Post Mortem Makes a Difference: On A Redescription of Euhemerism and its Place in the Study of Divine Kingship

Autor(en)

Nikolaos Roumpekas

Abstrakt

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 dei ied 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 di ferent inter- pretative 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 di ferent 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 dei ication 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 justi ication for the dei ication of the Graeco-Roman kings.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Religionswissenschaft

Journal

Religion and Theology : a journal of contemporary religious discourse

Band

19

Seiten

319-339

Anzahl der Seiten

21

ISSN

1023-0807

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1163/15743012-12341237

Publikationsdatum

2012

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

603909 Religionswissenschaft

Schlagwörter

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/post-mortem-makes-a-difference-on-a-redescription-of-euhemerism-and-its-place-in-the-study-of-divine-kingship(7c4e7ed6-3f19-477d-9e7b-6d0366d23cb0).html