Emperor Worship

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the historical worship of emperors in Roman culture. It describes the background to their worship of emperors and provides examples of some of the Roman emperors who were worshiped. The paper then follows the trend through history and describes how rituals changed over time. The paper also looks at why emperor worship was so popular.

From the Paper:

"The god Apollo was identified with the sun. Hence, the sun, which shines over all of the earth, was perceived to symbolize both the universal king and the central authority. The sun, also called Sol, was believed to ascend in importance with the sky god and even outshone him under certain leaderships. This identification of a ruler with the sun existed in other ancient cultures around the world, such as in Mexico and Bengal. The sun symbol also appeared in Ptolemy's records as it did with the zodiac sign of Leo and the month of August. The symbol was a sign of the projection of ego power, such as Augustus'."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Costs, Charles 2003. Emperor Worship. Webberville: Church of Christ. http://webbervillechurchofchrist.org/Study%200Downloads/EMPEROR%20%WORSHIP.pdf (October 30, 2007)
• Drew, Ray 2007. Sacral Kingship and Divine Election. All Images. http://www.dear-animals.com/index.htm. (October 30, 2007)
• Imber, Margaret 2000. Roman Civilization. CMS 206/History 206. Abacus: Bates College. http://www.abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/public_relig.htm
• UNRV Team 2007. Roman Religion. United Nations of Roman Victrix: UNRV.com. http://www.unrv.com/culture/Roman-religion.php. (October 30, 2007)
• Wilson, Andrew 2007. Under the Empire: Foreign Imports. The Classic Pages: Taylor and Frances

More papers on Emperor Worship:

• Research Paper # 15237 : "Worship of Early Caesars"
• Descriptive Essay # 118913 : "China's "Temple of Heaven"
• Analytical Essay # 23213 : "Mark of the Beast, from Revelation"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: