List of people who have been considered deities: Difference between revisions

| [[File:Stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 2255–2119 BCE

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| [[Emperor of Japan|Japanese emperors]]

| Deified as "[[Son of Heaven|Sons of Heaven]]", at least by [[Confucianism|some Confucianists]], since the [[Qin Dynasty]] under [[Qin Shi Huang]].<ref>Mote, F.W. (1999). ''Imperial China: 900–1800''. Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0674012127}}.</ref>

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| [[Natchez people|Natchez rulers]]

| [[File:Wringin Lawang, Trowulan.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1293–1597

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| [[Dalai Lama]]s

| [[File:Banner of the Inca Empire.svg|center|70px]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1438–1533

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| [[King of Nepal|Nepalese kings]]

| [[Gilgamesh]]

| [[File:Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg|70px|center]]

| Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of [[Uruk]],<ref name="BlackGreen1992">{{citation|last1=Black|first1=Jeremy|first2=Anthony|last2=Green|title=Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary|publisher=The British Museum Press|year=1992|isbn=0714117056|pages=89–71}}</ref><ref name="Dalley"/> who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic Period]] ({{circa}} 2900–2350 BCE).<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/><ref name="Dalley">{{citation|last=Dalley|first=Stephanie|author-link=Stephanie Dalley|title=Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others|date=1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0192835890|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ERp_y_w1nIC&q=Ishtar|page=40}}</ref> It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshipped as a god at various locations across Sumer.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> In the twenty-first century BCE, [[Utu-hengal]], the king of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur were especially fond of Gilgamesh, calling him their "divine brother" and "friend".<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding him.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Probably during the [[Kassites|Middle Babylonian Period]] ({{circa|1600 BCE}} – {{circa|1155 BCE}}), a scribe named [[Sîn-lēqi-unninni]] composed the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', an [[epic poem]] written in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] narrating Gilgamesh's heroic exploits.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> The opening of the poem describes Gilgamesh as "one-third human, two-thirds divine".<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>

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| style="text-align:center;"| 2600 BCE

| [[Ancient Egypt]]ian architect and physician whose status, two thousand years after his death, was raised to that of a god, becoming the god of medicine and healing. He was an [[Egyptians|Egyptian]] chancellor to the pharaoh [[Djoser]], probable architect of the [[Pyramid of Djoser|Djoser's]] [[step pyramid]], and high priest of the sun god [[Ra]] at [[Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)|Heliopolis]]. The gradual deification of Imhotep seems to have been completed about 525 BCE. His divinity is clearly attested an inscription, adjancent to his picture in the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemeic]] temple at Kasr el-Agouz, near [[Luxor]]: „Son of [[Ptah]], beneficient god, begotten by the god of the south wall (Ptah), giver of life, who bestows gifts on those he loves, who listen (to those who call upon him), who provides remedies for all diseas“. Imhotep's deification led to the deification of his mother named Kheredu-ankh and his wife Renpetnefert. In Memphis and on the sacred Island of Philae existed temples dedicated to him. The Greeks identified Imhotep with their own divine healer and physician, Asclepios (which also healed people in their dreams).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brandon|first= S. G. F. (Samuel George Frederick)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVxmDwAAQBAJ&q=imhotep+deification&pg=PA54|title=Beliefs, rituals, and symbols of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Fertile Crescent|date=2014|publisher= Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC|isbn=978-1627125697|oclc=862222059}}</ref>

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| [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Queen Dido of Carthage]]

| [[File:Léonard Limosin - Dido - Walters 44240.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 814 BCE

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| [[Homer]]

| [[File:Homer British Museum.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 8th century BCE

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| [[Romulus and Remus]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 771–717 BCE

| Founders of [[Rome]], sons of [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], [[Romulus]] served as first king. Romulus was, according to the book [[Ab Urbe Condita Libri|History of Rome]] (written between 27 and 9 BCE by the historian [[Livy|Titus Livius]]), the son of [[Rhea Silvia]], a [[Vestal Virgin]] which became pregnant with the twins Romulus and Remus by the god [[Mars (mythology)|Mars.]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Livy i.4.2|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/From_the_Founding_of_the_City/Book_1|title=From the Founding of the City}}</ref> After his death, Romulus was defined as the god [[Quirinus]], the divine persona of the Roman people. Romulus ascension to heaven and deification as god Quirinus is mentioned in [[Ovid]]’s poem [[Metamorphoses]], Book 14 (written shortly before 8 AD). Ovid depicts god [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] promising Mars the right to translate his son Romulus to immortality.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph14.htm#487618622|title=Metamorphoses (Kline) 14, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia E-Text Center|last=Bk XIV: 805-828 The deification of Romulus|website=ovid.lib.virginia.edu|access-date=2020-02-16}}</ref> He is now regarded as a mythological figure, and his name a [[back-formation]] from the name Rome, which may ultimately derive from a word for "river". Some scholars, notably [[Andrea Carandini]] believe in the historicity of Romulus, in part because of the 1988 discovery of the ''[[Murus Romuli]]'' on the north slope of the Palatine Hill in Rome.<ref>Carandini. ''La nascita di Roma. Dèi, lari, eroi e uomini all'alba di una civiltà'' (Torino: Einaudi, 1997) and Carandini. ''Remo e Romolo. Dai rioni dei Quiriti alla città dei Romani (775/750 – 700/675 a. C. circa)'' (Torino: Einaudi, 2006)</ref>

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| [[Pythagoras|Pythagoras of Samos]]

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| [[Hephaestion]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 356–324 BCE

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| [[Alexander the Great]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 356–323 BCE

| Some believe he implied he was a [[demigod]] by actively using the title "Son of [[Amun|Ammon]]–[[Zeus]]". The title was bestowed upon him by Egyptian priests of the god [[Amun|Ammon]] at the [[Oracle]] of the god at the [[Siwa Oasis|Siwah oasis]] in the [[Libyan Desert]].<ref>"Not the least of the many extraordinary facts about Alexander is that both in his lifetime and after his death he was worshipped as a god, by [[Greeks]] and [[Ancient Macedonians]] as well as, for example, Egyptians (to whom he was Pharaoh). The episode that led to [[Callisthenes]]' death in 327 was connected to this fact. Greeks and Ancient Macedonians believed that formal obeisance should be paid only to gods. So the refusal of his Greek and Macedonian courtiers to pay it to Alexander implied that they, at any rate, did not believe he genuinely was a living god, at least not in the same sense as Zeus or Dionysus were. Alexander, regardless, did nothing to discourage the view that he really was divine. His claim to divine birth, not merely divine descent, was part of a total self-promotional package, which included the striking of silver medallions in India depicting him with the attributes of [[Zeus]]. Through sheer force of personality and magnitude of achievement he won over large numbers of ordinary Greeks and Macedonians to share this view of himself, and to act on it by devoting shrines to his [[cult]]."{{cite journal |last=Cartledge |first=Paul |year=2004 |title=Alexander the Great |journal=History Today |volume=54 |page=1 }}</ref>

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| [[Antinous]]

| [[File:Hyakuninisshu 024.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 845–903 CE

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| [[Mazu|Lin Moniang]]

| [[File:林默娘公園林默娘像.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"|987 CE or later

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| [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]]

| [[File:Tokugawa Ieyasu2.JPG|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1616

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| [[Hu Tianbao]]

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| style="text-align:center;"| 17th century

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| [[Xiongdi Gong]]

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| style="text-align:center;"| 1831–1861

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| [[Gauchito Gil]]

| [[File:Gauchito Gil Rosario 1.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1840s, allegedly 1847

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| [[George Washington]]

| [[File:1908-kl-t-zamenhof.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 20th century–present

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| [[José Rizal]]

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| [[Wallace Fard Muhammad]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 20th century–present

| Posthumously (?) deified by [[Elijah Muhammad]]. He is also given other titles by the [[Nation of Islam]].<ref>"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad identified the Master as being the answer to the one that the world had been expecting for the past 2,000 years under the names Messiah, the second coming of Jesus, the Christ, Jehovah, God, and the Son of Man."[http://www.noi.org/history_of_noi.htm NOI.org quoting Elijah Muhammad] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207042935/http://www.noi.org/history_of_noi.htm |date=2010-12-07 }}</ref>

| style="text-align:center;"| 1958–present

| Deified by some neo-nazis most notably among followers of [[Esoteric Hitlerism|Esoteric Nazism]]. The claim of Hitler's divinity was first made by [[Savitri Devi]] in her book [[The Lightning and the Sun]]. Devi believed Hitler was avatar of Hindu god [[Vishnu]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41757047 |title=Savitri Devi: The mystical fascist being resurrected by the alt-right |website=www.bbc.com |quote=It isn't hard these days to find discussions of Savitri Devi's books on neo-Nazi web forums, especially The Lightning and the Sun, which expounds the theory that Hitler was an avatar – an incarnation – of the Hindu god Vishnu |date=29 October 2017}}</ref> Later it was promoted by Chilean neo-nazi [[Miguel Serrano]].

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| [[John Coltrane]]

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| style="text-align:center;"| ?

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| [[Antiochus II Theos]]

| [[File:Bhaktapur Kumari.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| ~17th century–present

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| [[John Nicholson (general)#First Anglo-Sikh War|John Nicholson]]

| [[File:John Robert Dicksee Brigadier General John Nicholson.jpg|70px|Brigadier-General John Nicholson|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 19th century–present

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| [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]]

| [[File:Jiddu Krishnamurti 01.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1909–present

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| [[Haile Selassie I]]

| [[File:Mary Baker Eddy.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1947–present

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| [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]]

| style="text-align:center;" | 2010–present

| In January 2010 some adherents of [[Share International]], following an announcement by [[Benjamin Creme]], concluded that [[Share International#Raj Patel's identification as Maitreya|Patel could be the Maitreya]].<ref name="NYT_Patel" /> Patel has denied being the [[Maitreya]].<ref name="NYT_Patel">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/05sfmetro.html|title=In Internet Era, an Unwilling Lord for New Age Followers |date=4 February 2010|work=New York Times|access-date=30 May 2010|author=Scott James}}</ref>

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| [[File:Velleda, Laurent-Honoré Marqueste.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1st century

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| [[Ismail I]]

| [[File:Kondratii-Selivanov.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1780s

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| [[Hong Xiuquan]]

| [[File:Hong Xiuquan.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 19th century

 

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| style="text-align:center;"| ~1887

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| [[Father Divine]]

| [[File:Sathya Sai Baba stamp (cropped).jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;" |20th century

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| [[Yahweh ben Yahweh]]

| style="text-align:center;"| ~1930

| An Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar,<ref>''Awakener Magazine'', Volume 9, Number 4, 1964, p. 15</ref><ref>''Awakener Magazine'', Volume 4, Number 2, 1956, p. 27</ref><ref>Kalchuri (1986) p. 2324</ref> God in human form.<ref>Baba (1987) p. 269</ref><ref>''Awakener Magazine'', Volume 11, Number 1, 1966, p. 9</ref>

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| [[Juanita García Peraza|Mita]]

| [[File:Vissarion smiling.jpg|70px|center]]

| style="text-align:center;"| 1961

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| [[François Duvalier]]

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| style="text-align:center;"| 1987

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| [[Ryuho Okawa]]

| Founder of [[Happy Science]], worshipped by his followers as 'El Cantare' and a reincarnation of [[Elohim]], [[Odin]], [[Thoth]], [[Osiris]], and [[Buddha]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/happy-science-japan-coronavirus-cure.html|title = Inside the Fringe Japanese Religion That Claims It Can Cure Covid-19|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 16 April 2020|last1 = Kestenbaum|first1 = Sam}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jmvan4/my-afternoon-with-a-failed-japanese-cult |title = Happy Science Is the Laziest Cult Ever| date=3 October 2012 }}</ref>

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| style="text-align:center;"| {{circa|2006}} – 2021

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* [[Cult of personality]]

* [[Culture hero]]

* [[Divinization (Christian)]]

* [[Euhemerism]]