The royal ritual of ancient Mesopotamia as initiation

The article compares the thematic and structural-functional analysis of the archaic initiation and the royal ritual of the Ancient East. On the one hand, tsarist rituals during the Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian) holidays (Akita, Zakmuk, Zogan) reveal signs of initiation, and on the other - the royal ritual is seen as a stage of development of archaic age initiation already within the framework of a specialized initiation in the ancient civilization (confessional and consecration, office). The development of the royal ritual in the Sumerian culture, as well as for the archaic initiation at an early stage, is characterized by the maternal type of initiation, the connection with the agrarian ritual, the myths of the dying and resurrecting gods - as a ritual basis, the absence of severe tests at the second (laminar) stage of the ritual complex, etc. But in the process of sociogenesis in Babylonian culture, the ritual acquires the signs of the paternal type of initiation, includes cosmogonic myths, the theme of the neophyte’s trials, as well as its sacralization, etc., is intensified. This political significance in the Assyro-Babylonian culture ritual, losing the signs of confessional initiation, became more and more the ritual of the inauguration of the king on a general holiday.