Itamar Singer (1946–2012)

It basically went like the king or queen (who was like a priest-king or -queen) would get up that morning and go up to the roof altar where the subpriests had laid out all the juicy, juicy sacrifices, and then the queen (or king!) would get the attention of their selected god by going mmmmm, look at all these juicy sacrifices, let me point out their particularly succulent features, and would do this at length. This would be followed by a succinct pitch explaining the precise miracle being prayed for and a business plan laying out how the Hittites would exploit it. Then the king would go into great detail about all the other gods they could pray to if this god didn't intervene, and how hot and devout their worship would be when they were delivering it to the Storm-God of Nerik or whoever instead. I assume they ended with "Just think it over," although the book unaccountably omits that part.… (mer)