Titles of Kings (written in a museum in Berlin)

Visiting the Pergamon's excellent Babylon: Mythos und Wahrheit exhibit while on holiday this summer, I came across a pleasingly succinct text on the Titles of Kings. Babylonian kings were recorded in cuneiform in grand lists, but the lists are not made in chronological order, and any kings that the current king wouldn't care to remember are left out. They also didn't use numbers for the years, but rather named years according to events, often also tied to the king: "the year the king built the great canal" etc. And but so anyway here is what was important about kings thousands of years ago:

Titles serve as indicators of the claim to hegemony and the obligation to protect the country: "King of Justice," "Eternal seed of kings," "Strong," "Heroic king" or "Sage," "Pacifier of all four regions of the world" or "King of all four regions of the world."

Attributes of the king:
The king is of divine descent
The king is the guardian of religious/ritual traditions
the king is the servant of (various) deities
The king is competent and wise
The king is a warrior and protector of the land
The king is a builder and custodian of religious centres, but also of canals. He is the guarantor of prosperity "who builds up the country" and who "accumulates wealth and abundance."

Nice to know that essentially, nothing has changed. Even if I don't see Queen Elizabeth II picking up a sword to smite her enemies, of course symbolically I can see her as responsible for that faculty within the kingdom. (Ignoring for the moment, of course, the fact that Britain isn't exactly a monarchy at all.) Even Obama and McCain fit the bill for most of these--at least, the idealized form of Obama/McCain. Interesting how military service is still an important factor in American elections; in Canadian or British elections (or indeed Nordic ones), it's not nearly as notable.

And but so if you know how a king is built up, you should know how to discredit and overthrow one.

Attributes of the king about to be executed:
The king is a devil. ("What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid? Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal, And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil." -Rich III)

The king is the destroyer of religious/ritual traditions ("'Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." - Macbeth)

The king is the servant of (various) devils

The king is incompetent and foolish ("'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself." - King Lear)

The king is a coward and cannot protect the land (count the number of kings or princes who are referred to as effeminate or womanish)

The king is a destroyer who, instead of accumulating wealth, squanders it. ("And that's the wavering commons: for their love Lies in their purses, and whoso empties them By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate." -Rich. II)