Aššur is King! The metaphorical implications of embodiment, personification, and transference in Ancient Assyria

The use of metaphor deeply and intrinsically characterizes the human mind, specifically in the creation of language: often simply intended as a rhetoric figure of speech, metaphor has many different and consequent implications in the description and representation of the world, in particular for what concerns the expression of emotions and feelings. Metaphors are a cognitive instrument that allows humans to see and represent the world around them and to perceive their body within a system of other bodies that have the same possibilities and capabilities of perceiving and interacting. The present paper intends to analyse the use of metaphor in the creation of images in ancient Assyria: starting from the ritual of the designation of the king – his enthronement and conferment of his legitimate power – the concept of metaphor will applied accordingly, as to investigate the different modalities of representation via embodiment – to perceive the world via the body – and via conveyance – to perceive the world and the bodies outside via the process of transferring meanings, emotions and feelings to the things. In this respect, the formula “Aššur is King!” can be intended as a metaphor for the reciprocal materialization of the divine power via the body of the king and the legitimization of the Assyrian king via the body of the god.