Post Mortem Makes a Difference: On a Redescription of Euhemerism and Its Place in the Study of Graeco-Roman Divine Kingship
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Abstract
Euhemerus of Messene is one of the most popular ancient theorists of religion. In his now lost work Sacred Inscription he formulated a theory of religion by arguing that the Olympian gods were nothing more than prominent kings that were deified due to their benefactions to mankind. On the other hand, true divinity was to be found in the natural phenomena. However, this theory – known as euhemerism – has been (ab)used in many ways due to the different interpretative agendas of various authors and critics. In this paper I argue that euhemerism needs a new interpretation, a redescription, based primarily on a rereading of the text. In addition, by showing the different usages of the text by Euhemerus’s contemporaries and the early Christian writers, I argue that the connection of his theory with the practice of deification of kings in the Graeco-Roman world should be dismissed and reexamined by taking into account contemporary responses to his work that show that his theory was not meant as a justification for the deification of the Graeco-Roman kings.
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2
Joyce Marcus, Mesoamerican Writing Systems. Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992), 261 (emphasis added).
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4
Jonathan Z. Smith, Map is not Territory. Studies in the Histories of Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), xi.
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6
The most recent work is Sylvie Honigman, “Euhemerus of Messene and Plato’s Atlantis,” Historia 58, no. 1 (2009): 1–35.
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8
Luther H. Martin, “Redescribing Christian Origins: Historiography or Exegesis,” in Redescribing Christian Origins (ed. Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller; SBL Symposium Series 28; Leiden: Brill, 2004), 476.
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9
Richard S. Ascough, “Bringing Chaos to Order: Historical Memory and the Manipulation of History,” Religion & Theology 15 (2008): 296.
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10
Neville Morley, Theories, Models, and Concepts in Ancient History (London: Routledge, 2004), 3.
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13
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 6.1.4: “Now Euhemerus, who was a friend of King Cassander and was required by him to perform certain affairs of state and to make great journeys abroad.” It is certain that Euhemerus was also resident in Alexandria, Egypt, and probably for a long period (at least after Cassander’s death in 297 B.C.E.). See Peter M. Frazer, Ptolemaic Alexandria: vols. I–II (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972, vol. I), 289; 292–94.
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20
Joseph Fontenrose, The Ritual Theory of Myth (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971), 20–21 (emphasis in original).
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24
R. Malcolm Errington, A History of Macedonia (trans. Catherine Errington; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), 133.
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27
Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 17.118.2. Also see Adams, Cassander, Macedonia, and the Policy of Coalition, 323–301 B.C., 61. This anti-Alexandrian attitude of Cassander is also portrayed by Peter Green, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age. A Short History (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007), 40–41 and Robin L. Fox, Alexander the Great (London: Penguin, 2004), 469; 475.
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30
Helen S. Lund, Lysimachus. A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship (London: Routledge, 1992), 162. Also see Robert A. Hadley, “Royal Propaganda of Seleucus I and Lysimachus,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 94 (1974): 50–65.
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33
Plutarch, Demet. 10.3; also Versnel, Coping with the Gods, 451–52.
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40
See Minos Kokolakis, “Zeus’ Tomb. An Object of Pride and Reproach,” Kernos 8 (1995): 127.
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42
See Gregory O. Hutchinson, Hellenistic Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 38–39; Marco Fantuzzi and Richard Hunter, Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 42.
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43
On Arsinoe, see Fantuzzi and Hunter, Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry, 42; on the Hymn to Delos, see Koenen, “The Ptolemaic King as a Religious Figure,” 81–82.
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46
Niklas Holzberg, “Utopias and Fantastic Travel: Euhemerus, Iambulus,” in The Novel in the Ancient World (ed. Gareth Schmeling; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 625.
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47
Kenneth S. Sacks, Diodorus Siculus and the First Century (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990), 72; also 5; 73–74. Also see Kenneth S. Sacks, “Diodorus and his Sources: Conformity and Creativity,” in Greek Historiography (ed. Simon Hornblower; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 213–32.
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49
Bruce Lincoln, “Theses on Method,” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 8, no. 3 (1996): 225.
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51
See Albert I. Baumgarten, “Euhemerus’ Eternal Gods or How Not to Be Embarrassed by Greek Mythology,” in Classical Studies in Honor of David Sohlberg (ed. Ranon Katzoff, Yaakov Petroff and David Schaps; Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 91–103.
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52
Gerhard van den Heever, “Redescribing Graeco-Roman Antiquity: On Religion and History of Religion,” Religion & Theology 12, no. 3/4 (2005): 220.
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Post Mortem Makes a Difference: On a Redescription of Euhemerism and Its Place in the Study of Graeco-Roman Divine Kingship
In: Religion and TheologySearch for other papers by Nickolas P. Roubekas in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Euhemerus of Messene is one of the most popular ancient theorists of religion. In his now lost work Sacred Inscription he formulated a theory of religion by arguing that the Olympian gods were nothing more than prominent kings that were deified due to their benefactions to mankind. On the other hand, true divinity was to be found in the natural phenomena. However, this theory – known as euhemerism – has been (ab)used in many ways due to the different interpretative agendas of various authors and critics. In this paper I argue that euhemerism needs a new interpretation, a redescription, based primarily on a rereading of the text. In addition, by showing the different usages of the text by Euhemerus’s contemporaries and the early Christian writers, I argue that the connection of his theory with the practice of deification of kings in the Graeco-Roman world should be dismissed and reexamined by taking into account contemporary responses to his work that show that his theory was not meant as a justification for the deification of the Graeco-Roman kings.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 587 | 69 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 106 | 0 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 63 | 0 | 0 |
