Between Men and Gods

In the Hellenistic period monarchs could receive isotheoi timai and the title of ‘saviour’. While ruler worship has been extensively studied by modern historians, the crossover between divine and royal epithets has received little attention as royal titles are usually subsumed within the phenomenon of ruler cults. Where they are tackled, Hellenistic kings tend to be studied in isolation from their divine counterparts and other (non-royal) human beings similarly called ‘saviours’. This chapter examines how the earliest cults of royal ‘saviours’ arose, the ways in which these kings were comparable to the traditional divine ‘saviours’, and how these ruler cults developed amid the cities’ changing relations with the kings thus honoured. Situating these monarchs in a long spectrum of human beings called ‘saviours’, this chapter investigates changes (if any) in the use of Soter over time, and the extent to which ruler cults developed at the expense of traditional piety.