Some aspects of the ruler cult in the Hellenisitic culture societies

It was not only a craving for military power that led Alexander the Great to his desire to conquer the world. He had a higher and more grandiose goal: to create an oecumene, a common world. His followers, despite all of their greatness, power and longevity, possessed neither Alexander’s charisma nor his conviction of divine sonship necessary to unite the peoples of the world. Following Alexander’s death, a period of unending wards between the various Diadochi and their successors begins. An obvious discrepancy emerged between the epic time of Alexander — practically a living myth — and the tragic reality. The transition from a polis-oriented to an oecumene-oriented mentality resulted in a feeling of loneliness and isolation, with 237 the disappearance of faith in the traditional cults and gods. People had a natural craving for salvation, soteria, for liberation from the difficulties and mishaps of human life, and this craving was accompanied by a craving for a person whom they termed soter, euergetes, or epiphanes: the manifestation of a god in their midst. Various saviors, benefactors and appearances of god would surface, revealing thereby not only the incomplete nature of their hierophany, but also the desire for such hierophanies. It would be incorrect to identify in this cult only a state official ettiquete imposed from above and without a sincere reaction in the hearts of the faithful.