Everything about Apotheosis totally explained
:
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 (for example,
Alexander the Great) or after (for example, 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 wasn't 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, didn't 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 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. A further example would be
Kim Jong-il leader of
North Korea, he took the place of his farther
Kim Il-sung and much of the nation has grown up with the idea of the "leader" being placed at the height of society, this is the result of parents raised under a similar image by
Kim Il-sung passing this view onto their children.
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 dissolution 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 known for their 1991-2 adaptations of "O Fortuna" composed by Carl Orff.
- At least one character in 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 revealed to have undergone apotheosis.
- 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're an AI character who needs to reach Apotheosis.
- The final movement of Igor Stravinsky's ballet Apollon musagète is entitled, "Apothéose".
- The final movement of The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky is entitled "Final Waltz and Apotheosis"
- In the television series Angel, Cordelia Chase is offered apotheosis, and becomes a higher being.
- In the MMORPG Eve Online, on the 5th of May 2008, to celebrate the 5th year of its release a special shuttle type spaceship was given to all players, named "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.Further Information
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