Apotheōsis

, a ceremony observed by the ancient nations of the world, by which they raised their kings, heroes, and great men to the rank of deities. The nations of the east were the first who paid divine honours to their great men, and the Romans followed their example, and not only deified the most prudent and humane of their emperors, but also the most cruel and profligate. Herodian , bk. 4 , ch. 2 , has left us an account of the apotheosis of a Roman emperor. After the body of the deceased was burnt, an ivory image was laid on a couch for seven days, representing the emperor under the agonies of disease. The city was in sorrow, the senate visited it in mourning, and the physicians pronounced it every day in a more decaying state. When the death was announced, a band of young senators carried the couch and image to the Campus Martius, where it was deposited on an edifice in the form of a pyramid, where spices and combustible materials were thrown. After this the knights walked round the pile in solemn proce ion, and the images of the most illustrious Romans were drawn in state, and immediately the new emperor, with a torch, set fire to the pile, and was a isted by the surrounding multitude. Meanwhile an eagle was let fly from the middle of the pile, which was supposed to carry the soul of the deceased to heaven, where he was ranked among the gods. If the deified was a female, a peacock, and not an eagle, was sent from the flames. The Greeks observed ceremonies much of the same nature.