This is a list of notable people who were considered deities by themselves or others.
See main article: Imperial cult and Cult of personality.
| Who | Image | When | Notability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pharaohs | 3150–30 BCE | Egyptian pharaohs were kings of Ancient Egypt, and were considered gods by their culture. 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 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.[1] [2] |
. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia . University of Hawaii Press . trans. Susan Brown Cowing . 1968 . 978-0824803681 . Walter F. Vella . George Coedès.
cgunson.com : Matayoshi
Sahaja Yoga-Tamil : Adi Sakthi By Thirumoolar
. March 6, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090306201943/http://www.tnsahaj.org/AdiSakthiByThirumoolar.htm . 2009-03-06 .See main article: Apotheosis.
| Who | Image | When | Notability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gilgamesh | Sometime between 2800 and 2500 BCE | Most historians generally agree that Gilgamesh was a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who probably ruled sometime during the early part of the Early Dynastic Period (2900–2350 BCE). It is certain that, during the later Early Dynastic Period, Gilgamesh was worshipped as a god at various locations across Sumer. In the twenty-first century BCE, Utu-hengal, the king of Uruk adopted Gilgamesh as his patron deity. The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur were especially fond of Gilgamesh, calling him their "divine brother" and "friend". During this period, a large number of myths and legends developed surrounding him. Probably during the Middle Babylonian Period (–), a scribe named Sîn-lēqi-unninni composed the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian narrating Gilgamesh's heroic exploits. The opening of the poem describes Gilgamesh as "one-third human, two-thirds divine". | ||
| Imhotep | 2600 BCE | Ancient Egyptian 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 Egyptian chancellor to the pharaoh Djoser, probable architect of the Djoser's step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at 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 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).[12] | ||
| Queen Dido of Carthage | 814 BCE | Founder and first queen of Carthage, after her death, she was deified by her people with the name of Tanit and assimilated to the Great Goddess Astarte (Roman Juno).[13] The cult of Tanit survived Carthage's destruction by the Romans; it was introduced to Rome itself by Emperor Septimius Severus, himself born in North Africa. It was extinguished completely with the Theodosian decrees of the late 4th century. | ||
| Homer | 8th century BCE | Venerated at Alexandria by Ptolemy IV Philopator. | ||
| Romulus and Remus | 771–717 BCE | Founders of Rome, sons of Mars, Romulus served as first king. Romulus was, according to the book History of Rome (written between 27 and 9 BCE by the historian Titus Livius), the son of Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin which became pregnant with the twins Romulus and Remus by the god Mars.[14] 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 promising Mars the right to translate his son Romulus to immortality.[15] 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.[16] | ||
| Pythagoras of Samos | Pythagoras was the eponymous founder of the religion of Pythagoreanism.[17] A posthumous legend claimed that Pythagoras was the mortal incarnation of the "Hyperborean Apollo"[18] [19] and that he proved his divinity to Abaris the Hyperborean by showing him his golden thigh. | |||
| Hephaestion | 356–324 BCE | Deified by Alexander the Great | ||
| Alexander the Great | 356–323 BCE | Some believe he implied he was a demigod by actively using the title "Son of Ammon–Zeus". The title was bestowed upon him by Egyptian priests of the god Ammon at the Oracle of the god at the Siwah oasis in the Libyan Desert.[20] | ||
| Julius Caesar | 42 BCE | Deified by the Roman Senate two years after his assassination.[21] | ||
| Antinous | 111–130 CE | Deified by Hadrian. He is the last non-Imperial human formally deified in Western civilization. | ||
| Mary, Mother of Jesus | 300 CE | In 300 CE she was venerated as a Mother Goddess in the Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout Thrace. Collyridianism was made up mostly of women followers and female priests.[22] | ||
| Guan Yu | 581–618 CE | Guan Yu was deified as early as the Sui dynasty and is still popularly worshipped today among the Chinese people variedly as an indigenous Chinese deity, a dharmapala in Buddhism and a guardian deity in Taoism. He is also held in high esteem in Confucianism. In Hong Kong both police and gangsters consider him a divine object of reverence. In certain schools of Taoism and Chinese Buddhism he has been deemed divine or semi-divine status.[23] | ||
| Ali | 599–661 CE | According to the Alawite faith, Ali ibn Abi Talib is one member of a trinity (Ali-Muhammad-Salman the Persian) corresponding roughly to the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[24] He is considered the second emanation of God by Yarsan and the supreme deity in Ali-Illahism. | ||
| Tan Goan-kong | 657–711 CE | Also known as Chen Yuanguang, he was a general and official in the Tang dynasty. He was deified and worshipped by the descendants of immigrants from Zhangzhou to Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, all refer to him as the "Sacred Duke, Founder of Zhangzhou" .[25] | ||
| Sugawara no Michizane | 845–903 CE | Japanese Imperial courtier banished from the capital and deified upon his death to appease his angry spirit. Worshipped as Tenjin, kami of scholarship. | ||
| Lin Moniang | 987 CE or later | Fujianese shamaness worshiped as a sea goddess throughout coastal China and the Chinese diaspora community under the name Mazu. | ||
| Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah | 985–1021 CE | Sixth Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, ruling from 996 to 1021. The members of the Druze faith believe that the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is the Mahdi. The Muslim scholar and early preacher Nashtakin ad-Darazi claimed that the Caliph was God incarnate. Because of that he was executed by Al-Hakim who did not proclaim that he was God. The Druze today reject Ad-Darazi's preaching completely.[26] [27] [28] [29] [30] | ||
| Tokugawa Ieyasu | 1616 | Deified posthumously with the name Tōshō Daigongen by his successors. | ||
| Hu Tianbao | 17th century | According to What the Master Would Not Discuss, written by Yuan Mei during the Qing dynasty, Tu'er Shen was a man named Hu Tianbao (Chinese: 胡天保) who fell in love with a very handsome imperial inspector of Fujian Province. One day he was caught peeping on the inspector through a bathroom wall, at which point he confessed his reluctant affections for the other man. The imperial inspector had Hu Tianbao sentenced to death by beating. One month after Hu Tianbao's death, he appeared to a man from his hometown in a dream, claiming that since his crime was one of love, the underworld officials decided to right the injustice by appointing him the god and guardian of homosexual affections.[31] | ||
| Xiongdi Gong | 1831–1861 | 108 men from Hainan who were returning home from Vietnam with money earned by them and fellow migrants for their families when they were killed by pirates. | ||
| Gauchito Gil | 1840s, allegedly 1847 | Venerated as a folk saint and deity in Argentina. | ||
| George Washington | 1865–present | Worshipped as a kami in Hawaiian Shinto shrines.[32] In the United States Capitol dome, he is also depicted ascending into Olympus and becoming a god, in the famous painting called The Apotheosis of Washington. | ||
| Kanichi Otsuka | 1891–present | Shinreikyo states of its founder "God became one with a human body, appeared among humanity, and founded Shinreikyo."[33] | ||
| Maria Franciszka Kozłowska | – present | At least some mariavites believe that God the Father became Mary, God the Son became Jesus and Holy Spirit became Maria Franciszka Kozłowska (1862–1921, an excommunicated Roman Catholic nun from Poland). It's difficult to tell whether she has deified herself or has been involuntary deified during her lifetime or posthumously deified. In 1967, Archbishop Maria Rafael Wojciechowski officially testified that in the 1936–1938 period, Archbishop Maria Michał Kowalski had written "Mother said to me that she was present at the creation of the world and that she arranged the world." (for "mother", he used the Polish word "mateczka" which is a diminutive and a title held by Maria Franciszka).[34] [35] | ||
| L. L. Zamenhof | 20th century–present | Considered a god by members of the Oomoto religion. | ||
| José Rizal | 20th century–present | Deified by some people in the Philippines due to his contributions to the Philippine Revolution.[36] [37] | ||
| Wallace Fard Muhammad | 20th century–present | Posthumously (?) deified by Elijah Muhammad. He is also given other titles by the Nation of Islam.[38] | ||
| Adolf Hitler | 1958–present | Deified by some neo-nazis most notably among followers of 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.[39] Later it was promoted by Chilean neo-nazi Miguel Serrano. | ||
| John Coltrane | 1967–1981 | After Coltrane's death, a congregation called the Yardbird Temple in San Francisco began worshiping him as God incarnate.[40] The congregation became affiliated with the African Orthodox Church; this involved changing Coltrane's status from a god to a saint. The resultant St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, San Francisco, is the only African Orthodox church that incorporates Coltrane's music and his lyrics as prayers in its liturgy.[41] |
| Who | Image | When | Notability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uzair | ? | The Quran claims that a group of Jews, often interpreted as the Yemenite Jews, believed "Uzair" was the son of God.[42] It is argued by some that Uzair was Ezra. Ezra established Second Temple Judaism[43] and is regarded as a very important figure in Judaism.[44] The concept of "son of God" as the God in the Flesh is now strictly rejected in Judaism. | ||
| Antiochus II Theos | 286–246 BCE | Seleucid ruler. The younger son of Antiochus I and Stratonice, succeeded his father in 261. He liberated Ephesus, Ionia, Cilicia and Pamphylia from Egyptian domination, and in return for their autonomy the cities of Asia Minor gave him the title Theos ("God"). | ||
| Paul the Apostle and Barnabas | Autumn 49 CE[45] | According to a story recorded in the Book of Acts 14:8–18, the apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas healed a crippled man in the street in the town of Lystra in Asia Minor, during Paul's second missionary journey.[46] The townsfolk immediately mistook them for the Greek gods Hermes and Zeus respectively and attempted to offer sacrifices to them. | ||
| Master Qing Shui | 1047–1101 | Chan Buddhist monk during the Northern Song in Anxi County, Quanzhou. He is said to have saved the town of Anxi during a period of drought, bringing rain as he went from place to place. In reverence, the villagers built temples dedicated to him and hence became a Deity in Chinese folk religion.[47] | ||
| Zheng He | 1371–1433 | Worshipped by some Chinese and South East Asians.[48] | ||
| Kumari | ~17th century–present | These are little girls who are worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists as the incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Durga (Nepali Taleju) in Nepal. They are picked when they are prepubescent and are worshipped until they reach puberty. Their cult is in South Asian countries, especially in Nepal. | ||
| John Nicholson | 19th century–present | Inspired the cult of Nikal Seyn. | ||
| Jiddu Krishnamurti | 1909–present | Renounced the status of messiah and Maitreya incarnation given him by the Theosophical Society. | ||
| Haile Selassie I | 1930s–present | Among most followers of the Rastafari movement, Haile Selassie is seen as the second coming of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, the Black Messiah and "Earth's Rightful Ruler" who will also lead African peoples to freedom. Rastas say that his imperial titles (i.e. King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and Root of David) were prophesied as belonging to the returned Messiah in Revelation 5:5. Their faith in his divinity first appeared in Jamaica, soon after his 1930 coronation in Addis Ababa.[49] Before his coronation he was called Ras (meaning Prince) Tafari. | ||
| Mary Baker Eddy | 1947–present | Founder of Christian Science, Eddy was first deified with the private publication of The Destiny of The Mother Church by Bliss Knapp. Although the book is distributed in Christian Science reading rooms, it is not considered authorised literature, and Eddy herself denied any comparison to Jesus and allegations of her being the Second Christ. | ||
| Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | 1950s~1960s–present | Considered a god in the village of Yaohnanen, a cargo cult in Vanuatu.[50] See Prince Philip movement. | ||
| Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson | 1990s–present | While considered the messiah by most of his followers following his death in 1994, one group has deified him.[51] | ||
| Raj Patel | 2010–present | In January 2010 some adherents of Share International, following an announcement by Benjamin Creme, concluded that Patel could be the Maitreya. Patel has denied being the Maitreya.[52] |
See main article: Self-deification.
| Who | Image | When | Notability | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naram-Sin | 2255–2119 BCE | The first Mesopotamian king to claim divinity.[53] He marked himself with the dingir symbol, a determinative for a divinity. After him, his son Shar-Kali-Sharri and then later Mesopotamian Kings would carry the tradition onwards. These kings included Shulgi, Amar-Sin, Shu-Sîn, and Ibbi-Sîn of the Ur III Dynasty; Shu-Ilishu, Iddin-Dagan, Ishme-Dagan, Lipit-Ishtar, Ur-Ninurta, Būr-Sîn, Lipit-Enlil, Erra-imitti, Enlil-bani, Zambiya, Iter-pûsha, Ur-dukuga, Sîn-magir, Damiq-ilishu of the Isin Dynasty; and Rim-Sîn I and Rim-Sîn II of the Larsa Dynasty.[54] | ||
| Shulgi | 2037–2028 BCE | Brought back self-deification during the Ur III Period. | ||
| Amar-Sin | 2046–2037 BCE | Succeeded Shulgi | ||
| Shu-Sin | 2037–2028 BCE | Built Temples for himself. | ||
| Empedocles of Acragas | – BCE | Empedocles of Acragas was a Pre-Socratic philosopher from the island of Sicily, who, in one of his surviving poems, declares himself to have become a "divine being... no longer mortal",[55] followed by descriptions of him performing activities normally reserved for the gods. The later historian Diogenes Laërtius claimed that Empedocles committed suicide by jumping into Mount Etna in order to persuade people that he was an immortal god,[56] a legend which is also alluded to by the Roman poet Horace.[57] | ||
| Pharnavaz I of Iberia | 326–234 BCE | Iberian king (r. 299–234 BCE) | ||
| Antiochus IV Epiphanes | 215–164 BCE | Seleucid ruler (r. 175–164); the only Seleucid king to claim divine honors, calling himself Theos Epiphaneus "God Manifest" and Nikephoros "Bringer of Victory." Nearly conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, the primary rival of the Seleucids among the Diadochi states. Famously attempted to impose ancient Greek religion on the Jews by persecution, leading to the Maccabean Revolt; remembered as a major persecutor in Jewish tradition.[58] | ||
| Antiochus I | –38 BCE | King of Commagene who instituted a cult for himself and several syncretistic Graeco-Persian deities at Mount Nemrud and elsewhere.[59] | ||
| Simon Magus | 1st–4th century | Considered a god in Simonianism. According to Irenaeus, he "was glorified by many as if he were a god; and he taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit. He represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all, and he allowed himself to be called by whatsoever title men were pleased to address him."[60] | ||
| Veleda | 1st century | Germanic prophetess considered a deity during her lifetime. | ||
| Ismail I | 16th century | Self-claimed to be an emanation of God and was considered such by the Kızılbaş-Safaviya order, Qizilbash-Turkman subjects and Alevis.[61] [62] | ||
| Danila Filippovich | 1700 | He believed that he was God and started the Khlysts. (There are various transliterations of his name including Danila Filipov, Danila Filipich, and Daniil Filippovich.)[63] | ||
| Kondratii Selivanov | 1780s | Kondraty Selivanov proclaimed himself both as the late Peter III of Russia and Christ himself, and started the Skoptsy.[64] | ||
| Hong Xiuquan | 19th century | Chinese man who claimed he was the younger brother of Jesus, and thus a son of God. Led the Taiping Rebellion, conquering a large part of China before defeat and suicide. | ||
| Dios Buhawi | ~1887 | Philippine shaman who called himself "God Whirlwind." | ||
| Father Divine | ~20th century | His followers considered him God in the flesh.[65] | ||
| Taher Saifuddin | 20th century | Claimed to be Ilah'ul-Ard (God on Earth) in Bombay High Court.[66] [67] | ||
| Lou de Palingboer | 20th century | A divorced Dutchman named Louwrens Voorthuijzen who proclaimed himself "Lou the Eel Vendor", this being the translation of his proclaimed name "Lou de Palingboer". He was a figure who mixed marketing European eels with proselytism. His followers also considered him a living God on a mission against evil.[68] | ||
| Jehovah Wanyonyi | 21st century | "I am the one who created Adam and Eve. I made their bodies and their blood", [...] "I still use human beings by speaking through them, like I spoke through Jesus Christ until he went to Heaven." There are between 120 and 1000 followers who consider him to be God.[69] [70] | ||
| Sathya Sai Baba | 20th century | Hindu guru that followers believed was a reincarnation of an avatar of Dattatreya. He alleged that he had the ability to heal, raise the dead, appear in more than one location at the same time, materialize objects, such as jewellery, etc. | ||
| Yahweh ben Yahweh | 20th century | He was born as Hulon Mitchell, Jr. and his self-proclaimed name means "God, Son of God." He could have only been deeming himself son of God, not God, but many of his followers clearly consider him God Incarnate.[71] [72] | ||
| Mitsuo Matayoshi | 20th century | In 1997 he established the World Economic Community Party (世界経済共同体党) based on his conviction that he is the God and Christ.[73] | ||
| Meher Baba | ~1930 | An Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar,[74] [75] [76] God in human form.[77] [78] | ||
| Mita | ~1940 | According to the Mita faith, Mita (Peraza) was the incarnation of the Holy Ghost on earth.[79] | ||
| Jim Jones | 1955 | Founder of Peoples Temple, which started off as a part of a mainstream Protestant denomination before becoming a personality cult as time went on. One of Jones's devotees claimed that Jones said "If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God";[80] however Jones also described himself as atheist.[81] | ||
| Vissarion | 1961 | Claims to be Jesus Christ returned, which makes him not "God" but the "word of God". | ||
| François Duvalier | 1960s–1970s | Haitian Dictator claimed that he was the physical embodiment of the island nation. Duvalier deliberately modeled his image on that of Baron Samedi, one of the lwa, or spirits, of Haitian Vodou. He often donned sunglasses in order to hide his eyes and talked with the strong nasal tone associated with the lwa. The regime's propaganda stated that "Papa Doc was one with the lwa, Jesus Christ and God himself". The most celebrated image from the time shows a standing Jesus Christ with a hand on the shoulder of a seated Papa Doc, captioned, "I have chosen him". Duvalier declared himself an "immaterial being" as well as "the Haitian flag" soon after his first election. In 1964, he published a catechism in which the Lord's Prayer was reworded to pay tribute to Duvalier instead of God. | ||
| Nirmala Srivastava | 1970 | Guru and goddess of Sahaja Yoga, has proclaimed herself the incarnation of the Holy Ghost (Adi Shakti), claimed that all other incarnations (e.g., Krishna, Christ, etc.) were aspects of her.[82] [83] | ||
| Francisco Macías Nguema | 1970s | His party used the slogan, (officially decreed by him in 1974): "There is no other God than Macias". Catholic clergy were also required to preach that "God created Equatorial Guinea thanks to Macias."[84] [85] [86] | ||
| Apollo Quiboloy | 1985 | Calls himself as the "Appointed Son of God" in his own Restorationist church called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.[87] | ||
| Joseph Kony | 1987 | Proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and has been considered by some as a cult of personality, and claims he is visited by a multinational host of 13 spirits, including a Chinese phantom. | ||
| Ryuho Okawa | 1986 | Founder of Happy Science, worshipped by his followers as 'El Cantare' and a reincarnation of Elohim, Odin, Thoth, Osiris, and Buddha.[88] [89] | ||
| Amy Carlson | – 2021 | Founder of Love Has Won. Proclaimed herself to be God, as well as Jesus, several secular historical figures, St. Joan of Arc, and the Indigenous Hawaiian goddess Pele. Followers call her "Momma God" and were found to have mummified her in order to continue to worship her. |
