Abstract
This contribution offers a new analysis of a decree honoring the last king of Pergamon, Attalus III (138-133 BC), on his return from a victorious military campaign(IvP I 246; OGIS 332; PHRC003). This text is one of the richest documents on civic worship honors decreed for Hellenistic political leaders. The interest in revisiting it stems first and foremost from the need to clarify the understanding of disputed passages, the history of the text's composition and the sacred topography of Pergamum. In addition, a detailed analysis of the honors enables us to conduct a broader discussion, in two stages : firstly, the actors, rituals and spaces involved in the honours bestowed on Attalus III will be studied in the context of the religious and social life of Pergamum, as known to us from other documents ; secondly, attention will be focused on the way in which this interaction between the cults for the gods and those for the king shapes a dynamic relationship between the divine and human recipients of these honours. This analysis will show that, if we are to grasp what is at stake in the cult timai for Hellenistic rulers, we need to replace a static, ontological reading of the hierarchical relationship between the gods and the men honoured, with a pragmatic perspective, centred on ritual and its contexts. This means admitting and interpreting the plurality of solutions implemented by civic institutions, not as a sign of their ambiguity regarding the nature of these honors, but as confirmation of the flexibility that makes Greek polytheism capable of responding to a variety of cultural and socio-political needs, likely to evolve over time.
