A King is principal agent of the sacred in African polytheism civilized context

The king as the principal agent of the sacred

The story-myth of divine ancestry, such as that of Romulus, one of the legendary founders of Rome, in many places served to legitimatize the claims of the king. Unusual natural phenomena, such as an especially bright star, are sometimes connected with the birth of a divine king.

The conception and practice of making a king divine after his death are very old and widespread. Probably connected with ancestor worship,defication is practiced most often when the living king, although connected with gods, is not regarded as a god in the fullest sense. Only after his death does he become god. Among the Hittites, for example, the expression “the king becomes a god” meant that the king had died.