Plagues and famines were recurring problems for people of the ancient Levant (eastern Mediterranean); and since these phenomena were perceived to be the actions of the gods, they required interpretation by authorized prophets and diviners. The seven passages discussed here all articulate a common behavioral pattern (with a king identified as the culpable deviant) and character-set with regard to these catastrophes. The motifs manifested are: breach of the sacred, divine punishment in the form of plague or famine, prophetic interpretation, restitution, and blood-sacrifice. The character-set is: the deity, the king/s, the prophet/s, and the suffering population. These Israelite, Hittite, and Greek narratives, while in the form of stories, prayer, and play, I identify as "Royal Deviance Narratives" (1 Sam 5:1-7:1; 2 Sam 21:1-14; 2 Sam 24:1-25; 1 Kgs 16:29-18:45; KUB xiv, 8; Iliad 1.1-475; and Oedipus Tyrannus), and I analyze them in terms of their motifs and their cultural scripts.
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