Etymology

Noun

1. The fact or action of becoming a god; deification.
   • 1986, SRF Price, Rituals and Power, p. 75:

     In Rome itself the official position was clear: the apotheosis of the emperor took place only after his death; this had to be officially recognized by the Senate, and only then did the emperor become a divus with an official cult.

   • 2002, CE Newlands, Statius' Silvae and the Politics of Empire, p. 176:

     As a former mortal who underwent apotheosis, Hercules was important to the emperors.

2. Glorification, exaltation; crediting someone with extraordinary power or status.
   • 1974, Per Lord Hailsham, Smedleys Ltd v Breed [1974]2 All ER 21(HL) at 24:

     Thereafter, the caterpillar achieved a sort of posthumous apotheosis. From local authority to the Dorchester magistrates, from the Dorchester magistrates to a Divisional Court presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of England, from the Lord Chief Justice to the House of Lords, the immolated insect has at length plodded its methodical way to the highest tribunal in the land.

3. A glorified example or ideal; the apex or pinnacle (of a concept or belief).
   • 1925, William Carlos Williams, 'Edgar Allan Poe', In The American Grain, 1990, p. 232:

     In his despair he had nowhere to turn. It is the very apotheosis of the place and the time.

4. Loosely, release from earthly life, ascension to heaven; death.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing — straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!

5. The latent entity that mediates between a person's psyche and their thoughts. The id, ego and superego in Freudian Psychology are examples of this.