“There was another man whose obsequiousness surpassed that of Stratocles. He proposed a bill to
the effect that, whenever Demetrius visited Athens, he should be accorded the same welcome as
Demeter and Dionysus and that, further, whatever citizen provided the most lavish and costly
reception should be granted at public expense a sum of money with which to make a dedicatory
offering. Finally, the official designation of the month Mounychion became ‘Demetrion’ and of the
last day of each month ‘Demetrias,’ and the name of the festival of the Dionysia was changed to
‘Demetria.’ ” (Plutarch, The Life of Demetrius 12.1–2)The character of the religion and the religious festivals of the polis remained essentially unchanged in the
Hellenistic Period, with the exception of the introduction of the ruler cult, which was widespread in the
Hellenistic kingdoms. All this meant in the Greek poleis, however, was the addition of another deity who
might require worship, an altar, sacrifices, and so on. This was nothing new; the Greek poleis in the
Classical Period were used to welcoming new divinities, as the Athenians had done with the Arcadian
god Pan at the beginning of the fifth century and the Thracian goddess Bendis at the end. The difference, of
course, was that the objects of the ruler cult could actually back up their claim to divinity with tangible
and substantial benefactions. Demetrius I of Macedon, for example, liberated Athens from an oppressive
ruler in 307 BC and restored to the Athenians their laws and their “traditional form of government.” In
gratitude, and in the expectation of further benefactions, the Athenians proclaimed Demetrius and his
father Antigonus, the founder of the Antigonid kingdom, “savior gods” and appointed a priest to be in
charge of the worship of these manifestly powerful divinities. In addition, a decree was passed that
representations of Demetrius and Antigonus were to be included along with the representations of the
Olympian gods that were traditionally woven into the robe that was presented to Athena every four years
at the Panathenaea. Similar honors were routinely granted to the successors of Demetrius and Antigonus.
“As moved by Elpinicus of Rhamnous, son of Mnesippus: ‘Whereas King Antigonus, Savior of the
People, continually lavishes benefits upon the people of Athens; and whereas the people have, on
this account, conferred honors upon him equal to those granted to the gods; therefore, with the
blessing of Fortune, be it resolved that the citizens of Rhamnous shall wear crowns and perform
sacrifices to him on the nineteenth day of Hecatombaeon, at the time of the athletic contests of the
Great Nemesia ... This decree is to be inscribed on a stone monument to be set up beside the altar of
the King.’ ” (SEG 41.75, a decree of the Attic deme of Rhamnous prescribing annual sacrifices to
King Antigonus Gonatas of Macedon, mid-third century BC)In the other Hellenistic kingdoms as well, the rulers were made the objects of cult, but, since those
kingdoms included large non-Greek populations, the character of the cult and, indeed, the character of the
kingship were necessarily different. These rulers were following in the tradition of the Macedonian kings
Philip and Alexander, who styled themselves as embodiments of Greek culture. Alexander had himself
succeeded the rulers of the Persian Empire, and so his rule combined elements of Macedonian and
Persian kingship, which his successors imitated in their own kingdoms. These kingdoms imposed a
Persian-influenced Macedonian governmental organization on regions that had their own traditions of
government, in some cases traditions of very long standing. So, for example, the rulers of the Ptolemaic
kingdom of Egypt established at Alexandria a court whose language was Greek and which became a
leading center of Greek culture. The rulers were all directly descended from Alexander’s general
Ptolemy, were of pure Macedonian ancestry, spoke Greek as their native language, and bore names that
advertised their Greek heritage: names like Ptolemy (= “Warlike”), Cleopatra, and Berenice. The name