ĂPŎTHĔŌSIS

( ἀποθέωσις ), the enrolment of a mortal among the gods. The mythology of Greece contains numerous instances of the deification of mortals; but in the republican times of Greece we find few examples of such deification. The inhabitants of A mph i polis, however, offered sacrifices to Brasidas after his death. In the Greek kingdoms, which arose in the East on the dismemberment of the empire of Alexander, it appears to have been not uncommon for the succe or to the throne to offer divine honours to the former sovereign. Such an apotheosis of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, is described by Theocritus in his 17th Idyl. The term apotheosis, among the Romans, properly signified the elevation of a deceased emperor to divine honours. This practice, which was common upon the death of almost all the emperors, appears to have arisen from the opinion which was generally entertained among the Romans, that the souls or manes of their ancestors became deities; and as it was common for children to worship the manes of their fathers, so it was natural for divine honours to be publicly paid to a deceased emperor, who was regarded as the parent of his country. This apotheosis of an emperor was usually called con sec ratio ; and the emperor who received the honour of an apotheosis was usually said in deorum numerum referri , or consecrari , and whenever he is spoken of after his death, the title of div us is prefixed to his name. The funeral pile on which the body of the deceased emperor was burnt, was constructed of several stories in the form of chambers rising one above another, and in the highest an eagle was placed, which was let loose as the fire began to burn, and which was supposed to carry the soul of the emperor from earth to heaven.