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EUHEMERUS [EUEMERUS, EVEMERUS]

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 887 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EUHEMERUS [EUEMERUS, EVEMERUS] , See also:Greek mythographer, See also:born at Messana, in See also:Sicily (others say at See also:Chios, See also:Tegea, or See also:Messene in Peloponnese), flourished about 300 B.c., and lived at the See also:court of See also:Cassander. He is chiefly known by his Sacred See also:History (`lepd (1tvaypadn'i), a philosophical See also:romance, based upon archaic See also:inscriptions which he claimed to have found during his travels in various parts of See also:Greece. He particularly relies upon an See also:account of See also:early history which he discovered on a See also:golden See also:pillar in a See also:temple on the See also:island of Panchaea when on a voyage See also:round the See also:coast of See also:Arabia, undertaken at the See also:request of Cassander, his friend and See also:patron. There is apparently no doubt that this island is CH1CH:See also:CH2 CII:CH•CHs See also:Eugenol. Iso.eugenol Vanillin OCH3 I JOH CI;.CH : CHI Chavibetol imaginary. In this See also:work he for the first See also:time systematized an old See also:Oriental (perhaps Phoenician) method of interpreting the popular myths, asserting that the gods who formed the See also:chief See also:objects of popular See also:worship had been originally heroes and conquerors, who had thus earned a claim to the veneration of their subjects. This See also:system spread widely, and the early Christians especially appealed to it as a See also:confirmation of their belief that See also:ancient See also:mythology was merely an aggregate of fables of human invention. Euhemerus was a See also:firm upholder of the Cyrenaic See also:philosophy, and by many ancient writers he was regarded as an atheist. His work was translated by See also:Ennius into Latin, but the work itself is lost, and of the See also:translation only a few fragments, and these very See also:short, have come down to us. This rationalizing method of See also:interpretation is known as Euhemerism. There is no doubt that it contains an See also:element of truth; as among the See also:Romans the See also:gradual deification of ancestors and the See also:apotheosis of emperors were prominent features of religious development, so among See also:primitive peoples it is possible to trace the See also:evolution of See also:family and tribal gods from See also:great chiefs and warriors. All theories of See also:religion which give prominence to ancestor worship and the cult of the dead are to a certain extent Euhemeristic.

But as the See also:

sole explanation of the origin of the See also:idea of gods it is not accepted by students of See also:comparative religion. It had, however, considerable See also:vogue in See also:France. In the 18th See also:century the See also:abbe Banier, in his Mythologie et la See also:fable expliquees See also:par l'histoire, was frankly Euhemeristic; other leading Euhemerists were Clavier, Sainte-Croix, Raoul Rochette, Em. See also:Hoffmann and to a great extent See also:Herbert See also:Spencer. See See also:Raymond de See also:Block, Evhemere, son livre et sa See also:doctrine (See also:Mons, 1876) ; G. N. Nemethy, Euhemeri relliquiae (See also:Budapest, 1889) ; Ganss, Quaestiones Euhemereae (See also:Kempen, 186o) ; See also:Otto Sieroka, De Euhemero (1869); Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, vol. i. (See also:Leipzig, 1891) ; and See also:works on comparative religion and mythology.

End of Article: EUHEMERUS [EUEMERUS, EVEMERUS]

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EUGENOL (allyl guaiacol, eugenic acid), C10H1202 		[next]
EULENSPIEGEL [ULENSPIEGEL], TILL

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