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Abstract
Euhemerism and Its Uses offers the first interdisciplinary, focussed, and all-round view of the long history of an important but understudied phenomenon in European intellectual and cultural history. Euhemerism - the claim that the Greek gods were historically mortal men and women - originated in the early third century BCE, in an enigmatic and now fragmentary text by the otherwise unknown author Euhemeros. This work, the Sacred Inscription, has been read variously as a theory of religion, an atheist’s manifesto, as justifying or satirizing ruler-worship, as a fantasy travel-narrative, and as an early ‘utopia’. Influencing Hellenistic and Roman literature and religious and political thought, and appropriated by early Christians to debunk polytheism while simultaneously justifying the continued study of classical literature, euhemerism was widespread in the middle ages and Renaissance, and its reverberations continue to be felt in modern myth-theory. Yet, though frequently invoked as a powerful and pervasive tradition across several disciplines, it is still under-examined and poorly understood. Filling an important gap in the history of ideas, this volume will appeal to scholars and students of classical reception, mediaeval and Renaissance literature, historiography, and theories of myth and religion.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Number of pages | 346 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781000356588, 9781003094760 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780367556990 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 18 Mar 2021 |
Publication series
Name | Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge |
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Keywords
- Humanities
- Language & Literature
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Dive into the research topics of 'Euhemerism and its Uses: The Mortal Gods'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Activities
- 1 Attending/organising a Conference
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The Uses of Euhemerism
Syrithe Pugh (Organiser)
17 Jul 2017 → 18 Jul 2017Activity: Attending or organising an event › Attending/organising a Conference