Reception of the ruling cult of Heracles by the rulers of the Ancient Greek and Roman world

Heracles are characters with an ambiguous position in ancient Greek mythology. Sometimes, he has the status of a god and sometimes of a hero. This confusion not only made it difficult to place him in mythology but also attracted the attention of some period rulers. Herakles, who were born from a god and a mortal, attained divinity with his death and ascended to Olympus to the level of gods. Some rulers who wanted to create their own ruler cults and attain immortality, such as Hercules, also used Herakles as the advertising face of their own identities. However, since it would be difficult to examine the issue through an unlimited archaeological inventory, if viewed as an advertising face, Herakles was used as a guide in daily political practice, or the Herakles imaginations that were on the agenda during the administration of the ruler were studied. Thus, a theme emerged with the selected administrators, the existing perspective was supported by archaeological findings and ancient writers, and the relationship between the administrators who tried to create a ruler cult and Herakles was examined.