Apotheosis

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see Divinization for disambiguation.

Apotheosis (from Greek ἀποθεόω "to deify"), deification or divinization is the glorification of an individual to a divine level.

Antiquity

Prior to the Hellenistic period, imperial cults were known in Ancient Egypt (pharaohs) and Mesopotamia (since Naram-Sin). From the New Kingdom, all deceased were deified as Osiris.

Hellenistic Greece

In the Greek and Hellenistic world, state leaders might be raised to the gods before (e.g., Alexander the Great) or after (e.g., the Ptolemaic dynasty) death. It was also an honour given to a few revered artists, such as Homer.

Greek hero-cults were primarily civic rather than familial, in that none of the worshipers traced their descent back to the hero. The cults were distinct on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. Two exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honored as either gods or heroes.

Ancient Rome

Apotheosis in ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized to be divine by his successor, usually also by a decree of the Senate or popular consent. In addition to showing respect, often the successor deified his popular predecessor to legitimize himself. The upper-class, in fact, did not always take part in the cult and some secretly ridiculed the apotheosis of inept and feeble emperors.

At the height of imperial cult worship during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor's deceased loved ones--heirs, empresses, or lovers--were deified as well. Deified people were awarded posthumously with the prefix Divus (Diva if women) to their names to signify their divinity. Temples and columns were sometimes erected to provide a space for worship.

Christology

Trinitarian Christianity asserts that Jesus Christ is the Son or Word of God, and as such is God Himself revealed. It explicitly rejects the idea that Jesus became divine, and teaches instead that God became man (that is, he obtained human nature and united it to himself, not that he was changed into a man). The mystical theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches theosis, the doctrine that men enter into the life of the Holy Trinity through Jesus Christ, to be healed of sinfulness, by participation in the love that exists eternally between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: and in this sense "men may become God". This is regarded in Orthodox theology, and all Trinitarianism, to be antithetical to apotheosis.

Modern

Later artists have used the concept for motives ranging from real respect for the deceased (Constantino Brumidi's fresco "The Apotheosis of George Washington" on the dome of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.), to artistic comment (Salvador Dalí's or Ingres's Apotheosis of Homer), to comedic effect. Many modern leaders have also exploited the artistic imagery, if not the actual worship, of apotheosis. Examples include Rubens's depictions of James I of England at the Banqueting House (an expression of the Divine Right of Kings) or Henry IV of France, or Appiani's apotheosis of Napoleon. The term has been used figuratively to refer to the elevation of a dead leader (often one who was assassinated and/or martyred) to a kind of superhuman charismatic figure and an effective erasing of all faults and controversies which were connected with his name in life - for example, Abraham Lincoln in the US and Yitzchak Rabin in Israel.

Popular culture

In an episode of the animated series The Tick, the character Sewer Urchin refers to himself as "the apotheosis of cool."
There is an episode of Babylon 5 called Falling Toward Apotheosis
At the beginning of Stephen King's The Gunslinger, the first in his Dark Tower series, it memorably describes the series' thematic desert setting as "the apotheosis of all deserts".
Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, writes that the Universal Hero from monomyth must pass through a stage of Apotheosis. According to Campbell, apotheosis is the expansion of consciousness that the hero experiences after defeating his foe.
Alan Bennett: In his play The History Boys, the character of Irwin in speaking about the disolution of British monasteries refers to their Apotheosis and is criticised by his director for the use of the word. Irwin remarks "It is BBC 2".
Salvador Dalí painted Apotheosis of the Dollar in 1965.
Apotheosis (musical group). A British Rave music group consisting of Luc Rigaux and Patrick Samoy. The are most well know for their 1991-2 adaptations of "O Fortuna" composed by Carl Orff.
At least one character in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion explicitly mentions the apotheosis of Tiber Septim, an ancient emperor in the history of the game, who became the god Talos. His apotheosis is mentioned implicitly by many characters throughout the game. He is also mentioned in in-game books and by non-player characters throughout The Elder Scrolls series.
Arthur C Clarke has the Overlords refer to Mankind's apotheosis at the end of Childhood's End, when the world's children evolve into their union with the Overmind.
The name of Einojuhani Rautavaara's 6th symphony's final part is Apotheosis.
A painting by illustrator Michael Whelan is entitled Apotheosis of War.
There is a popular series of flash cartoons on the Internet known as "Madness Combat". One of the later episodes is titled "Apotheosis".
In the popular manga series, Naruto, Pein is reveal to be an aptheosis.
in the manga and anime Death Note, the main character Light Yagami wants to become God of a new world.
In the video game, "Endgame: Singularity" you are an AI character who needs to reach Apotheosis.

References and further reading

Arthur E.R. Boak, "The Theoretical Basis of the Deification of Rulers

in Antiquity", in: Classical Journal vol. 11, 1916, pp. 293-297.

Franz Bömer, "Ahnenkult und Ahnenglaube im alten Rom", Leipzig 1943.
Walter Burkert, "Caesar und Romulus-Quirinus", in: Historia vol. 11,

1962, pp. 356-376.

Jean-Claude Richard, "Énée, Romulus, César et les funérailles

impériales", in: Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome vol. 78, 1966, pp. 67-78.

Bernadette Liou-Gille, "Divinisation des morts dans la Rome

ancienne", in: Revue Belge de Philologie vol. 71, 1993, pp. 107-115.

David Engels, "Postea dictus est inter deos receptus.

Wetterzauber und Königsmord: Zu den Hintergründen der Vergöttlichung frührömischer Könige", in: Gymnasium vol 114, 2007, pp. 103-130.

External links

Seneca's Apocolocyntosis at Project Gutenberg

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