Ep. 124: The Birth of the Buddha
Complete with Signs and Portents
Introduction: Apotheosis
If visitors to the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., should walk under the dome and happen to look up, they will see a most amazing sight.
There, in 1865, Greek-Italian artist Constantino Brumidi completed a painting known as The Apotheosis of Washington. It depicts George Washington, the nation's first president, seated on clouds between two goddesses representing Victory and Liberty. They in turn are surrounded by thirteen maidens representing the original Thirteen Colonies, and around them are other allegorical figures of national concepts: War, Science, Marine, Commerce, Mechanics, and Agriculture. Each of these six is the focus of other figures. For example, Science is surrounded by the American scientists and inventors Benjamin Franklin, Samuel F. B. Morse, and Robert Fulton.
Washington died in 1799, 66 years before the painting was completed (during the last days of the American Civil War). Yet in that time, his legend had grown to the point that he could shamelessly be depicted as nothing less than a god.
For that is the meaning of apotheosis: it is the deification of a human being, as has happened to pharaohs and heroes, founders and kings, scholars and teachers.
In Washington's case, this started much earlier than 1865: When Parson Mason Locke Weems wrote his "biography" of Washington immediately after the president's death (called by some a hagiography, the life of a saint), he included among other tidbits the famous fable of young Georgie admitting to his father that he had chopped down a prized cherry tree with his "little hatchet"--a tale believed by American schoolchildren for centuries.
And this process happened to the man we call the Buddha.
The earliest documents on the Buddha's life, while attributing to him some supernatural traits, are mundane compared to what came later. The story I am about to tell is based on such apotheosizing. Nevertheless, just as stories like the one about the cherry tree teach us something about Washington's virtues--in this case, honesty--the less-than-historical elements of the Buddha's life story are meant to tell illustrate his unique character and achievement.
Here are the facts, as near as we can tell.