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Ptolemaic Egypt
Alexander's death in 323 BC marked the beginning of the Hellenistic era (323–30 BC). The unity of politics and religion, the union of kings and gods, were characteristic of the Hellenistic era, and the worship and deification of rulers became a common phenomenon in the Hellenistic era.
Egypt, as an ancient country with thousands of years of tradition of worshiping pharaoh gods, developed further during the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty. This article aims to explore the origins, characteristics, and influence of Ptolemaic Egyptian ruler worship on Roman emperor worship.
The rulers of Ptolemaic Egypt had a long history of worship, "a process that took a hundred years to make the king a living god." Long before the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, Alexander had pioneered the worship of rulers in the Hellenistic era.
During his crusades, influenced by the absolute monarchy of the East and the need for rule over the newly established empire, Alexander began to promote the cult and deification of his personality.
In 324 BC, Alexander issued an edict to all Greek city-states in Susa and sent "holy messengers" demanding that both new and old cities should recognize him as a god. After Alexander's death, the "successors" appointed themselves as Alexander's heirs in their struggles for power and spheres of influence, seeking to legitimize their dominance.
The politically savvy Ptolemy brought Alexander's remains to Egypt and established a formal worship of Alexander in its capital, Alexandria, in 285 BC. This laid the foundation for the development of worship of the rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
Apotheosis of kingship
"The cult of kingship can be traced back to Alexander's attempt to deify himself. But the institutionalization of deification, the institutionalization of royal worship, was attributed to the Ptolemaic dynasty." In 304 BC, Ptolemy I gave himself the sacred title of "Sotar" (meaning "savior"), and "because of his great attention to the well-being of his own image, he was proclaimed by some as a divine man, and after his death was revered as a god by the Egyptians".
In 283 BC, the successor Ptolemy II worshipped his parents, Ptolemy I and Queen Berenisi, as "gods of the Savior". In 270 BC, Ptolemy II added Empress Arsino and herself to the list of gods as "brother and sister gods", thus developing the posthumous deification of the rulers of Ptolemaic Egypt into the official worship of living rulers.
Arsino also became the first Ptolemaic queen to be officially worshipped. Since then, Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt and their spouses have been given the title of gods during their lifetimes, such as "Savior God" (Ptolemy I and Berenicius I), "Brother and Sister God" (Ptolemy II and Arteno II), "Benefactor God" (Ptolemy III and Berenisi II), "God of Father" (Ptolemy IV and Artino III), "God of Apparition" (Ptolemy V and Cleopatra I), etc.
"Thus, among the gods in the capital of the empire, a long list of deceased rulers occupies a central position, and their leaders are living kings and queens". To worship these new gods, the Ptolemaic dynasty built temples, festivals, and held grand musical and athletic competitions.
In 279 BC, Ptolemy II celebrated the Ptolemian Festival in Alexandria in Alexandria in memory of his parents, trying to make it comparable to the Olympic Games in Greece. The winners of the competition receive great honors and rewards. In addition, the Ptolemaic rulers also printed the heads of kings and queens on the currency, in accordance with the way the Greeks worshiped the gods.
Worship of rulers
Egypt has had a tradition of worshiping rulers since the time of the Pharaohs, which provided fertile ground for the development of Ptolemaic Egyptian monarch worship.
In the Egyptian mind, the gods once lived among them, and later retreated to the holy abode, but left a god to rule Egypt, and all the kings were his descendants, so Pharaoh was the only god who lived on earth, an intermediary between mankind and the gods living in heaven and Hades.
The Ptolemaic monarchs also recognized that "only by accepting the Egyptian theory of the reincarnation of gods could the Ptolemys find the theological basis for creating themselves as gods." Therefore, they declared themselves the rightful heirs of the pharaoh and appeared on the temple walls in the image of the traditional Egyptian pharaoh.
Above the temples of Edford, Kom Ombu, Fele and other places, the scene of the coronation of the king of Ptolemaic by the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt is depicted. A stone tablet in Tanis also depicts Ptolemy II standing opposite Queen Arsino II, wearing the traditional Egyptian red and white crown, holding a scepter and an ancor (symbolizing life).
This suggests that the Ptolemaic rulers actively sought the support of the indigenous Egyptians for their deification of royal power.
For the indigenous population, who made up the vast majority of Egypt's population, it was natural to worship the Ptolemaic monarch as the heir of the pharaoh and the embodiment of God.
But the cult of rulers in Ptolemaic Egypt was not merely a continuation of the traditions of the Pharaonic era, but also closely related to the great transformation of social reality and religious philosophical thought in the Hellenistic era.
At the end of classical Greece, as the city-state was replaced by a monarchical empire and traditional Greek religious beliefs declined, people sought solace in occult rituals such as the Aeleucian Ritual or worshipped Tika, the goddess of fate.
"In times of intense political turmoil, in times of frequent civil wars, frequent changes in social and personal life, and the alternation of dizzying victories and unexpected defeats... Everything that is incomprehensible and powerful—and above all emperors—is endowed with divinity."
Thus, the worship and deification of rulers appeared as early as the end of the 5th century BC. For example, after the Peloponnesian War, the military leader of the Spartans, Lysander, was worshipped as a god.
In 357 BC, the Syracians thanked Dion for liberating their city and worshipped him as a god.
Since the beginning of Hellenistic times, the worship of living kings and queens has become increasingly popular. For example, in 305 BC, the people of Rhodes gave Ptolemy I the title of "Savior" in gratitude for helping them repel the attack of the Macedonian ruler Antigonus. The court literati of Ptolemaic Egypt also actively contributed to the worship of the rulers because of the generous treatment and support they received from the royal family.
Government officials in Ptolemaic Egypt
Ptolemaic government officials were also strong supporters of ruler worship, as they could gain respected priesthoods and promotions.
Thus, for the Greeks, gratitude to the Ptolemaic monarch was the motivation and starting point for their worship and deification of the ruler.
The cult of rulers reflects the Greek recognition of Ptolemaic monarchy and the desire of the Greeks to use the support of powerful royal power for political and economic gain; For the Ptolemaic rulers, in order for their autocratic rule to gain the support of the Greeks, who had a tradition of democracy and self-government, they had to find a legitimate basis for authority beyond the law. Therefore, successive rulers have vigorously promoted the worship of rulers to strengthen their autocratic rule.
In the 3rd century BC, the development of Greek religious philosophical thought provided a theoretical basis for the deification of rulers.
As early as the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, when the Greek city-states were in crisis and decay, philosophers preached that only one god-given figure could restore peace, order, and prosperity.
As Aristotle pointed out in Political Science: "There exists in a nation such a man of virtue as great as that the virtues and political abilities of all other citizens cannot be compared with his... This man should be regarded as the god of men. ”
The Sicilian poet Juhimelius, who lived in the 3rd century BC, noted in his book The Holy Scriptures: "God is the personification of the forces of nature, or, more commonly, heroic figures who are worshipped as gods by the imagination of the masses or in gratitude for their benefits to mankind." ”
Therefore, all gods were once human beings and acquired the Godhead only after death. Mortals can also become future gods. This idea spread widely from the 3rd century BC onwards, contributing to the deification of the Hellenistic and Roman emperors.
Compared to other Hellenistic kingdoms, the cult of rulers in Ptolemaic Egypt exhibited two outstanding features. The first is that royal women have a prominent place in the worship of rulers. This is mainly because:
Women of the Ptolemaic royal family
Ptolemaic women not only economically owned land, ships and other property, but also played a prominent role in political and social life.
For example, Ptolemy II's wife Artino not only participated in governing the state and presiding over wars, but also funded the construction of religious buildings for Samothrace, thus establishing an international image for the Ptolemaic dynasty of caring for and supporting the ancient Greek city-state, which was widely supported and worshiped by the Greeks.
Ptolemy II collected a 1/6 product tax from vineyards, orchards and gardens for the worship of Arsino. Her image was widely disseminated in various forms: on currency she appeared as the Greek goddess Hera or Demeter, the goddess of agriculture; On the walls of the temple, she was combined with Isis, the traditional Egyptian goddess. As the "god of shared temples", her statue is enshrined in Egyptian temples, alongside local Egyptian gods.
The special reverence of Ptolemaic women is related to the worship of the goddess Isis. Since the end of the Pharaohic era, the cult of Isis has become increasingly prevalent.
The image of the goddess as a faithful wife, loving mother, and savior of the entire human race was widely spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Queen Ptolemy, as the embodiment of the goddess Isis, was also particularly respected and worshipped by the Egyptian people.
Second, the combination of royalty with traditional Greek or Egyptian deities became another trend in the development of the cult of Ptolemaic Egyptian rulers. Compared with the Olympian gods, the worship of the Greek god of wine, Dionysius, broke the boundary between man and god in its unique form of singing and dancing, and the joy of man and god, and was widely spread among the Greek people because of its affinity and civilian nature.
As early as the early days of the Ptolemaic dynasty, with the establishment of Greek rule over Egypt, the cult of Dionysus was introduced to Egypt, and the celebration of the Ptolemian festival held during the time of Ptolemy II was centered on the worship of Dionysius, the god of wine.
The holy marriage of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Egypt, to Marco Antony, one of the last three heads of Rome, has been called a match made in heaven between Neo-Isis and Neo-Dionysius, marking the culmination of the cult of Egyptian rulers.
The cult of rulers in Ptolemaic Egypt incorporated elements of Greek and Egyptian religion, favoring the universal promotion and acceptance of cults by their subjects.
romanize
After the Battle of Axon in 31 BC, Egypt became a personal possession of the Roman emperor. As the last Hellenistic kingdom annexed by Rome, the ruler worship of Ptolemaic Egypt had a greater influence on the emperor worship of Rome.
In the early days of the Roman Empire, due to the weak foundation of rule, Roman rulers worked hard to promote the religious worship of the emperor and make it a state system.
The practice of combining rulers with traditional gods was inherited by Roman emperors. Although the emperors Tiberius and Claudius refused to accept the title of god during their lifetime, they also accepted certain rituals to venerate them as gods for political reasons.
Imperial worship became the glue that linked the religious sensibilities of imperial subjects to the reigning emperor, as well as the glue that maintained and strengthened the absolute monarchy of the Roman Empire.
Influenced by the worship of the rulers of the East, especially Egypt, some emperors even tried to change the practice of the Romans deifying the emperor only after his death, demanding to be worshiped as a god during his lifetime.
Caligula, for example, "envied Egypt and its many demeanors... and longed to be worshipped as a god like Pharaoh." He ordered the head of the statue to be removed, replace it with his own, and stand in the middle of the statue to be worshiped by the crowd.
Domitian, the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, also asked people to call him "our god". "Historically, this process has been completely regular, and here we can see the influence of Hellenistic monarchy."