deicide

Deicide is the act of killing a god or a deity, typically understood as a divine being slain by a mortal or by another deity. The word derives from Latin deicidium, from deus “god” and caedere “to kill.” In religious studies and mythological literature, deicide is a recurring theme that raises questions about divine authority, succession, and the limits of mortal power.

In myth and religion, stories of deicide appear in various traditions. For example, in Egyptian mythology the god Set murders Osiris, a deed that drives the mythic order and its eventual restoration. In other traditions, gods may be mortally wounded or overthrown in cosmic battles or succession crises, serving as narrative devices to explain changes in the divine realm or the creation of new orders of worship. Not all myths depict the death of gods as final or permanent; some gods die and are resurrected or transformed rather than simply ceasing to exist.

In modern discourse, deicide is often discussed symbolically rather than as a literal, historical act. The term has been used in polemics to assign collective responsibility for the death of a divine figure, most notably in medieval Christian rhetoric that blamed Jews for Jesus’ crucifixion—a usage now recognized as antisemitic and widely rejected by scholars. The concept also appears in philosophy and literature as a metaphor for the decline or rejection of belief in a god, as in debates about the “death of God” in secularizing societies.