Apotheosis

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(Greekapotheosis, from, andtheos, deify).

Deification, the exaltation of men to the rank of gods. Closely connected with the universal worship of the dead in the history of all primitive peoples was theconsecration asdeities of heroes or rulers, as a reward forbravery or other great services. "In the same manner every city worshipped the one who founded it" (Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City, III, v). Because of the theocratic form of their government, and thereligiouscharacter which sovereign power assumed in their eyes, the peoples of the great nations of the Orient —Persia, Chaldea,Egypt — paid divine honours to living rulers. Hero-worship had familiarized the minds of the Greeks with theidea that a man by illustrious deeds can become a god, and contact with the Orient made them ready to accept the grosser form of apotheosis by which divine honours were offered to the living (Boissier, La religion romaine I, 112). Philip of Macedon washonoured as a god at Amphipolis, and his son, Alexander the Great, not only claimed descent from the gods ofEgypt, but decreed that he should be worshipped in the cities ofGreece (Beurlier, De divinis honoribus quos acceperunt Alexander et successores ejus, p. 17). After his death, and probably largely as the result of the teaching of Euhemerus, that all the gods were deified men, the custom of apotheosis became very prevalent among the Greeks (Döllinger, Heidenthum und Judenthum, 314 sqq.). InRome the way for the deification of the emperors was prepared by many historic causes, such as the cult of the manes or thesouls of departed friends and ancestors, the worship of the legendary kings of Latium, theDi Indigetes, the myth that Romulus had been transported toheaven, and the deification of Roman soldiers and statesmen by some of the Greek cities. The formal enrollment of the emperors among the gods began with Caesar, to whom the Senate decreed divine honours before his death. Through politic motivesAugustus, though tolerating the building oftemples and the organization ofpriestly orders in hishonour throughout the provinces and even inItaly, refused to permit himself to be worshipped inRome itself. Though many of the early emperors refused to receive divine honours, and the senate, to whom the right of deification belonged, refused to confirm others, the great majority of the Roman rulers and many members of the imperialfamily, among whom were somewomen, were enrolled among the gods. While the cultured classes regarded the deification of members of the imperialfamily and court favorites with boldly expressed scorn, emperor-worship, which was in reality political rather than personal, was a powerful element of unity in the empire, as it afforded thepagans a common religion in which it was a patrioticduty to participate. TheChristians constantly refused to pay divine honours to the emperor, and their refusal to strewincense was the signal for the death of manymartyrs. The custom of decreeing divine honours to the emperors remained in existence until the time of Gratian, who was the first to refuse the insignia of the Summus Pontifex and the first whom the senate failed to place among the gods.

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