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Animperial cult is a form ofstate religion in which anemperor or adynasty of emperors (or rulers of another title) areworshipped asdemigods ordeities. "Cult" here is used to mean "worship", not in the modern pejorative sense. The cult may be one ofpersonality in the case of a newly arisenEuhemerus figure, or one of national identity (e.g.,Ancient EgyptianPharaoh orEmpire of Japan) or supranational identity in the case of amultinational state (e.g.,Imperial China,Roman Empire). Adivine king is amonarch who is held in a specialreligious significance by his subjects, and serves as both head of state and a deity or head religious figure. This system of government combinestheocracy with anabsolute monarchy.
TheAncient Egyptianpharaohs were, throughout ancient Egyptian history, believed to be incarnations of thedeityHorus; thereby derived by being the son ofOsiris, the afterlife deity, andIsis, goddess of marriage.
ThePtolemaic dynasty based its own legitimacy in the eyes of its Greek subjects on their association with, and incorporation into, the imperialcult of Alexander the Great.
InImperial China, theEmperor was considered theSon of Heaven. Thescion and representative of heaven on earth, he was the ruler ofall under heaven, the bearer of theMandate of Heaven, his commands considered sacred edicts. A number of legendary figures preceding the proper imperial era of China also hold the honorific title of emperor, such as theYellow Emperor and theJade Emperor.
Even before the rise of the Caesars, there are traces of a "regal spirituality" in Roman society. In earliest Roman times theKing was a spiritual andpatrician figure and ranked higher than theflamines (priestly order), while later on in history only a shadow of the primordial condition was left with the sacrificialrex sacrorum linked closely to theplebeian orders.
KingNumitor corresponds to the regal-sacred principle in early Roman history.Romulus, the legendaryfounder of Rome, was heroized intoQuirinus, the "undefeated god", with whom the later emperors identified and of whom they considered themselves incarnations.
Varro spoke of the initiatory mystery and power of Roman regality (adytum et initia regis), inaccessible to the exoteric communality.
InPlutarch'sPhyrro, 19.5, the Greek ambassador declared amid theRoman Senate he felt instead like being in the midst of "a whole assembly of Kings".
As theRoman Empire developed, the Imperial cult gradually developed more formally and constituted the worship of theRoman Emperor as a god. This practice began at the start of the Empire underAugustus, and became a prominent element ofRoman religion.
The cult spread over the whole Empire within a few decades, more strongly in the east than in the west. EmperorDiocletian further reinforced it when he demanded theproskynesis and adopted the adjectivesacrum for all things pertaining to the imperial person.
Thedeification of emperors was gradually abandoned after the EmperorConstantine I started supportingChristianity. However, the concept of the imperial person as "sacred" carried over, in a Christianized form, into theByzantine Empire.
Inancient Japan, it was customary for every clan to claim descendance from gods (ujigami) and theImperial Family tended to define their ancestor as the dominant or most importantkami of the time. Later in history, this was considered common practice by noble families, and the head members of the family, including that of the Imperial Family, were not seen to be divine. Rather than establish sovereignty by the manner of claimed godhood over the nation however, theEmperor and the Imperial Family stood as the bond between the heavens and the Earth by claims of descending from the GoddessAmaterasu, instead dealing in affairs related with the gods than any major secular political event, with few cases scattered about history. It was not until theMeiji period and theestablishment of theEmpire, that the Emperor began to be venerated along with a growing sense ofnationalism.
In the 16th, 19th, and 20th centuries,Japanese nationalistphilosophers paid special attention to the emperor and believed devotion to him and other political causes that furthered the Japanese state was "the greatest virtue".[1] However, in the 14th century, most religious figures and philosophers in Japan thought that excessive veneration of the state and the emperor would consign one to hell.[1]
Devaraja is theHindu-Buddhistcult ofdeifiedroyalty inSoutheast Asia.[2] It is simply described as Southeast Asian concept ofdivine king. The concept viewed themonarch (king) as the living god, theincarnation of the supreme god, often attributed toShiva orVishnu, on Earth. The concept is closely related toIndian concept ofChakravartin (wheel turning monarch). In politics, it is viewed as the divine justification of a king's rule. The concept gained its elaborate manifestations in ancientJava andCambodia, where monuments such asPrambanan andAngkor Wat were erected to celebrate the king's divine rule on earth.[citation needed]
In theMataram kingdom, it was customary to erect acandi (temple) to honor the soul of a deceased king. The image inside thegarbhagriha (innermost sanctum) of the temple often portrayed the king as a god, since the soul was thought to be united with the god referred to, insvargaloka (heaven). It is suggested that the cult was the fusion of Hinduism with nativeAustronesianancestor worship.[3] In Java, the tradition of the divine king extended to theKediri,Singhasari andMajapahit kingdoms in the 15th century. The tradition of public reverence to theKing of Cambodia andKing of Thailand is the continuation of this ancient devaraja cult.
Some examples of historic leaders considered to have been divine kings are:
