Apotheosis
apotheosis
(Greek: deification)
Elevation of a human being to the rank of a god; especially among the Greeks (Philip of Macedon; Alexander the Great), and the Roman emperors. It is often used to signify the transition of a person from this life to eternal life and glory.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Apotheosis
(Gr. apotheosis, from, and theos, 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 the consecration as deities of heroes or rulers, as a reward for bravery 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 the religious character 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 the idea 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 was honoured as a god at Amphipolis, and his son, Alexander the Great, not only claimed descent from the gods of Egypt, but decreed that he should be worshipped in the cities of Greece (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.). In Rome the way for the deification of the emperors was prepared by many historic causes, such as the cult of the manes or the souls of departed friends and ancestors, the worship of the legendary kings of Latium, the Di Indigetes, the myth that Romulus had been transported to heaven, 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 motives Augustus, though tolerating the building of temples and the organization of priestly orders in his honour throughout the provinces and even in Italy, refused to permit himself to be worshipped in Rome 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 imperial family, among whom were some women, were enrolled among the gods. While the cultured classes regarded the deification of members of the imperial family 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 the pagans a common religion in which it was a patriotic duty to participate. The Christians constantly refused to pay divine honours to the emperor, and their refusal to strew incense was the signal for the death of many martyrs. 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.
PHELLER, Römische Mythologie, 770-796: BOISSlER, La religion romaine, I, 109-186; MARQUARDT-MOMMSEN Römische-Staatsverwaltung, II, 731-740; VI, 443-455; BEURLIER Essai sur le culte rendu aux empereurs romains (Paris, 1890).
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PATRICK J. HEALY Transcribed by the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas Dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Apotheosis
(, from, and. , a god), the deification or the ceremony by which the ancient pagans converted kings, heroes, and other distinguished men into gods. In Rome a decree of the Senate was sufficient to secure to any man divine honors; but in Greece the honor could be conferred only in obedience to the oracle of some god. The following account by Herodian of the apotheosis of the emperor Severus will serve as an illustration of the process: “After the body of the deceased emperor had been- burned with the usual solemnities, they placed an image of wax exactly resembling him on an ivory couch, covered with cloth of gold, at the entrance to the palace. The Senate, in mourning, sat during a great part of the day on the left side of the bed ; the ladies of the highest quality, dressed in white robes, being ranged on the right- side. This lasted seven days; after which the young senators and Roman knights bore the bed of state through the Via Sacra to the Forum, where they set it down between two amphitheaters filled with the young men and maidens of the first families in Rome, singing hymns in praise of the deceased. Afterwards the bed was carried out of the city to the Campus Martius, in the middle of which was erected a kind of square pavilion, filled with combustible matter, and hung round with cloth of gold. Over this edifice were several others, each diminishing and growing smaller towards the top. On the second of these was placed the bed of state, amid a great quantity of aromatics, perfumes, and odoriferous fruits and herbs; after which the knights went in procession round the pile; several chariots also ran around it, their drivers being richly dressed and bearing images of the greatest Roman emperors and generals. This ceremony being ended, the new emperor approached the pile with a torch in his hand, and set fire to it, the spices and other combustibles kindling at once. At the same time they let fly from the top of the building an eagle, which, mounting into the air with a firebrand, was supposed to convey the soul of the deceased emperor to heaven; ,and from that time forward he was ranked among the gods.”.