Apotheosis

The major modern religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism do not allow for this, though many recognise minor sacred categories such as saints (created by a process called canonization).

In art, an apotheosis scene typically shows the subject in the heavens or rising towards them, often accompanied by a number of angels, putti, personifications of virtues, or similar figures.

[4] From at least the Geometric period of the ninth century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding myths of Greek sites were accorded chthonic rites in their heroon, or "hero-temple".

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".

[5] 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).

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 cults, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites.

Two exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honoured as either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic night-time rites and sacrifice on the following day.

[6] Subsequently, apotheosis in ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as divine by his successor, usually also by a decree of the Senate and popular consent.

There was then a public ceremony, called a consecratio, including the release of an eagle which flew high, representing the ascent of the deified person's soul to heaven.

[7] The largest and most famous example in art is a relief on the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius (d. 161), showing the emperor and his wife Faustina the Elder (d. c. 140) being carried up by a much larger winged figure, described as representing "Eternity", as personifications of "Roma" and the Campus Martius sit below, and eagles fly above.

[7] The historian Dio Cassius, who says he was present, gives a detailed description of the large and lavish public consecratio of Pertinax, emperor for three months in 193, ordered by Septimius Severus.

Bharat Mata ("Mother India") began as a national personification devised by a group of Bengali intellectuals in the late 19th century, but now receives some worship.

[14] The extreme personality cult instituted by the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, has been said to represent a deification, though the state is avowedly atheist.

Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor, for whom the doctrine is the corollary of the Incarnation: 'Deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages', ... and St. Symeon the New Theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, 'He who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, face to face.

"[27] Catholic theology stresses the concept of supernatural life, "a new creation and elevation, a rebirth, it is a participation in and partaking of the divine nature"[28] (cf.

According to Hierotheos (Vlachos), this process is based on direct spiritual insight (gnosis) rather than the rational thought or intellectual and academic pursuits primary in Western Christian traditions.

[34] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), believes in apotheosis along the lines of the Christian tradition of divinization or deification but refers to it as exaltation, or eternal life, and considers it to be accomplished by "sanctification".

However, only those who are sufficiently obedient and accept the atonement and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ before the resurrection and final judgment will be "exalted" and receive a literal Christian deification.

scholars also have discussed the correlation between Latter-day Saint belief in exaltation and the ancient Christian theosis, or deification, as set forth by early Church Fathers.

That classification of God in terms of a substance is not found in scripture[40][41] but, in many aspects, mirrored the Greek metaphysical philosophies that are known to have influenced the thinking of Church Fathers.

As such, Mormons assert that as the literal offspring of God the Father (Acts 17:28–29), humans have the potential to be heirs of his glory and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16–17).

Bodies will then be immortal like those of the Father and the Son (Philippians 3:21), but the degree of glory to which each person will resurrect is contingent upon the Final Judgment (Revelation 20:13, 1 Corinthians 15:40–41).

[45] The Druze faith further split from Isma'ilism as it developed its own unique doctrines, and finally separated from both Ismāʿīlīsm and Islam altogether; these include the belief that the Imam Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh was God incarnate.

In French Baroque music it was an alternative title to tombeau ("tomb" or "tombstone") for "memorial pieces" for chamber forces to commemorate individuals who were friends or patrons.

The term is especially associated with the symphonic works of Franz Liszt, where "the main theme, which may by and large be considered as characterizing the hero, is presented in its constituent elements blown up beyond all proportions and, because it is typically slowed down tremendously, is split up into smaller segments".

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 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballets, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, contain apotheoses as finales; the same is true of Ludwig Minkus's La Bayadère.

Czech composer Karel Husa, concerned in 1970 about arms proliferation and environmental deterioration, named his musical response Apotheosis for This Earth.

But trust the Muse; she saw it upward rise, Tho' mark'd by none but quick Poetick Eyes: (So Rome's great Founder to the Heav'ns withdrew, To Proculus alone confess'd in View.)

[58][59] Anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach professed a religion to worship all human beings while Auguste Comte venerated only individuals who made positive contributions and excluded those who did not.