헬레니즘 시대의 지배자 숭배 - 발전과정과 의미를 중심으로

Abstract

Ruler cult arose naturally within the context of Greek ideas of cult and divinity, reflecting concepts fundamental to the Greek religious thought. Precedents exsisted in archaic and early classical Greece. Making heroes of historical figures in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. provided the immediate background to the rise of the ruler cult at the end of the peloponnesian War. After Alexander the Great the Hellenistic Kingdoms based on notion of a divine King. The divine cults of the Hellenistic age were formulated by the Greeks as the giving of thanks to benefactors. Hellenistic kings were worshipped because they were rather doners, saviours from danger, founders than kings. The cults of the gods were the one model that was available to Hellenistic rulers for the representation of a power on whom the city was dependent which was external and yet still Greek. By borrowing and adapting this pre󰠏exsiting model of classification it proved to be possible to accomodate the new Hellenistic kings. There were great changes in the course of Hellenistic period in many areas of political, social and religious life and one can not treat the time between Alexander and Augustus as a single unit. Numerous political changes were coming across the period and they made varied situation. In particular, Hellenistic ruler worship was an established, accepted, and significant institution in the religion and politics of the Hellenistic world by the time the Roman Emperor worship dominated that world. An analysis of these divine cults which locates them very firmly in their contemporary religious and political contexts fall into three chronological sections. Firstly, the initial uses of divine cults of mortals in the late Greek classical period transferred to the divinity of Alexander the Great and these trend continued to the third century B.C as a form of Hellenistic Royal cult ; secondly, the cults of Roman power in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. ; thirdly, the public cults of Greek citizens in the 1st century B.C. In the political chaos, the means of Hellenistic ruler cult was very useful and formed a way for the Greek cities to represent and survive in the face of their new masters in a traditional guise. And finally, the advent of principatus of Augustus made fading away already established Hellenistic ruler cult and established new Roman imperial cult.