White outlines the characteristics of a “divine man” (and interestingly there is no divine woman mentioned) based largely on Ludwig Bieler’s identification of the Greco-Roman literary device concerning the theios aner. These characteristics are commonly found in the re-telling of the life stories of exceptional individuals from history and they are as follows:

1. An unusual birth. These individuals have seemingly unnatural births and are often born of virgin mothers sometimes with divine father-type figures. The actual birth itself would usually occur in odd circumstances as well such as during a special time (like a festival of the gods) or in an unusual place, such as a temple or a foreign land. The birth is also generally accompanied by some sort of miracle.
2. An exceptional childhood. The divine child consistently surpasses general expectations of children, displaying exceptional abilities and amazing all who observe him.
3. Divine career. The divine man displays wisdom and deeds beyond the capacity of humanity. This special gifting becomes widely renowned and the divine man is known to be of a high moral character.
4. Extraordinary death. The divine man’s death is often accompanied by miracle or a sort of mysterious disappearance.

In regards to Lucian’s The Death of Peregrinus, Lucian almost point by point refutes the claim that Peregrinus, or as he called himself apparently, Proteus, was indeed divine. Lucian portrays Proteus as a lunatic whose only aim was that of notoriety and fame. He presents first the opposing view from a Cynic preaching (or ranting) from a street corner and then refutes it through a bystander who stands up to tell the “truth” of the life of Proteus. This bystander tells the stories that I assume his audience is familiar with about Proteus’ life, but tells them with a negative spin as he does not believe that Proteus is of good moral character and that most of his actions were his desire for fame and notoriety. It seems to me that the miracles, deeds, and other divine characteristics come secondary to morality and motivation. The miracles and such are important, a sort of entry fee to be brought to the conversation of divine man, but Lucian’s real argument is based on Proteus character. He does not have good morals (as outlined in the bystander’s story of Proteus’ early life) and thus could not be divine as his followers and he claim. Apparently, claiming to be a divine man and having followers that claim the same do not give you immediate divine status. I would wonder then if there are writings such as this one by Lucian against Jesus. Certainly according to the Gospels, his morality was unsurpassed but there must have been opponents to it, such as Lucian to Proteus.

In my own interpretation of the divine man idea, it would seem plausible that the characteristics as White and Bieler outline them are more literary devices that truth. Certainly from a contemporary academic standpoint this would be the case but the concept of the “magical worldview” that White describes, in my opinion, does not necessarily factor in as heavily as he suggests. The most important factor would seem to be the ethics and morality of the individual in question. Once those have been established as of the highest quality, then the amazing and miraculous can be added to further increase the reputation of the individual, which is where the magical worldview comes into play as miracles and other fantastic events are more widely accepted.