The Apotheosis of Homer is a common scene in classical andneo-classical art, showing the poetHomer'sapotheosis or elevation to divine status.
Homer was the subject of a number of formalhero cults in classical antiquity. The earliest notable portrayal of the scene is a 3rd-century BC marble relief byArchelaus of Priene, now in theBritish Museum.[1] It was found in Italy, probably in 1658,[2] but is thought to have been sculpted inEgypt. It shows Ptolemy IV and his wife and sisterArsinoe III standing beside a seated poet, flanked by figures from theOdyssey andIliad, with the nineMuses standing above them and a procession of worshippers approaching an altar, believed to represent the Alexandrine Homereion.Apollo, the god of music and poetry, also appears, along with a female figure tentatively identified asMnemosyne, the mother of the Muses.Zeus, the king of the gods, presides over the proceedings. The relief demonstrates vividly that the Greeks considered Homer not merely a great poet but the divinely-inspired reservoir of all literature.[3]
