Royal cult and the relationships between monarchies and Greek poleis are key to recent and current work on Hellenistic history, but the contribution of royal women to diplomacy and their commemoration (mainly through cults) has not been thoroughly addressed. In this paper I shall argue, using the example of one of these royal women, Queen Apollonis of Pergamon, that an analysis of the role of women in Hellenistic monarchies can significantly add to our understanding of royal cults. This article will take as its departure point an honorific decree from the Ionian city of Teos that deified the late queen after her death. This document, though incompletely preserved, reveals rich complexities in the interrelationship of religion, politics, and gender, both in discourse and practices, and in the roles played by the queen's public image and agency, particularly in the international self-presentation of the Attalids and the realm of diplomacy.The figure of the Hellenistic "queen" (often but not always titled basilissa) 1 never had a clear definition, and the different kingdoms had a range of practices associated with women's basileia. Thus, despite similarities, the image, agency, and cult of individual royal women could in practice be very different from one dynasty to another; 2 there were differences as well in their effective participation in power. Apollonis, the wife of King Attalos i of Pergamon and the mother of Eumenes ii and Attalos ii, 3 may not be seen as having been as politically active as other, better-known Hellenistic queens (such as Olympias, Arsinoe ii, Cleopatra Thea, Cleopatra vii, and Laodike iii). Yet, as will be demonstrated here, she was a public agent who played a significant role in the relationship between the Attalid monarchy and the cities they ruled, and was frequently honoured inside as well as outside the kingdom. 4 In effect, her public activities can be understood as political acts if one broadens the definition of political