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| Getting Started | |
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| Gods of the > | Osiris | Dionysus | Kore |
| Mystery Religions> | Attis | Samothhrace | Mithras |
| Adonis | |||
| Others > | Pythagoras | Zalmoxis | Heroes |
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Apollonius of Tyana | Other godmen | |
| Summary |
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Men
who became divine |
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Was Christianity new? Was Christianity unique? Lets talk about Pagan Heroes regular men and women who became divine—who became gods.
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We think of divinity as God. Yahweh. The Father. We think of the individual God, not the quality of god-ness. The ancients thought of divinity as the quality of Godness. Lots of individuals had it. Zeus the Father ["Demeter, father Zeus who understands imperishable things summons you." Homeric Hymn to Demeter, v 320, (7th century BC)], of course, but so did Rumina the goddess of suckling babies, to whom mothers poured libations of milk [see Turcan, Robert. The Gods of Ancient Rome; Religion is Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times. (1998 / 2001), pg 20 for ancient references] Divine beings were immortal. They drank nectar. Humans could get godness. Humans did get godness. People became gods. And I'm not talking about once in a while and way long ago magcical mythical times; I'm taling about all the time, historical men in historical times. See the blue boxes below for specific examples.
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description = hero = divine
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Now
it is an excellent thing, methinks, as all men of understanding
must agree, to receive in exchange
for mortal labours an immortal fame. In the case of Heracles,
for instance, it is generally agreed that during the whole time which
he spent among men he submitted to great and continuous labours and perils
willingly, in order that he might confer benefits upon the race
of men and thereby gain immortality; and likewise in the case
of other great and good men,
some have attained to heroic honours and others to honours equal
to the divine, and all have been thought to be worthy of great
praise, since history immortalizes their achievements.
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dr beard confirms greg's opinion
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The
emperors were not the only 'divine humans' in the Roman empire.
Perhaps the deification of emperors was itself an impetus to the wider
spread of divine status in other areas of Roman society. Or perhaps all
these developments are symptomatic of an increasingly flexible
perception of the boundary between humans and the gods in the Roman
empire (see 2.8). That humans should
turn out to be gods on earth was clearly a possibility; and the
performance of miracles was prima-facie evidence of divinity. Christians,
however, were committed to the view that the miracles proved divinity
only in the case of Jesus; pagans were not so limited.
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| Historical political men who became divine |  |
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On
the 5th day before the Kalends of February, for… the deified
Severus … a cow….
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diefied emperor named by christian
Pronsenes was received by God (receptus ad deum [Christian code]) |
[on
the front of the sarcophagus]
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 Historical
men who became divine |
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| spartan hero lycurgus temple worshiped
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On
the death of Lycurgus they [Lacedaemonians
= Spartans] built him a temple,
and ever since they have worshipped
him with the utmost reverence.
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1.60
... There was in the Paeanian district a woman named Phya,
whose height was almost six feet, and who was altogether comely to look
upon. This woman they clothed in complete armour, and, instructing her
as to the carriage which she was to maintain in order to beseem her part,
they placed her in a chariot and drove to the city. Heralds had been sent
forward to precede her, and to make proclamation to this effect, "Citizens
of Athens, receive again Pisistratus with friendly minds. Athena, who
of all men honours him the most, herself conducts him back to her own
citadel." This they proclaimed in all directions, and immediately
the rumour spread throughout the country districts that Athena was bringing
back her favourite. They of the city also, fully
persuaded that the woman was the veritable goddess, worshipped her,
and received Pisistratus back.
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| Athenian heroes Adrastus & Melanippus
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The
Thebans consenting, Cleisthenes carried Melanippus back with
him, assigned him a precinct within the town-hall, and
built him a shrine there in the safest and strongest part. The
reason for his so doing (which I must not forbear to mention) was, because
Melanippus was Adrastus' great enemy, having slain both his brother Mecistes
and his son-in-law Tydeus. Cleisthenes, after assigning the precinct to
Melanippus, took away from Adrastus
the sacrifices and festivals wherewith he had till then been honoured,
and transferred them to his adversary. Hitherto the Sicyonians
had paid extraordinary honours to Adrastus, because the country had belonged
to Polybus, and Adrastus was Polybus' daughter's son, whence it came to
pass that Polybus, dying childless, left Adrastus his kingdom. Besides
other ceremonies, it had been their custom
to honour Adrastus with tragic choruses, which they assigned to him rather
than Dionysus, on account of his calamities. Cleisthenes
now gave the choruses to Dionysus, transferring to Melanippus the rest
of the sacred rites.
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| Delphian heroes Phylacus & Autonous - sacred precints
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39.
These men, the Delphians maintain,
were two Heroes belonging to
the place-by name Phylacus and
Autonous-each of whom
has a sacred precinct near the temple; one, that of Phylacus,
hard by the road which runs above the temple of Pronaia; the other, that
of Autonous, near the Castalian spring, at the foot of the peak called
Hyampeia.
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| Gargaphian hero Androcrates sacred priecinct
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So
they took their arms, and proceeded along the slopes of Cithaeron, past
Hysiae, to the territory of the Plataeans; and here they drew themselves
up, nation by nation, close by the fountain Gargaphia, and the
sacred precinct of the Hero Androcrates, partly along some hillocks
of no great height, and partly upon the level of the plain.
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| Acanthian hero Artachaees sacrifice, pray to
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117.
It was while he remained here that Artachaees,
who presided over the canal, a man
in high repute with Xerxes, and by birth an Achaemenid, who was
moreover the tallest of all the Persians, being eight feet high, and who
had a stronger voice than any other man in the world, fell sick and died.
Xerxes therefore, who was greatly afflicted at the mischance. carried
him to the tomb and buried him with all magnificence; while the whole
army helped to raise a mound over his grave. The Acanthians, in obedience
to an oracle, offer sacrifice to this
Artachaees as a hero, invoking him in their prayers by name. But
King Xerxes sorrowed greatly over his death.
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| Amathusian hero Onesilus sacrifice to
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114.
The Amathusians, because Onesilus had laid siege to their town, cut the
head off his corpse, and took it with them to Amathus, where it was set
up over the gates. Here it hung till it became hollow; whereupon a swarm
of bees took possession of it, and filled it with a honeycomb. On seeing
this the Amathusians consulted the oracle, and were commanded to take
down the head and-bury it, and thenceforth to regard
Onesilus as a hero, and offer sacrifice to him year by year; so
it would go the better with them. And to this day the Amathusians do as
they were then bidden.
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| Teian hero Timesius of Clazomenae worshiped
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168.
Thus fared it with the men of the city of Phocaea in Ionia. They of Teos
did and suffered almost the same; for they too, when Harpagus had raised
his mound to the height of their defences, took ship, one and all, and
sailing across the sea to Thrace, founded there the city of Abdera. The
site was one which Timesius of Clazomenae
had previously tried to colonise, but without any lasting success, for
he was expelled by the Thracians. Still the
Teians of Abdera worship him to this day as a hero.
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| Sicyonian hero Adrastus
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67....
This king [Cleisthenes, king of Sicyon], when he was at war with Argos,
put an end to the contests of the rhapsodists at Sicyon, because in the
Homeric poems Argos and the Argives were so constantly the theme of song.
He likewise conceived the wish to drive Adrastus, the son of Talaus, out
of his country, seeing that he was an Argive hero. For Adrastus
had a shrine at Sicyon, which yet stands in the marketplace of the town.
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| Delphian hero Cyrnus worshiped
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167....
On this the people of Agylla sent to Delphi
to ask the oracle how they might expiate
their sin. The answer of the priestess required them to institute
the custom, which they still observe, of honouring the dead Phocaeans
with magnificent funeral rites, and solemn games, both gymnic and equestrian.
Such, then, was the fate that befell the Phocaean prisoners. The other
Phocaeans, who had fled to Rhegium, became after a while the founders
of the city called Vela, in the district of Oenotria. This city they colonised,
upon the showing of a man of Posidonia, who suggested that the oracle
had not meant to bid them set up a town in Cyrnus the island, but set
up the worship of Cyrnus the hero.
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| Egestaean hero Philip temple and worshiped with sacrifices
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47.
Another man who accompanied Dorieus and died with him, was
Philip the son of Butacidas.... This Philip was an Olympian victor,
and the handsomest Greek of his day. His beauty gained him honours at
the hands of the Egestaeans which they never accorded to any one else;
for they raised a hero-temple over
his grave, and they still worship him with sacrifices.
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| Amphipolitan hero Bradisas sacrificed to, games
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5.11.
Brasidas was buried in the city
with public honours in front of what is now the market-place. The whole
body of the allies in military array followed him to the grave. The Amphipolitans
enclosed his sepulchre, and to this
day they sacrifice to him as to a hero, and also celebrate games and yearly
offerings in his honour. .... For they considered Brasidas to have
been their deliverer...
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I,
the torchbearer of the most sacred mysteries at Eleusis, <Nicagoras>,
son af Minucianus, an Athenian, investigated the tombs [in the Valley
of the Kings near Egyptian Thebes] many lifetimes after the divine
Plato.
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| Like divine Gods, divine Heroes had temples, were worshiped, and sacrificed and prayed to. | |
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athenians answer to request to submit to xerxis with general statement of their reliance on gods and heroes
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143.
... Return rather at once, and tell Mardonius that our answer to him is
this, 'So long as the sun keeps his present course, we will never join
alliance with Xerxes. Nay, we shall oppose him unceasingly, trusting
in the aid of those gods and heroes whom he has lightly esteemed,
whose houses and whose images he has burnt with fire.' And come not again
to us with words like these; nor, thinking to do us a service, persuade
us to unholy actions. You are the guest and friend of our nation-we would
not that you should receive hurt at our hands."
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and after they won, the general themistoclese attributed win to gods AND HEROES
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We
have now had the great good luck to save both ourselves and all
Greece by the repulse of this vast cloud of men; let us then
be content and not press them too hard, now that they have begun to fly.
Be sure we have not done this by our own might. It
is the work of gods and heroes, who were jealous that one man should
be king at once of Europe and of Asia—more especially a man like this,
unholy and presumptuous—a man who esteems alike things sacred and things
profane; who has cast down and burnt the very images of the gods themselves;
who even caused the sea to be scourged with rods and commanded fetters
to be thrown into it.
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Xerxes libates heroes of troy
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7.43.
On reaching the Scamander, which was the first stream, of all that they
had crossed since they left Sardis, whose water failed them and did not
suffice to satisfy the thirst of men and cattle, Xerxes ascended into
the Citadel of Priam, since he had a longing to behold the place. When
he had seen everything, and inquired into all particulars, he made an
offering of 1,000 oxen to the Trojan Athena, while the Magians
poured libations to the heroes who were slain at Troy.
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The Spartan Brasidas calls upon gods and heroes
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[page 766] 4.84. ...Brasidas....addressed them as follows:.... [page 777] 4.87. ... "But if you plead that you cannot accept the proposals which I offer, and insist that you ought not to suffer for the rejection of them because you are our friends; if you are of opinion that liberty is perilous and [page 778] should not in justice be forced upon any one, but gently brought to those who are able to receive it, I shall first call the gods and heroes of the country to witness that I have come hither for your good, and that you would not be persuaded by me: I shall then use force and ravage your country without any more scruple.
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| Mythical men who became divine | |
| Herculese is the standard example divine
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Indeed
it is reasonable to suppose that the first concern of Heracles
was for this country as his birthplace, and that, after he had cleared
the land of wild beasts, he presented it to the peasants, and
for this benefaction was accorded divine honours.
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13.
And besides these there are other gods,
they say, who were terrestrial, having
once been mortals, but who, by reason of their sagacity and the good services
which they rendered to all men, attained immortality, some of them
having even been kings in Egypt. Their names, when translated,
are in some cases the same as those of the celestial gods, while others
have a distinct appellation, such as Helius,
Cronus, and Rhea,
and also the Zeus who is called
Ammon by some, and besides these
Hera and Hephaestus,
also Hestia, and, finally, Hermes.
Helius was the first king of the Egyptians....From these
last were sprung five gods, one born on each of the five days which the
Egyptians intercalate ; the names of these children were Osiris
and Isis, and also Typhon,
Apollo, and Aphrodite
; and Osiris when translated is Dionysus,
and Isis is more similar to Demeter
than to any other goddess; and after Osiris married Isis and succeeded
to the kingship he did many things of service to the social life of man.
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| Daedalus temple, divine honors temple
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Daedalus,
they relate, copied the maze of the Labyrinth which stands
to our day and was built, according to some, by Mendes,' but according
to others, by king Marrus, many years before the reign of Minos. And the
proportions of the ancient statues of Egypt are the same as in those made
by Daedalus among the Greeks. The very beautiful propylon of the temple
of Hephaestus in Memphis was also built by Daedalus, who became
an object of admiration and was granted
a statue of himself in wood, which was made by his own hands and
set up in this temple; furthermore,
he was accorded great fame because of his genius and, after making many
discoveries, was granted divine honours
; for on one of the islands off Memphis there stands even
to this day a temple of Daedalus, which is honoured by the people of that
region. |
diefied
emperors worshiped
athenian
heroine Paeania worshiped
divine
plato
euhermerishm—gods also viewed as heroes