The Substitute King (šar pūḫi): An Assyrian Ritual of the First Millennium

The paper addresses the "substitute king" (or "king of substitution), šar pūḫi. This apotropaic ritual, documented by Neo-Assyrian sources, was performed on the occasion of a particular lunar eclipse and involves the enthronement of a substitute to fulfil the forecasted inauspicious omen by dying instead of the king. It overviews all the sources available, from the presumed "ritual tablet" to the letters sent to the king Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal and the administrative texts. It analyzes the evidence from the "ritual tablet" and discusses the different procedures documented by the letters. Furthermore, it investigates the identity of the substitute and the political use of the ritual.