Antiochus I Theos of Commagene

Antiochus I Theos Dikaios Epiphanes Philorhomaios Philhellen (r. c. 69-34 BCE) was the most celebrated king of Commagene and the founder of its Greco-Iranian dynastic ruler cult. Son of Mithridates I Kallinikos and the Seleucid princess Laodice Thea Philadelphos, he advertised a double descent from the Achaemenid line of Darius the Great on his father's side and from Alexander's Macedonian Seleucid successors on his mother's. On the summit of Mount Nemrud he raised a 50-metre funerary tumulus flanked by terraces of colossal enthroned statues, and in the great cult law (the nomos) he consecrated his own deified image among the gods, decreeing perpetual monthly rites. He is the human figure of the dexiosis reliefs, shown grasping the right hand of each god in turn to proclaim his reception into divine company; the accompanying Lion Horoscope, the earliest dated Greek horoscope, fixed the auspicious astral moment of his cult. Though raised to the gods as Theos, he is consistently presented as joining and serving the ancestral divine assembly rather than supplanting its supreme head.

Domains

• sacred kingship
• ruler cult

Powers

• to take a place among the gods as a deified king
• to decree perpetual rites and festivals in his own honour

Epithets

• Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος ΦιλέλληνSchmitt, Rüdiger. 'Antiochus of Commagene.' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II/2, pp. 135-136. (secondary)

Relations

• companion: Zeus-OromasdesAntiochus is depicted grasping the right hand of the supreme god Zeus-Oromasdes in a dexiosis relief, presenting himself as a companion received into the divine assembly.Sanders, Donald H. (ed.). Nemrud Dağı: The Hierothesion of Antiochus I of Commagene, 2 vols. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. (secondary)
• companion: Apollo-Mithras-Helios-HermesThe best-preserved dexiosis stele, from Arsameia on the Nymphaios, shows Antiochus clasping the right hand of the solar god Apollo-Mithras-Helios-Hermes.Dörner, Friedrich Karl and Theresa Goell. Arsameia am Nymphaios: Die Ausgrabungen im Hierothesion des Mithradates Kallinikos von 1953 bis 1956. Istanbuler Forschungen 23. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1963. (secondary)
• companion: Artagnes-Herakles-AresAntiochus is depicted clasping the right hand of the club-bearing warrior god Artagnes-Herakles-Ares in a dexiosis relief.Sanders, Donald H. (ed.). Nemrud Dağı: The Hierothesion of Antiochus I of Commagene, 2 vols. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. (secondary)
• companion: Commagene, the All-Nourishing FatherlandAntiochus is depicted in dexiosis clasping the right hand of the personified goddess Commagene, his deified all-nourishing homeland.Sanders, Donald H. (ed.). Nemrud Dağı: The Hierothesion of Antiochus I of Commagene, 2 vols. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. (secondary)
• subordinate to: Zeus-OromasdesAlthough deified, the king ranks beneath the supreme Zeus-Oromasdes and the other ancestral gods of his pantheon, joining the divine assembly rather than presiding over it.Versluys, Miguel John. Visual Style and Constructing Identity in the Hellenistic World: Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. (secondary)

Sources

• Antiochus I Theos (r. c. 69-34 BCE) is the king of Commagene who founded the Greco-Iranian dynastic ruler cult, deified himself with the title Theos, and set his own colossal image among the syncretic gods at the Nemrud Dağı hierothesion, claiming descent from both Achaemenid Persian and Macedonian Seleucid royalty.: Schmitt, Rüdiger. 'Antiochus of Commagene.' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II/2, pp. 135-136. (secondary); Versluys, Miguel John. Visual Style and Constructing Identity in the Hellenistic World: Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. (secondary)