Bret Devereaux

Even including Egypt, most ANE kings did not have pretensions of divinity. Especially - say it with me now - Achaemenid Great Kings Weren't Living Gods. And yes, I literally have my in-person classes chant that back to me to make the point.

Moreover, legitimacy is more complex than declaring that you either 1) a god, or 2) chosen by the gods! You have to convince somebody of that, which brings us right back to "complex systems of generating royal legitimacy through judicial, religious and military activity..."

How much of this is just simple Orientalism at work?

Quite a lot, but not all of it. Often students express this view of kingship through equally garbled understandings of what the phrase 'Divine right of kings' signifies.

You can get your students to remember "divine right of kings"? Jealous