Myth & LegendGreek → English
Apotheosis
/əˌpɒθiˈoʊsɪs/noun
The raising of a person to divine rank, or the highest point of something's development.
The Greek roots
ἀπό
apó
from, away
θεός
theós
god
Literally: “a making into a god”
The story of the word
Turning a man into a god was a procedure, not a figure of speech. The Roman senate voted consecratio for a dead emperor, and an eagle released from the funeral pyre was said to carry the soul upward. Vespasian saw it coming and joked on his deathbed that he thought he was becoming a god. English kept the word and drained the religion out of it, so an apotheosis is now a peak.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
theologyatheistenthusiasmpantheon
In a sentence
The final movement is the apotheosis of a tune he had been circling for an hour.