Apotheosis
Encyclopedia
Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine
level. The term has meanings in theology
, where it refers to a belief
, and in art
, where it refers to a genre
.
In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.
s were known in Ancient Egypt
(pharaoh
s) and Mesopotamia
(since Naram-Sin
). From the New Kingdom
, all deceased pharaohs were deified as Osiris
.
s of Greek sites were accorded chthonic
rites in their heroon
, or "hero-temple".
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon
, who was a king, when the Greeks had set kingship aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely antagonistic, with Achaemenid Persia, where kings were divine. At his wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai
became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia
, from them to Julius Caesar
and so to the emperors of Rome". Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Great) or afterwards (e.g., members of the
Ptolemaic dynasty
). Heroic cult similar to apotheosis was also an honour given to a few revered artists of the distant past, notably Homer
.
Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus
) of the Eleusinian mysteries
, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle site
s. The Greek hero cults can be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman
cult of dead emperors
, because the hero was not 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, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.
was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as having been divine by his successor, usually also by a decree of the Senate and popular consent. In addition to showing respect, often the present ruler deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself and gain popularity with the people. The upper-class did not always take part in the imperial cult
, and some privately ridiculed the apotheosis of inept and feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius
, usually attributed to Seneca
.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire
, sometimes the emperor
's deceased loved ones—heirs, empresses, or lovers, as Hadrian's Antinous
—were deified as well. Deified people were awarded posthumously the title Divus (Diva if women) to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion
distinguished between a deus (god) and a divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temples and columns were sometimes erected to provide a space for worship.
epic Investiture of the Gods
deals heavily with deification legends. Numerous mortals have been deified into the Daoist pantheon
, such as Guan Yu
, Iron-crutch Li and Fan Kuai. Song Dynasty
General Yue Fei
was deified during the Ming Dynasty
and is considered by some practitioners to be one of the three highest ranking heavenly generals.
. Even several Sultans of Yogyakarta
were semi-deified, posthumously.
views Jesus Christ as the pre-existing God who undertook mortal existence, not a mortal being who attained divinity. Regarding human beings, the mystical theology
of the Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic churches characteristically describes the situation as "theosis
", a Greek
word.
-derived words "divinization" and "deification" used in parts of the Catholic Church of Latin tradition. Human beings enter into the divine life of the Trinity
through Jesus Christ. In this sense human beings are "God revealed" -- living representations of God on Earth as they live in such a fashion. It is referred to in the letters of St. Peter as "partaking of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).
), apotheosis or deification is usually referred to as exaltation
, or eternal life, which to Mormons is the belief that mankind may live with God in families and become "gods" themselves. While the primary focus of the LDS Church is on the atonement of Jesus Christ
, one reason for the atonement is exaltation, which goes beyond mere salvation. All people may be saved from sin through faith in Jesus Christ, and all will be resurrected from death, but only those who are sufficiently obedient and accept the atonement of Jesus Christ before the resurrection and final judgment will be exalted. One popular Mormon quote, coined by the early Mormon leader Lorenzo Snow
in 1837, is “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” The teaching was taught first by Joseph Smith, Jr. while pointing to in the New Testament
; he said that "God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did." Some Mormons also suggest that discussions of theosis by early Church Fathers
show an early belief in the Mormon concept of deification. The LDS Church's belief differs from the Orthodox Christian
belief in deification, however, because the Latter-day Saints believe that the core being of each individual, the "intelligence," which existed before becoming a spirit son or daughter of God, is uncreated and eternal.
, Ascension, Christ Pantocrator) and that depict holy persons "in glory"--that is, in their roles as "God revealed" (Assumption, Ascension, etc.).
Later artists have used the concept for motives ranging from genuine 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 The Apotheosis of Homer
), to mock-heroic
and burlesque
apotheoses for comedic effect.
Many modern leaders have exploited the artistic imagery if not the theology 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 come to be 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, Lenin in USSR, Yitzchak Rabin in Israel, or Kim Jong-il
of North Korea
.
counterculture beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the present. The distinction can be made as becoming one with God by sacrificing the individual ego during psychedelic ecstasy, as opposed to co-opting the name or status of God in order to elevate the individual ego. In fact, the word "psychedelic" is coined from the Greek words for "soul," ψυχή (psyche), and "manifest," δήλος (delos). The word "entheogen
" may also be used, which means "creates god within," en- "in, within," theo- "god, divine," -gen "creates, generates," and so may the word "phanerothyme," which, also derived from Greek, means "to reveal the spirit." Apotheosis can be understood in either the ego-less or egotistical context as long as the definition of God is equally contextual.
, 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.
Arthur C Clarke's novel Childhood's End
has the Overlords refer to Mankind's "apotheosis" when the world's children evolve into their union with the Overmind (see also post-human).
In Chapter 23 of Herman Melville
's Moby Dick, regarding Ishmael's friend Bulkington, the term serves as a last word climax for the chapter:
"But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God- so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of the terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O Bulkington! Bear thee grimly demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing- straight up, leaps thy apotheosis."
In "The Dark Tower
" by Stephen King
, the desert which is the main setting of the first book in the series; "The Gunslinger
", is referred to as "the apotheosis of all deserts".
, following an analogy with the art of rhetoric
.
Apotheosis moments abound in music, and the word itself appears in some cases. Hector Berlioz
used "Apotheose" as the title of the final movement of his Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, a work composed in 1846 for the dedication of a monument to France's war dead. Two of Tchaikovsky's ballets, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker
, contain apotheoses as finales. Czech composer Karel Husa
, concerned in 1970 about arms proliferation and environmental deterioration, named his musical response Apotheosis of This Earth. Aram Khachaturian
entitled a segment of his ballet Spartacus "Sunrise and Apotheosis." Richard Wagner
, referring to the lively rhythm
s which permeate Beethoven's Symphony No. 7
, called it the "apotheosis of the dance". Also in the song "The Tomb Song" of post progressive band "The Pax Cecilia", there is a line which says: "They whisper: "Oh Apotheosis! Oh holy bulb of light!"
Progressive metal band Last Chance to Reason
ends their album, "Level 2", with a track entitled Apotheosis.
and as a cybernetic robot
, is a central storyline of Caprica
. Posing as a priestess of Athena, the character Sister Clarice Willow, sees apotheosis of a virtual heaven as a prime goal for her terrorist monotheistic religion, which is dominant on the world Geminon but a minority on the polytheistic world of Caprica. The series' final episode is titled "Apotheosis" and is largely centered on her attempt to bring apotheosis to reality.
It is also a story line in the Stargate franchise
with the ascension of Daniel Jackson and the Ancients
.
The fourth episode of season four of the science fiction television series Babylon 5
is titled "Falling Toward Apotheosis
".
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
level. The term has meanings in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, where it refers to a belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
, and in art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, where it refers to a genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
.
In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.
Antiquity
Prior to the Hellenistic period, imperial cultImperial cult
An imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor, or a dynasty of emperors , are worshipped as messiahs, demigods or deities. "Cult" here is used to mean "worship", not in the modern pejorative sense...
s were known in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
(pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
s) and Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
(since Naram-Sin
Naram-Sin
Naram-Sin , reigned ca. 2254–2218 BCE, short chronology, was the third successor and grandson of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sin the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith...
). From the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
, all deceased pharaohs were deified as Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
.
Hellenistic Greece
From at least the Geometric period of the ninth century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding mythFounding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
s of Greek sites were accorded chthonic
Chthonic
Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
rites in their heroon
Heroon
A heroon , also called heroum, was a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. It was often erected over his supposed tomb or cenotaph....
, or "hero-temple".
In the Greek world, the first leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...
, who was a king, when the Greeks had set kingship aside, and who had extensive economic and military ties, though largely antagonistic, with Achaemenid Persia, where kings were divine. At his wedding to his sixth wife, Philip's enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai
Vergina
Vergina is a small town in northern Greece, located in the peripheral unit of Imathia, Central Macedonia. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Veroia, of which it is a municipal unit...
became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
, from them to Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and so to the emperors of Rome". Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Great) or afterwards (e.g., members of the
Ptolemaic dynasty
Ptolemaic dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...
). Heroic cult similar to apotheosis was also an honour given to a few revered artists of the distant past, notably Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
.
Archaic and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the sixth century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cult, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus
Eumolpus
In Greek mythology, Eumolpus was the son of Poseidon and Chione. According to Apollodorus, Chione, daughter of Boreas and Oreithyia, pregnant with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean...
) of the Eleusinian mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...
, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle site
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
s. The Greek hero cults can be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
cult of dead emperors
Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...
, because the hero was not 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
Chthonic
Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
and Persephone
Persephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
than those for Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
and Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
. Two exceptions were Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
and Asclepius
Asclepius
Asclepius is the God of Medicine and Healing in ancient Greek religion. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia , Iaso , Aceso , Aglæa/Ægle , and Panacea...
, who might be honored as either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.
Ancient Rome
Apotheosis in ancient RomeAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as having been divine by his successor, usually also by a decree of the Senate and popular consent. In addition to showing respect, often the present ruler deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself and gain popularity with the people. The upper-class did not always take part in the imperial cult
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...
, and some privately ridiculed the apotheosis of inept and feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius
The Pumpkinification of Claudius
The Apocolocyntosis Claudii, literally The Pumpkinification of Claudius, is a political satire on the Roman emperor Claudius, probably written by Seneca the Younger. It is the only example of Menippean satire from the classical era that has survived...
, usually attributed to Seneca
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
.
At the height of the imperial cult during the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, sometimes the emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
's deceased loved ones—heirs, empresses, or lovers, as Hadrian's Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
—were deified as well. Deified people were awarded posthumously the title Divus (Diva if women) to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
distinguished between a deus (god) and a divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though not consistently. Temples and columns were sometimes erected to provide a space for worship.
Ancient China
The Ming dynastyMing Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
epic Investiture of the Gods
Fengshen Yanyi
Fengshen Bang, also known as Fengshen Yanyi in Chinese, and translated as The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods, is one of the major vernacular Chinese epic novels written during the Ming Dynasty...
deals heavily with deification legends. Numerous mortals have been deified into the Daoist pantheon
Pantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
, such as Guan Yu
Guan Yu
Guan Yu was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He played a significant role in the civil war that led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the establishment of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, of which Liu Bei was the...
, Iron-crutch Li and Fan Kuai. Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
General Yue Fei
Yue Fei
Yue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
was deified during the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
and is considered by some practitioners to be one of the three highest ranking heavenly generals.
South East Asia
Various Hindu and Buddhist rulers in the past have been represented as deities, especially after death, from Thailand to IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Even several Sultans of Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta Sultanate
Yogyakarta Sultanate is a Javanese monarchy in the province of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.-History:...
were semi-deified, posthumously.
Generally
Instead of the word "apotheosis", Christian theology uses in English the words "deification" or "divinization" or the Greek word "theosis". Traditional mainstream theology, both East and West, views Jesus Christ as the pre-existing God who undertook mortal existence, not as a mortal being who attained divinity. It holds that he has made it possible for human beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature: he became one of us to make us "partakers of the divine nature" "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."In Eastern Christianity
Christian theology traditionally makes a distinction between "theosis" and "apotheosis". Orthodox Trinitarian ChristianityTrinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
views Jesus Christ as the pre-existing God who undertook mortal existence, not a mortal being who attained divinity. Regarding human beings, the mystical theology
Mystical theology
Mystical theology is a branch of theology which treats of acts and experiences or states of the soul which cannot be produced by human effort.-Catholic tradition:...
of the Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic churches characteristically describes the situation as "theosis
Theosis
In Christian theology, divinization, deification, making divine or theosis is the transforming effect of divine grace. This concept of salvation is historical and fundamental for Christian understanding that is prominent in the Eastern Orthodox Church and also in the Catholic Church, and is a...
", a Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word.
In the Roman Catholic church
The words corresponding to theosis are the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
-derived words "divinization" and "deification" used in parts of the Catholic Church of Latin tradition. Human beings enter into the divine life of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
through Jesus Christ. In this sense human beings are "God revealed" -- living representations of God on Earth as they live in such a fashion. It is referred to in the letters of St. Peter as "partaking of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or MormonsMormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
), apotheosis or deification is usually referred to as exaltation
Exaltation (Mormonism)
Exaltation or Eternal Life is a belief among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that mankind can return to live in God's presence and continue as families. Exaltation is believed to be what God desires for all humankind. The LDS Church teaches that through exaltation...
, or eternal life, which to Mormons is the belief that mankind may live with God in families and become "gods" themselves. While the primary focus of the LDS Church is on the atonement of Jesus Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, one reason for the atonement is exaltation, which goes beyond mere salvation. All people may be saved from sin through faith in Jesus Christ, and all will be resurrected from death, but only those who are sufficiently obedient and accept the atonement of Jesus Christ before the resurrection and final judgment will be exalted. One popular Mormon quote, coined by the early Mormon leader Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow was the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 to his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the nineteenth century.-Family:...
in 1837, is “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” The teaching was taught first by Joseph Smith, Jr. while pointing to in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
; he said that "God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did." Some Mormons also suggest that discussions of theosis by early Church Fathers
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
show an early belief in the Mormon concept of deification. The LDS Church's belief differs from the Orthodox Christian
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
belief in deification, however, because the Latter-day Saints believe that the core being of each individual, the "intelligence," which existed before becoming a spirit son or daughter of God, is uncreated and eternal.
Art
In art the matter is practical: the elevation of a figure to divine level entails certain conventions. So it is that the apotheosis genre exists in Christian art as in other art. The features of the apotheosis genre may be seen in subjects that emphasize Christ's divinity (TransfigurationTransfiguration of Jesus
The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the New Testament in which Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it....
, Ascension, Christ Pantocrator) and that depict holy persons "in glory"--that is, in their roles as "God revealed" (Assumption, Ascension, etc.).
Constantino Brumidi
Constantino Brumidi was an Greek/Italian-American historical painter, best known and honored for his fresco work in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.-Parentage and early life:...
's fresco The Apotheosis of Washington
The Apotheosis of Washington
The Apotheosis of Washington is the immense fresco painted by Italian artist Constantino Brumidi in 1865 and visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building. The fresco is suspended above the rotunda floor and covers an area of . The figures painted are...
on the dome of the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
Building in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
), to artistic comment (Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
's or Ingres
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest...
's The Apotheosis of Homer
The Apotheosis of Homer (Ingres)
The Apotheosis of Homer is a grand 1827 painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, now exhibited at the Louvre as INV 5417.-History:A state commission to decorate a ceiling of the musée Charles X at the Louvre , it formed part of a renovation project commissioned by Charles X to have himself...
), to mock-heroic
Mock-heroic
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature...
and burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
apotheoses for comedic effect.
Many modern leaders have exploited the artistic imagery if not the theology of apotheosis. Examples include Rubens's depictions of James I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
at the Banqueting House
Banqueting House
In Tudor and Early Stuart English architecture a banqueting house is a separate building reached through pleasure gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining. It may be raised for additional air or a vista, and it may be richly decorated, but it contains no bedrooms or...
(an expression of the Divine Right of Kings
Divine Right of Kings
The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...
) or Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
, or Appiani's apotheosis of Napoleon. The term has come to be 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
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
in the US, Lenin in USSR, Yitzchak Rabin in Israel, or Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
Clinical psychology
The subjective experience of being oneself elevated to God-like status has been widely reported by those involved in and the psychedelicPsychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
counterculture beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the present. The distinction can be made as becoming one with God by sacrificing the individual ego during psychedelic ecstasy, as opposed to co-opting the name or status of God in order to elevate the individual ego. In fact, the word "psychedelic" is coined from the Greek words for "soul," ψυχή (psyche), and "manifest," δήλος (delos). The word "entheogen
Entheogen
An entheogen , in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts...
" may also be used, which means "creates god within," en- "in, within," theo- "god, divine," -gen "creates, generates," and so may the word "phanerothyme," which, also derived from Greek, means "to reveal the spirit." Apotheosis can be understood in either the ego-less or egotistical context as long as the definition of God is equally contextual.
In literature
Joseph CampbellJoseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
, in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a non-fiction book, and seminal work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell...
, writes that the Universal Hero from monomyth
Monomyth
Joseph Campbell's term monomyth, also referred to as the hero's journey, is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces...
must pass through a stage of Apotheosis. According to Campbell, apotheosis is the expansion of consciousness that the hero experiences after defeating his foe.
Arthur C Clarke's novel Childhood's End
Childhood's End
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia...
has the Overlords refer to Mankind's "apotheosis" when the world's children evolve into their union with the Overmind (see also post-human).
In Chapter 23 of Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's Moby Dick, regarding Ishmael's friend Bulkington, the term serves as a last word climax for the chapter:
"But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God- so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of the terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O Bulkington! Bear thee grimly demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing- straight up, leaps thy apotheosis."
In "The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower
Dark Tower may refer to:* The Dark Tower , an unfinished novel by C. S. Lewis* Barad-dûr the fortress of Sauron in the fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings* The Dark Tower , a 1933 comedy by George S...
" by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, the desert which is the main setting of the first book in the series; "The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King, and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series, which King considers to be his magnum opus. It was first published in 1982. The story centers upon Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger who has been chasing after his adversary, "the man in...
", is referred to as "the apotheosis of all deserts".
In music
Apotheosis in music refers to the appearance of a theme in grand or exalted form. It represents the musical equivalent of the apotheosis genre in visual art, especially where the theme is connected in some way with historical persons or dramatic characters. When crowning the end of a large-scale work the apotheosis functions as a perorationPeroration
In classical rhetoric, a peroration was the final part of a speech. It was one of the four or five traditional components in the ordo of a speech....
, following an analogy with the art of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
.
Apotheosis moments abound in music, and the word itself appears in some cases. Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
used "Apotheose" as the title of the final movement of his Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, a work composed in 1846 for the dedication of a monument to France's war dead. Two of Tchaikovsky's ballets, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, contain apotheoses as finales. Czech composer Karel Husa
Karel Husa
Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
, concerned in 1970 about arms proliferation and environmental deterioration, named his musical response Apotheosis of This Earth. Aram Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
entitled a segment of his ballet Spartacus "Sunrise and Apotheosis." Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, referring to the lively rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
s which permeate Beethoven's Symphony No. 7
Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, in 1811, was the seventh of his nine symphonies. He worked on it while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.At its debut,...
, called it the "apotheosis of the dance". Also in the song "The Tomb Song" of post progressive band "The Pax Cecilia", there is a line which says: "They whisper: "Oh Apotheosis! Oh holy bulb of light!"
Progressive metal band Last Chance to Reason
Last Chance To Reason
Last Chance to Reason is a progressive metal group from Augusta, Maine. Their first major label debut, Level 2, came in 2011 through Prosthetic Records. Their debut album, Lvl. 1, was released through Tribunal Records in 2007....
ends their album, "Level 2", with a track entitled Apotheosis.
In television
The apotheosis of immortal software, in virtual realityVirtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
and as a cybernetic robot
Cylon (Battlestar Galactica)
The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, the 2004 reimagining, as well as the spin-off prequel series, Caprica...
, is a central storyline of Caprica
Caprica (TV series)
Caprica is a science fiction drama television series. It is a spin-off prequel of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, taking place about 58 years prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica. Caprica shows how humanity first created the robotic Cylons who would later plot to destroy humans in...
. Posing as a priestess of Athena, the character Sister Clarice Willow, sees apotheosis of a virtual heaven as a prime goal for her terrorist monotheistic religion, which is dominant on the world Geminon but a minority on the polytheistic world of Caprica. The series' final episode is titled "Apotheosis" and is largely centered on her attempt to bring apotheosis to reality.
It is also a story line in the Stargate franchise
Stargate
Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...
with the ascension of Daniel Jackson and the Ancients
Ancient (Stargate)
The Ancients are a humanoid race in the fictional Stargate universe. They are called "Ancients" in the Milky Way, but are also known as Lanteans or Ancestors in the Pegasus galaxy and as the Alterans in their home galaxy, and they sometimes call themselves Anquietas in their language...
.
The fourth episode of season four of the science fiction television series Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
is titled "Falling Toward Apotheosis
Falling Toward Apotheosis
"Falling Toward Apotheosis" is an episode from the fourth season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.-Synopsis:The Vorlons have started openly destroying worlds which have come under the influence of the Shadows...
".
External links
- Seneca's Apocolocyntosis at Project Gutenberg