[a. L. apotheōsis (Tertull.), a. Gr. άποθέωσις, n. of action f. άποθεό-ειν to deify, f. ἀπό off, (in comb.) completely + θεό-ειν to make a god of, f. θεός god.]
1. The action of ranking, or fact of being ranked, among the gods; transformation into a god, deification; divine status.
[1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 759. Truely Aurelius Prudentius in his Apotheosis … saith.]
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. 32. That which the Grecians call Apotheosis … was the supreme honour, which a man could attribute unto man.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. ii. 137. The Apotheoses or Inaugurations of many of the Heathenish Deities.
1879. Farrar, Paul, I. 664. The early Emperors rather discouraged … this tendency to flatter them by a premature apotheosis.
2. By extension: The ascription of extraordinary, and as it were divine, power or virtue; glorification, exaltation; the canonization of saints.
[1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., I. 662/2. You … affirm, that in this my Calendar, I make an αποθεωσιν, or Canonization of false Martyrs.]
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xviii. § 14. 362. The canonization of Saints which the Heathen called Apotheosis.
1739. Gentl. Mag. (title), The Apotheosis of Milton.
1758. Jortin, Erasmus, I. 305. He promises … to send him the apotheosis of his friend Reuchlin.
1879. O’Connor, Beaconsfield, 73. The meeting developed into an apotheosis of the Marquis of Chandos.
3. The deification, glorification or exaltation of a principle, practice, etc.; a deified ideal.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 211. Because in the Apotheosis of phlebotomy they will have good bloud emitted.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 143. The apotheosis of familiar abuses … is the vilest of superstitions.
1846. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. Introd. 35. The apotheosis of chivalry, in the person of their apostle and patron, St. James.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna (1857), 47. Here all is spotless grace, etherial delicacy … the very apotheosis of womanhood.
4. In loose usage: Ascension to glory, departure or release from earthly life; resurrection.
1649. C. Walker, Hist. Indep., II. 111. His Majesties Speech upon the Scaffold, and His Death, or Apotheosis.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., Pref. 17. The most assured argument … of the apotheosis of Christ.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, I. 326. The general apotheosis; when death and hell shall be swallowed up in victory.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamphl., i. (1872), 25. Let us hope the Leave-alone principle has now got its apotheosis; and taken wing towards higher regions than ours.
1858. R. Vaughan, Ess. & Rev., I. 8. The philosophical school of Alexandria had become extinct, and there was no apotheosis.
