Apotheosis of Homer
Hellenistic relief.
Apotheosis is the process by which a mortal is made a god. Here Greece’s most famous poet, Homer, is shown seated on a throne, sceptre in hand. He is being crowned by two standing figures whose names translate as ‘Time’ and ‘the World’. The kneeling figures which support the throne are identified in the inscription as his major works, the Iliad and Odyssey. He receives a sacrifice from a group of literary personifications including Myth, History, Poetry, Tragedy and Comedy. In this way, he is admitted to the company of the gods and Muses above him
London, British Museum 2191
Purchased from the British Museum in 1922
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 373 (n.6)
Smith: Catalogue of British Museum Sculpture III (1904), 244-, no.2191
Brunn-Bruckmann: Denkmäler Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur, pl. 50
Inscription: IG XIV, 1295
Richter: The Portraits of the Greeks, 147, & pl.109
Burn: Greek and Roman Art (1991), 137
Archelaos son of Apollonios, of Priene made this, followed by the naming of the figures
First recorded in Italy in the seventeenth century