in Antiquity, a heathen ceremony, whereby their emperors and great men were placed among the gods. The word is derived from θεός, God. After the apotheosis, which they also called deficition and consecration, temples, altars, and images were erected to the new deity; sacrifices, &c. were offered, and colleges of priests instituted. It was one of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which he had borrowed from the Chaldees, that virtuous persons after their death were raised into the order of the gods; and hence the ancients deified all the inventors of things useful to mankind, and those who had done any important services to the commonwealth.