momentary god

English

Etymology

Calque of German Augenblicksgott, coined by Hermann Usener in his Götternamen in 1896.

Noun

momentary god (plural momentary gods)

1. A specific phenomenon, such as a lightning bolt, interpreted and experienced as a deity.
   • 2018 August 6, Karen Lang, Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 96:

     Concentrating his attention on the conception of lightning, Usener discovers a transition in the way lightning is conceived: initially experienced as an exclamation in response to a "momentary god"—Zeus originally meant "he who thunders"— […]

References

• Kroll, W. (1916) “Momentary gods”, in James Hastings, editor, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, volume 8, Charles Scribner’s Sons, pages 777–79