THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN TO SUPERHERO
Positive and Negative Apotheosis as Metaphor in Comics and Movies
I have recently written a screenplay called Apotheosis- but also created several pilots from the feature script in the instance I would create a streaming series. Although the screenplay is fiction, it gave me the opportunity to ponder on the relevance of this term to popular culture, namely to superheroes. This group of media heroes not only features many originally coined in the last century but also drawn directly from ancient mythology. Back then, since boyhood, I always was fascinated with the idea of superheroes, which has continued today in my interest in how popular culture often may holds keys to very important spiritual clues, righteous conduct and hints at the potential for the next development of man.
I had always been intrigued by the idea of apotheosis- of a man becoming a god, a transformative concept in media which either directly or indirectly bares a relationship to an idea. This is what the Encyclopedia says about the word:
“The ancient Greek religion was especially disposed to belief in heroes and demigods. Worship after death of historical persons or worship of the living as true deities occurred sporadically even before the conquests of Alexander the Great brought Greek life into contact with Oriental traditions. Ancient monarchies often enlisted polytheistic conceptions of divine or semidivine individuals in support of the dynasties. Ancestor worship, or reverence for the dead, was another factor, as was also mere flattery.”
Most people these days don’t know much about Greek and Roman mythology- but the idea of turning a man into a god (apotheosis comes from a Greek word meaning, “to make divine”) was quite common. And there are a vast number of gods who were once were mortals in that mythology.
I should point out that mortals who become divine are often called “demi-gods” instead of “gods”, but I am comfortable here to call them all gods- humans who become powerful, immortal beings, whose homebase in Asgard or Mount Olympus is in a somewhat different world.
If you want to see how pervasive it was for a man to become a god, in this case, just in Greek mythology, take a look at https://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/deified-mortals.html, which includes the following introduction, as well as other exceedingly detailed and valuable details, including a list of deified mortals.
DEIFIED MORTALS
“The Greek pantheon of gods included mortal-born heroes and heroines who were elevated to godhood through a process which the Greeks termed apotheosis. Some of these received the privilege as a reward for their benefactions to mankind–e.g. Heracles, Asclepius and Aristaeus–, others through marriage to gods–e.g. Ariadne, Tithonus and Psyche–, and some by luck or pure chance–e.g. Glaucus.”
Here are three of them from this extraordinarily long list:
(Asklepios) A Thessalian physician whose exceptional skill allowed him to restore the dead. However, as this was contrary to the natural order of things, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt. He was later recovered by his father Apollo from the land of the dead and entered Olympus as a god.
HERACLES (Herakles) The greatest of the Greek heroes. As he was burning on the funeral pyre, the goddess Athena descended from heaven and caught him up in her chariot, transporting him to the company of the gods on Olympus. There he wed the goddess Hebe and was appointed guardian of heavenly gates. He was widely worshipped as a god throughout historic Greece.
ARISTAEUS (Aristaios) A rustic Thessalian hero who invented the art of beekeeping, manufacture of olive-oil and hunting and herding techniques. He also summoned the Etesian winds to end the scorching heat of the midsummer months. As a reward for his benefactions Aristaeus was awarded immortality as a god in the retinue of Dionysus.
Of all the mythic characters of the gods, Thor probably gets the best mileage, as seen as in so many comics and media. After all, his father was Odin, king of the Dods. The comic book came first and was created by Stan Lee, the writer, and Jack Kirby, the artist, with the actual comic text being developed by Larry Lieber. It previews as in Journey Into Mystery #83 in 1962. In 1911, the first film, Thor. was aired starring Chris Hemsworth and appeared in a ridiculous amount of films including several Avenger films, Doctor Strange, Ragnarok and Love and Thunder. We have already mentioned Stan Lee in another blog. Stan actually spent some of his time after creating so many great superheroes to create a video series showing the reality of human beings, real ones, who possessed superpowers typically regarded as fiction.
Here is a 19th century portrait of Thor in a battle with giants. Maybe not as cool as the comic book here, but still pretty cool.
Thor’s Fight with the Giants )
by Mårten Eskil Winge (1872).
Like the character ion the comic, he does have a hammer called Mjölnir. This hammer was capable of devastating destruction of his enemies, as in the comic book and films. But he also carted two goats with who he killed and resurrected so that he could continue to eat them. I don’t think that little eccentricity was brought into the comic. However, the idea of a secret identity certainly was not taken from history- but from a myriad of other cosmic superheroes.
Once upon a time, according to the first time we are introduced to Dr. Donald Blake, he is found visiting Norway, where he winds up hiding from the Stone Men of Saturn in a cave. There, finding a cane, he strikes against the wall- and, poof, he becomes Thor, the Mighty God with a hammer. In the course of the years, Thor has various identities over the course of the years- but at one point his secret identity, who is a real person, turns against him. In some manner, at times, it appears that Odin’s son is being transformed into a man, but this is somewhat blurred- and would be in a sense the opposite of apotheosis.
Here is an extensive video by Tom Scioli, author of I Am Stan (a biography of aforementioned comic creator, Stan Lee. This a blow-by-blow description of Thor’s latter development of comic books, including how he Reveals His Secret Identity to Jane Foster.
Nowadays, we have comic books and media filled with gods, like Thor, god of Thunder, but also like bad guys like Loki, a bad guy, a major principal in these comics, but also derived from Norse mythology.
In his own way, the original comic hero, Captain Marvel ( who had various different types of media incarnations since the first one), embodied a story which closely resembles a god or superhero meta-morphed from the persona of a small boy, Billy Batson. Here is the first appearance of Captain Marvel in the cover of Whiz Comics #2 in February of 1940. Wow! For 10 cents nowadays, you can’t even get a quarter of a stick of chewing gum…
The interesting thing about this origin account is that Captain Marvel is called to say the name, Shazam, the name of the sorcerer who inhabits the cave. Here are the names of the
GODS THAT COMPOSE THE MAGICAL ACRONYM, SHAZAM
CLICK BELOW THE IMAGE for a link to the 1973 reprint of the original version of the Captain Marvel story. BOOM!
The major point I wanted to make here- was not the literal ancient concept of apotheosis, but the continuing theme of mortal in comic books and media- transforming from human beings into Superhumans. As we continue our research into the realities, we will find the far-out metaphors for new, recent elements in spirituality and the science which explains it.
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