Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
successor was replaced by a mythological death and rebirth, like that of Osiris. T h e
king was identified with the god who had died and come back to life again, and acted
out his death, dismemberment, and rebirth in dramatic rituals rather than by actually
dying.
T h e scholar Theodore Gaster described four types of ritual in the ancient
world o f the N e a r East that followed one another in a seasonal sequence o f
M o r t i f i c a t i o n , Purgation, Invigoration, a n d J u b i l a t i o n , all related to the death
and rebirth o f the g o d or king. S o m e t i m e s all four elements c o u l d be c o m b i n e d
in an elaborate ritual drama that involved all the members of society as actors in
the play, whose stage was the whole city, and whose subject was the death and rebirth
of the god-king. Gaster says ancient ritual drama was of two types, rituals of henosis
or emptying, and rituals of plerosis or filling
annaabi.ee 
