Cults for the rulers in private settings: The gymnasia and associations of Hellenistic Egypt

Religious acts for the wellbeing of the sovereigns and royal honorific celebrations represented important features in the life of private associations and gymnasia of Hellenistic Egypt. After assessing the Demotic and Greek evidence for the Ptolemaic chōra, the chapter explores the role, features, and agenda of private associations and gymnasia as agents of cults for the rulers. This allows to draw conclusions on the reasons for, and consequences of, the performance of such cults within the private setting of associations and gymnasia, which thus carved a role for themselves in local society: while expressing their devotion and pursuing their own agenda by appropriating cults for the rulers, associations and gymnasia were at the same time introducing the Ptolemaic Royal House into the basic components of social life of the local non-civic communities of Hellenistic Egypt