![Apotheosis Homer BM 2191](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Apotheosis_Homer_BM_2191.jpg)
The Apotheosis of Homer is a common scene in classical and
neo-classical art, showing the poet
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's
apotheosis
Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...
or elevation to divine status.
Homer was the subject of a number of formal
hero cult
Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, "hero" (, ) refers to the mortal offspring of a human and a god. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a ''dead'' ma ...
s in classical antiquity. The earliest notable portrayal of the scene is a 3rd-century BC marble relief by
Archelaus of Priene, now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. It was found in Italy, probably in 1658, but is thought to have been sculpted in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. It shows Ptolemy IV and his wife and sister
Arsinoe III
Arsinoe III Philopator ( grc, Ἀρσινόη ἡ Φιλοπάτωρ, which means "Arsinoe the father-loving", 246 or 245 BC – 204 BC) was Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt in 220 – 204 BC. She was a daughter of Ptolemy III and Berenice II. She wa ...
standing beside a seated poet, flanked by figures from the ''Odyssey'' and ''Iliad'', with the nine
Muses
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the p ...
standing above them and a procession of worshippers approaching an altar, believed to represent the Alexandrine Homereion.
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
, the god of music and poetry, also appears, along with a female figure tentatively identified as
Mnemosyne
In Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion, Mnemosyne (; grc, Μνημοσύνη, ) is the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus. In the Greek tradition, Mnemosyne is one of the Titans, the twelve divine chil ...
, the mother of the Muses.
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
, the king of the gods, presides over the proceedings. The relief demonstrates vividly that the Greeks considered Homer not merely a great poet but the divinely-inspired reservoir of all literature.
[Morgan, Llewelyn, 1999. ''Patterns of Redemption in Virgil's Georgics'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 30.]
From the 19th and 20th centuries, treatments of the subject b
Wedgewood(based o
a 5th century BC vasemisidentified in the 18th century as showing this scene),
Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...
and
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
survive.
A literary treatment of this subject was given by the
German poet Leopold Schefer
Leopold Schefer (30 July 1784 in Muskau – 13 February 1862 in Muskau), German poet, novelist, and composer, was born in a small town in Upper Lusatia (then under Saxon rule), the only child of a poor country doctor.
Biography
Leopold Schefer wa ...
, 1858: ''Homer’s Apotheose'', his last publication, itself a hexametric epos.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apotheosis of Homer
Cultural depictions of Homer
Hellenistic sculpture