In the fields of philosophy and mythography, euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exaggerated in the retelling, accumulating elaborations and alterations that reflect cultural mores. It was named after the Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who lived in the late 4th century BC.
Euhemerus was not the first to attempt to rationalize mythology in historical terms: euhemeristic views are found in earlier writings including those of Sanchuniathon, Xenophanes, Herodotus, Hecataeus of Abdera and Ephorus.S. Spyridakis: "Zeus Is Dead: Euhemerus and Crete" The Classical Journal 63.8 (May 1968, pp. 337–340) p.338.Herodotus presented rationalized accounts of the myth of Io (Histories I.1ff) and events of the Trojan War (Histories 2.118ff). However, the enduring influence of Euhemerus upon later thinkers such as the classical poet Ennius (b. 239 BC) and modern author Antoine Banier (b. 1673 AD) identified him as the traditional founder of this school of thought.An introduction to mythology, Lewis Spence, 1921, p. 42.
Early history
In a scene described in Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates offers a euhemeristic interpretation of a myth concerning Boreas and Orithyia:
Socrates illustrates a euhemeristic approach to the myth of Boreas abducting Orithyia. He shows how the story of Boreas, the northern wind, can be rationalised: Orithyia is pushed off the rock cliffs through the equation of Boreas with a natural gust of wind, which accepts Orithyia as a historical personage. But here he also implies that this is equivalent to rejecting the myth. Socrates, despite holding some euhemeristic views, mocked the concept that all myths could be rationalized, noting that the mythical creatures of "absurd forms" such as Centaurs and the Chimera could not easily be explained.Phaedrus, 229d
In the ancient skeptic philosophical tradition of Theodorus of Cyrene and the Cyrenaics, Euhemerus forged a new method of interpretation for contemporary religious beliefs. Though his work is lost, the reputation of Euhemerus was that he believed that much of Greek mythology could be interpreted as natural or historical events subsequently given supernatural characteristics through retelling. Subsequently, Euhemerus was considered to be an atheist by his opponents, most notably Callimachus.S. Spyridakis, 1968, pp. 338–339.
Deification
Euhemerus's views were rooted in the deification of men, usually kings, into gods through apotheosis. In numerous cultures, kings were exalted or venerated into the status of divine beings and worshipped after their death, or sometimes even while they ruled. Dion, the tyrant ruler of Syracuse, was deified while he was alive and modern scholars consider his apotheosis to have influenced Euhemerus's views on the origin of all gods.Franco De Angelis and Benjamin Garstad, "Euhemerus in Context", Classical Antiquity, Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2006, pp. 211–242. Euhemerus was also living during the contemporaneous deification of the Seleucids and "pharaoization" of the Ptolemies in a fusion of Hellenic and Egyptian traditions.
Tomb of Zeus
Euhemerus argued that Zeus was a mortal king who died on Crete, and that his tomb could still be found there with the inscription bearing his name.Zeus Is Dead: Euhemerus and Crete, S. Spyridakis, The Classical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8, May, 1968, pp. 337–340. This claim however did not originate with Euhemerus, as the general sentiment of Crete during the time of Epimenides of Knossos (c. 600 BC) was that Zeus was buried somewhere in Crete. For this reason, the Cretans were often considered atheists, and Epimenides called them all liars (see Epimenides paradox). Callimachus, an opponent of Euhemerus's views on mythology, argued that Zeus's Cretan tomb was fabricated, and that he was eternal:
A later Latin scholium on the Hymns of Callimachus attempted to account for the tomb of Zeus. According to the scholium, the original tomb inscription read: "The tomb of Minos, the son of Jupiter" but over time the words "Minos, the son" wore away leaving only "the tomb of Jupiter". This had misled the Cretans into thinking that Zeus had died and was buried there.The hymns of Callimachus, tr. into Engl. verse, with notes. To which are added, Select epigrams, and the Coma Berenices of the same author, six hymns of Orpheus, and the Encomium of Ptolemy by Theocritus, by W. Dodd, 1755, p. 3, footnote.
Influenced by Euhemerus, Porphyry in the 3rd century AD claimed that Pythagoras had discovered the tomb of Zeus on Crete and written on the tomb's surface an inscription reading: "Here died and was buried Zan, whom they call Zeus".Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religions and Themis a Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, Jane Ellen Harrison, Kessinger Publishing, 2003, p. 57. Varro also wrote about the tomb of Zeus.
Christianity
Hostile to paganism, the early Christians, such as the Church Fathers, embraced euhemerism in attempt to undermine the validity of pagan gods."Euhemerism: A Mediaeval Interpretation of Classical Paganism", John Daniel Cooke, Speculum, Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1927, p. 397. The usefulness of euhemerist views to early Christian apologists may be summed up in Clement of Alexandria's triumphant cry in Cohortatio ad gentes: "Those to whom you bow were once men like yourselves."Quoted in Seznec (1995), The Survival of the Pagan Gods, Princeton University Press, p. 12, who observes (p. 13) of the numerous Christian examples he mentions, "Thus Euhemerism became a favorite weapon of the Christian polemicists, a weapon they made use of at every turn".
The Book of Wisdom The Wisdom of Solomon, a deuterocanonical book, has a passage giving a euhemerist explanation of the origin of idols.
Early Christian apologists
The early Christian apologists deployed the euhemerist argument to support their position that pagan mythology was merely an aggregate of fables of human invention. Cyprian, a North African convert to Christianity, wrote a short essay ("On the Vanity of Idols") in 247 AD that assumes the euhemeristic rationale as though it needed no demonstration. Cyprian begins:
Cyprian proceeds directly to examples, the apotheosis of Melicertes and Leucothea; "The Castors [i.e. Castor and Pollux] die by turns, that they may live", a reference to the daily sharing back and forth of their immortality by the Heavenly Twins. "The cave of Jupiter is to be seen in Crete, and his sepulchre is shown", Cyprian says, confounding Zeus and Dionysus but showing that the Minoan cave cult was still alive in Crete in the third century AD. In his exposition, it is to Cyprian's argument to marginalize the syncretism of pagan belief, in order to emphasize the individual variety of local deities:
Eusebius in his Chronicle employed euhemerism to argue the Babylonian God Baʿal was a deified ruler and that the god Belus was the first Assyrian king.Chronicon, Pat. Graeca XIX, cols. 132, 133, i. 3.
Euhemeristic views are found expressed also in Tertullian (), the Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix and in Origen.Euhemerism and Christology in Origen: "Contra Celsum" III 22–43, Harry Y. Gamble, Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 33, No. 1, March 1979, pp. 12–29. Arnobius's dismissal of paganism in the fourth century, on rationalizing grounds, may have depended on a reading of Cyprian, with the details enormously expanded. Isidore of Seville, compiler of the most influential early medieval encyclopedia, devoted a chapter Isidore, , book viii, ch. 11. to elucidating, with numerous examples and elaborated genealogies of gods, the principle drawn from Lactantius, ("Those whom pagans claim to be gods were once mere men"). Elaborating logically, he attempted to place these deified men in the six great periods of history as he divided it, and created mythological dynasties. Isidore's euhemeristic bent was codified in a rigid parallel with sacred history in Petrus Comestor's appendix to his much translated (written c. 1160), further condensing Isidore to provide strict parallels of figures from the pagan legend, as it was now viewed in historicised narrative, and the mighty human spirits of the patriarchs of the Old Testament.Seznec 1995:16. Martin of Braga, in his , wrote that idolatry stemmed from post-deluge survivors of Noah's family, who began to worship the sun and stars instead of God. In his view, the Greek gods were deified descendants of Noah who were once real personages.
Middle Ages
Christian writers during the Middle Ages continued to embrace euhemerism, such as Vincent of Beauvais, Petrus Comestor, Roger Bacon and Godfrey of Viterbo.John Daniel Cooke, "Euhemerism: A Mediaeval Interpretation of Classical Paganism", Speculum, Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1927, pp. 396–410.The Franciscan friar Roger Bacon in the 13th century argued that ancient Gods such as Minerva, Prometheus, Atlas, Apollo, Io and Mercury were all deified humans. Opus Maius, ed. J. H. Bridges, Oxford, 1897, pp. 46–47. According to John Daniel Cooke, medieval Christian scholars embraced euhemerism because they believed that: While in most respects the ancient Greeks and Roman had been superior to themselves, they had been in error regarding their religious beliefs. An examination of the principal writings in Middle English with considerable reading of literature other than English, discloses the fact that the people of the Middle Ages rarely regarded the so-called gods as mere figments of the imagination but rather believed that they were or had been real beings, sometimes possessing actual power.
Snorri Sturluson's "euhemerism" In the Prose Edda, composed around 1220, the Christian Icelandic bard and historian Snorri Sturluson proposes that the Norse gods were originally historical leaders and kings. Odin, the father of the gods, is introduced as a historical person originally from Asia Minor, tracing his ancestry back to Priam, the king of Troy during the Trojan War.
As Odin travels north to settle in the Nordic countries, he establishes the royal families ruling in Denmark, Sweden and Norway at the time:
Snorri's euhemerism follows the early Christian tradition.
In the modern world