjects and worshipers, blessings that are generally considered beyond the reach of human beings and can only be obtained by invoking and offering sacrifices to superhumans or gods.Therefore, the kings are often expected to give the country good weather, good harvests and so on.This expectation, which must seem strange to modern man, was a perfectly natural way of thinking for early man.Although to the more civilized man this distinction between the natural and the supernatural is obvious, to the savage he cannot imagine any difference between the two.In his view, the world is largely governed by supernatural forces, that is to say, from human gods who, like himself, act on impulse and personal will, like He himself was easily moved by people's pleas for mercy and expressions of hope and fear.In a world thus conceived, the savage considers his power to influence the course of nature to his own advantage unlimited.He thought that by begging, promising or threatening, he could get good weather and abundant grain from the gods.And if any god should incarnate, as he sometimes believed, in the form of a mortal like himself, he need not appeal to a higher god.He, a savage, possesses in himself all the powers necessary to promote his own happiness and that of his fellows.

This is a way leading to the concept of "man-god".Also, there is another way.Besides the idea that the world is full of divine powers, savages have a different, perhaps even older, idea.In this conception we find the germ of the modern conception of the laws of nature, or of nature as a series of states of affairs occurring in an unchangeable order, undisturbed by man.This germ we speak of is contained in what we call "sympathetic magic."That kind of witchcraft once prevailed in most superstitious systems.In early societies, kings were often both priests and wizards.Indeed, he is often imagined to be proficient in some kind of magic, from which he gains power.Therefore, in order to understand kingship and its divinity, the evolution of sex—it is, in the eyes of the savages, that the king is bestowed with this office because of his divinity—one must have an understanding of the principles of magic, and at the same time There should also be some notion of ancient superstitions which have taken root in the minds of men in all ages and in all nations.For this reason we intend to discuss this subject in some detail.