The Nature of the Gods: Absolute vs. Relative Divinity in Roman Emperor Worship (original) (raw)

In his recent book on the Roman imperial cults, "Emperor Worship and Roman Religion," Ittai Gradel argues extensively for the notion of "relative divinity" in the ancient, Roman world. This defines divinity around relative power, not essential traits. In this paper I show that Gradel is wrong, and that the Romans did conceive of the gods in essentialist--ontological--ways. This relates to the phenomenon of Roman emperor worship since the living emperor was not considered a god (even if a θεῖος ἀνήρ) and had to undergo apotheosis in order to join the divine ranks in a postmortem state.