List of People Who Have Been Considered Deities - Imperial Cults

Imperial Cults

Who Image When Notability
Egyptian pharaohs 3050 – 30 BC Egyptian pharaohs were kings of Ancient Egypt, and were considered by their culture to be gods. Their titles equated them with aspects of the likes of the hawk god Horus, the vulture goddess Nekhbet and the cobra-goddess Wadjet. The Egyptians believed that when their Pharaoh had died, he would continue to lead them in the next life, which is why his burial was grand and completed to perfection, to please him in the next life and ensure his immortality to protect his people. See List of pharaohs.
Naram-Sin 2255 – 2119 BC The first Mesopotamian king to claim divinity.
Chinese Emperors 221 BC – AD 1911 Deified as "Sons of Heaven" since the Qin Dynasty under Qin Shi Huang.
Roman Emperors 42 BC – AD 363 Following Julius Caesar who in 42 BC was formally deified as "the Divine Julius", and Caesar Augustus henceforth became Divi filius ("Son of the Divine One"), some (not all) Roman Emperors of the 1st to 4th centuries claimed divinity, including Tiberius 14–37, Caligula 37–41, Claudius 41–54, Hadrian 117–138, Commodus 161–192, Constantine I 306–312, Julian the Apostate 361–363 Further information: Imperial cult (ancient Rome), Augustus (honorific), and Augusta (honorific)
Japanese Emperors 660 BC – Claimed, at least by some Shintoists, including government officials, to be divine descendants of the goddess Amaterasu. Hirohito, the Showa emperor, repudiated the "false conception" of his divinity in the Humanity Declaration in 1945.
Natchez rulers 700 The Natchez were a theocracy ruled by "The Great Sun." This ruler has sometimes been deemed a God-king.
The Sailendras 700 The Sailendra dynasty of Java were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism and covered the plains of Central Java with Buddhist monuments, including the world famous Borobudur.
Dalai Lamas 1391- Considered re-incarnations of Avalokiteśvara in Tibetan Buddhism. Panchen Lamas are incarnations of Amitābha.
Inca Emperors 1438 The Inca Emperors had a status very similar to that of the Pharaohs of Egypt.
Ismail I 1502–1524 Self-claimed to be an emanation of God and was considered such by the Safaviya order, Turkem subjects and Alevis.
Nepalese monarchs 1768–2008 Although Nepal was the birthplace of the Buddha, the kings of the Shah dynasty were held to be incarnations of Vishnu.

Read more about this topic:  List Of People Who Have Been Considered Deities

Famous quotes containing the words imperial and/or cults:

    “When your fathers fixed the place of GOD,
    And settled all the inconvenient saints,
    Apostles, martyrs, in a kind of Whipsnade,
    Then they could set about imperial expansion
    Accompanied by industrial development.”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    “Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths of these cults gives woman emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place.”
    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)