View source for Euhemerism

{{Short description|Rationalizing method of interpretation of mythology}}
{{For|discussion on a known living person being turned into a deity|Apotheosis}}
{{Trojan War}}
In the fields of [[philosophy]] and [[mythography]], '''euhemerism''' ({{IPAc-en|j|uː|ˈ|h|iː|m|ər|ɪ|z|əm|,_|-|h|ɛ|m|-}}) is an approach to the [[interpretation (philosophy)|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. In the more recent literature of myth, such as ''[[Bulfinch's Mythology]]'', euhemerism is termed the "historical theory" of mythology.<ref>Bulfinch, Thomas. ''Bulfinch's Mythology''. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004, p. 194.</ref>

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]].<ref>S. Spyridakis: "Zeus Is Dead: Euhemerus and Crete" The Classical Journal 63.8 (May 1968, pp. 337–340) p.338.</ref><ref>[[Herodotus]] presented rationalized accounts of the myth of [[Io (mythology)|Io]] (''Histories'' I.1ff) and events of the Trojan War (''Histories'' 2.118ff).</ref> 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.<ref>''An introduction to mythology'', [[Lewis Spence]], 1921, p. 42.</ref>

== Early history ==

In a scene described in Plato's ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'', [[Socrates]] offers a euhemeristic interpretation of a myth concerning [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]] and [[Orithyia (Athenian)|Orithyia]]:

{{poemquote|'''Phaedr.''' On the way to the Ilissus Phaedrus asks the opinion of Socrates respecting the truth of a local legend.
I should like to know, Socrates, whether the place is not somewhere here at which Boreas is said to have carried off Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus?
'''Soc.''' Such is the tradition.
'''Phaedr.''' And is this the exact spot? The little stream is delightfully clear and bright; I can fancy that there might be maidens playing near.
'''Soc.''' I believe that the spot is not exactly here, but about a quarter of a mile lower down, where you cross to the temple of Artemis, and there is, I think, some sort of an altar of Boreas at the place.
'''Phaedr.''' I have never noticed it; but I beseech you to tell me, Socrates, do you believe this tale?
'''Soc.''' Socrates desires to know himself before he enquires into the newly found philosophy of mythology.
The wise are doubtful, and I should not be singular if, like them, I too doubted. I might have a rational explanation that Orithyia was playing with Pharmacia, when a northern gust carried her over the neighbouring rocks; and this being the manner of her death, she was said to have been carried away by Boreas.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=Phaedrus (Jowett)|date=1892|first=Benjamin|last=Jowett|pages=Plato, Phaedr. 229b–d}}</ref>
}}

Socrates illustrates a euhemeristic approach to the myth of [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]] abducting [[Orithyia (Athenian)|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 (mythology)|Chimera]] could not easily be explained.<ref>''Phaedrus'', 229d</ref>

In the ancient [[skeptic]] philosophical tradition of [[Theodorus the Atheist|Theodorus of Cyrene]] and the [[Cyrenaics]], Euhemerus forged a new method of interpretation for the 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 [[atheism|atheist]] by his opponents, most notably [[Callimachus]].<ref>S. Spyridakis, 1968, pp.&nbsp;338–339.</ref>

===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 of Syracuse|Dion]], the tyrant ruler of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], was deified while he was alive and modern scholars consider his apotheosis to have influenced Euhemerus' views on the origin of all gods.<ref>Franco De Angelis and Benjamin Garstad, "Euhemerus in Context", ''Classical Antiquity'', Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2006, pp. 211–242.</ref> Euhemerus was also living during the contemporaneous deification of the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucids]] and "[[pharaoh|pharaoization]]" of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty|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.<ref>''Zeus Is Dead: Euhemerus and Crete'', S. Spyridakis, The Classical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8, May, 1968, pp. 337–340.</ref> This claim however did not originate with Euhemerus, as the general sentiment of Crete during the time of [[Epimenides]] of [[Knossos]] (c.&nbsp;600 BC) was that Zeus was buried somewhere in Crete. For this reason, the Cretans were often considered [[Atheism|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:

{{cquote|<poem>''Cretans always lie.'' For the Cretans even built a tomb,
Lord, for you. But you did not die, for you are eternal.<ref>Callimachus, ''Hymn to Zeus''</ref></poem>}}

A later Latin [[scholia|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 (mythology)|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.<ref>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.</ref>

Influenced by Euhemerus, [[Porphyry (philosopher)|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".<ref>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.</ref> [[Marcus Terentius Varro|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.<ref>"Euhemerism: A Mediaeval Interpretation of Classical Paganism", John Daniel Cooke, ''Speculum'', Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1927, p. 397.</ref> 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."<ref>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".</ref>

===The Book of Wisdom===
The ''[[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom of Solomon]]'', a [[Deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical book]], has a passage giving a euhemerist explanation of the origin of idols.<ref>{{bibleref|Wisdom|14:12–21}}</ref>
{{wikisource|Wisdom (Bible)}}

===Early Christian apologists===

The [[Early Christianity|early Christian]] [[Christian apologetics|apologists]] deployed the euhemerist argument to support their position that pagan mythology was merely an aggregate of [[fable]]s of human invention. [[Cyprian]], a North African convert to Christianity, wrote a short essay {{lang|la|De idolorum vanitate}} ("On the Vanity of Idols") in 247 AD that assumes the euhemeristic rationale as though it needed no demonstration. Cyprian begins:

{{Blockquote|That those are no gods whom the common people worship, is known from this: they were formerly kings, who on account of their royal memory subsequently began to be adored by their people even in death. Thence temples were founded to them; thence images were sculptured to retain the countenances of the deceased by the likeness; and men sacrificed victims, and celebrated festal days, by way of giving them honour. Thence to posterity those rites became sacred, which at first had been adopted as a consolation.}}

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 civilization|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:

{{Blockquote|From this the religion of the gods is variously changed among individual nations and provinces, inasmuch as no one god is worshipped by all, but by each one the worship of its own ancestors is kept peculiar.}}

Eusebius in his ''[[Chronicon (Eusebius)|Chronicle]]'' employed euhemerism to argue the Babylonian God [[Baʿal]] was a deified ruler and that the god [[Belus (Assyrian)|Belus]] was the first Assyrian king.<ref>Chronicon, Pat. Graeca XIX, cols. 132, 133, i. 3.</ref>

Euhemeristic views are found expressed also in [[Tertullian]] ({{lang|la|De idololatria}}), the ''Octavius'' of [[Marcus Minucius Felix]] and in [[Origen]].<ref>Euhemerism and Christology in Origen: "Contra Celsum" III 22–43, Harry Y. Gamble, ''Vigiliae Christianae'', Vol. 33, No. 1, March 1979, pp. 12–29.</ref> [[Arnobius]]' dismissal of paganism in the fifth 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 {{lang|la|De diis gentium}}<ref>Isidore, {{lang|la|[[Etymologiae]]}}, book viii, ch. 12.</ref> to elucidating, with numerous examples and elaborated genealogies of gods, the principle drawn from [[Lactantius]], {{lang|la|Quos pagani deos asserunt, homines olim fuisse produntur}} ("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 {{lang|la|Historia scholastica}} (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]].<ref>Seznec 1995:16.</ref> [[Martin of Braga]], in his {{lang|la|[[De correctione rusticorum]]}}, wrote that idolatry stemmed from post-deluge survivors of Noah's family, who began to worship the [[sun]] and stars instead of [[deity|God]]. In his view, the Greek gods were deified descendants of [[Noah]] who were once real personages.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://libro.uca.edu/mckenna/pagan4.htm#N_64_ |title=Chapter 4: Pagan Survivals in Galicia in the Sixth Century}}</ref>

===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]].<ref name="Cooke-1927">John Daniel Cooke, "Euhemerism: A Mediaeval Interpretation of Classical Paganism", ''Speculum'', Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1927, pp. 396–410.</ref><ref>The Franciscan friar [[Roger Bacon]] in the 13th century argued that ancient Gods such as [[Minerva]], [[Prometheus]], Atlas, [[Apollo]], [[Io (mythology)|Io]] and [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] were all deified humans. ''Opus Maius'', ed. J. H. Bridges, Oxford, 1897, pp. 46–47.</ref> According to John Daniel Cooke, medieval Christian scholars embraced euhemerism because they believed that: 
<blockquote>
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.<ref name="Cooke-1927"/>
</blockquote>

Other scholars have written that:
<blockquote>
It was during this time that Christian apologists had adopted the views of the rationalist Greek philosophers. And had captured the purpose for Euhemerism, which was to explain the mundane origins of the Hellenistic divinities. Euhemerism explained simply in two ways: first in the strictest sense as a movement which reflected the known views of Euhemerus' Hiera Anagraphe regarding Panchaia and the historicity of the family of Saturn and Uranus. The principal sources of these views are the handed-down accounts of Lactantius and Diodorus; or second, in the widest sense, as a rationalist movement which sought to explain the mundane origins of all the Hellenistic gods and heroes as mortals.{{citequote}}
</blockquote>

==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]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brouwers |first=Josho |date=2021-05-20 |title=Did Odin come from Troy? - The Anatolian origins of the Norse pantheon |url=https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/origins-norse-pantheon/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Ancient World Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rix |first=Robert |date=2010 |title=Oriental Odin: Tracing the east in northern culture and literature |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2009.10.006 |journal=History of European Ideas |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=47–60|doi=10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2009.10.006 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

As Odin travels north to settle in the [[Nordic countries]], he establishes the royal families ruling in [[Denmark]], [[Sweden]] and [[Norway]] at the time:

{{Blockquote|And whatever countries they passed through, great glory was spoken of them, so that they seemed more like gods than men.<ref>Snorri Sturluson, trans. Anthony Faulkes, ''Edda''. Everyman. 1987. (Prologue, p. 4)</ref>}}

Snorri's euhemerism follows the early Christian tradition.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

==In the modern world==
Euhemeristic interpretations of mythology continued throughout the [[early modern period]] from the 16th century,<ref>For example, in the preface to [[Arthur Golding]]'s 1567 translation of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' into English, Golding offers a rationale for contemporary Christian readers to interpret Ovid's pagan stories. He argues: "The true and everliving God the [[Paynim]]s did not know: Which caused them the name of Gods on creatures to bestow".</ref> to modern times. In 1711, the French historian [[Antoine Banier]] in his {{Lang|fr|Mythologie et la fable expliqués par l'histoire}} ("The Mythology and Fables of the Ancients, Explained") presented strong arguments for a euhemerist interpretation of Greek mythology.<ref>''The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680–1860'', Burton Feldman, Robert D. Richardson, Indiana University Press, 2000, p. 86.</ref> [[Jacob Bryant]]'s ''A New System or Analysis of Ancient Mythology'' (1744) was also another key work on euhemerism of the period, but argued so from a Biblical basis. Of the early 19th century, [[George Stanley Faber]] was another Biblical euhemerist. His work ''The Origin of Pagan Idolatry'' (1816) proposed that all the pagan nations worshipped the same gods, who were all deified men. Outside of Biblical influenced literature, some archaeologists embraced euhemerist views since they discovered myths could verify archaeological findings. [[Heinrich Schliemann]] was a prominent archaeologist of the 19th century who argued myths had historical truths embedded in them. Schliemann was an advocate of the historical reality of places and characters mentioned in the works of [[Homer]]. He excavated [[Troy]] and claimed to have discovered artifacts associated with various figures from Greek mythology, including the [[Mask of Agamemnon]] and [[Priam's Treasure]].

[[File:Sleeping Lady Hypogeum Hal Saflieni.jpg|thumb|Sleeping Lady (from the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni, Malta) as [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]]]]
[[Herbert Spencer]] embraced some euhemeristic arguments in attempt to explain the [[anthropocentrism|anthropocentric]] origin of religion, through [[Veneration of the dead|ancestor worship]]. Rationalizing methods of interpretation that treat some myths as traditional accounts based upon historical events are a continuous feature of some modern readings of mythology.

The twentieth century poet and mythographer [[Robert Graves]] offered many such "euhemerist" interpretations in his telling of ''[[The White Goddess]]'' (1948) and ''[[The Greek Myths]]'' (1955). His suggestions that such myths record and justify the political and religious overthrow of earlier cult systems have been widely criticized and are rejected by most scholars.<ref>{{multiref|{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Juliette |author-link=Juliette Wood |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IoW9yhkrFJoC&pg=PA10 |title=The Concept of the Goddess |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=9780415197892 |editor1=Sandra Billington |editor1-link=Sandra Billington |editor2=Miranda Green |editor2-link=Miranda Aldhouse-Green |page=12 |chapter=Chapter 1: The Concept of the Goddess |access-date=2008-12-23}}|{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNpVJQAACAAJ |title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |year=1993 |isbn=9780631189466 |page=320}}|''The Paganism Reader''. p. 128.|{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNpVJQAACAAJ |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=1993|page=145|isbn=9780631189466}}|Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1998). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9IAyyYi0OC4C&pg=PA11 Roles of the Northern Goddess]''.{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} p. 11. [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|0-415-13611-3}}|Lewis, James R. ''Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft''. p. 172.|G. S. Kirk, ''Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures'', Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 5. {{ISBN|0-520-02389-7}}|Richard G. A. Buxton, ''Imaginary Greece: The Contexts of Mythology'', Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 5. {{ISBN|0-521-33865-4}}|[[Mary Lefkowitz]], ''Greek Gods, Human Lives''|Kevin Herbert, "Review of ''The Greek Myths''", ''The Classical Journal'', Vol. 51, No. 4. (January 1956), pp. 191–192.}}</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=April 2024}}

===Euhemerization===
Author [[Richard Carrier]] defines "euhemerization" as "the taking of a cosmic god and placing him at a definite point in history as an actual person who was later deified".

{{Blockquote|Euhemerus ... depicted an imaginary scholar discovering that Zeus and Uranus were once actual kings. In the process Euhemerus invents a history for these 'god kings', even though we know there is no plausible case to be made that either Zeus or Uranus was ever a real person.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carrier |first1=Richard |title=On the Historicity of Jesus |date=2014 |publisher=Sheffield Phoenix Press |isbn=9781909697355 |page=222}}</ref>}}

In this framing, rather than being ''presumed'' to have originated from real historical events or personages, the mythological accounts are ''claimed'' to have had such origins, and historical accounts invented accordingly – such that, counter to the usual sense of "Euhemerism", in "euhemerization" a mythological figure is in fact transformed into a (pseudo)historical one.

==See also==
* [[Demythologization]]
* [[Geomythology]]
* [[Legendary progenitor]]
* [[Transmission chain method]]
*{{anli|Shaggy God story}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Theism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Greek mythology studies]]
[[Category:Mythology]]
[[Category:Philosophy of history]]
[[Category:Religious studies]]
[[Category:Historicity of religious figures]]
[[Category:Theories in ancient Greek philosophy]]