Divine Kings

One of the more interesting aspects of Mesopotamian kingship was being divinely formed or reared, yet rarely born: if the king was the flesh of an empire, surely one would hope their ruler was blessed since conception. 

But kings die and, for that reason, few kings suggested that they were divine. This idea is very old, as in Pre-Sargonic (~2250 BCE), e.g. En-metena, born of Gatumdug; Lugal-anda, born of Bau; Lugal-zagesi born of Nisaba. Gudea had proclaimed: 

"I have no mother -- you (Gatumdug) are my mother! ... You are who molded my seed in the womb -- you formed me in the Great Womb."

According to Henry Frankfort (1948): 

"The Mesopotamian king was a mortal marked – and to some extent changed – by divine grace … the numerous other texts in which Mesopotamian kings are called the ‘sons’ of gods do not imply that they are divine" (300-1). 

For these reasons, when kings WERE recognized as divine, this was truly exceptional stuff.  For more on this, see Piotr Steinkeller (2017), "History, Texts and Art in Early Babylonia: Three Essays".