English

Alternative forms

• Euhemerus

Proper noun

Euhemeros

1. A Greek mythologist who suggested that the gods were based on heroes who, after their deaths, lived on in the minds of people.
   • 1871, The Christian Observer, Volume 71, page 129,

     Are we, with the Greek Euhemeros, to find it in certain human beings of bygone days who were wiser and stronger than their contemporaries, and on this account, and in consequence of the benefits which they conferred upon the race, were exalted into the position of gods, and woshipped as such by succeeding generations?

   • 1956, FitzRoy Richard Somerset, The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama, page 70,

     Whereas Euhemeros was content to claim that the gods had once been great men, it now seems to be generally held that such a thing as a purely mythical character has never existed.

   • 1966, Joseph Fontenrose, The Ritual Theory of Myth, 1971, page 21,

     He has fallen into a common misconception of Euhemerism; for Euhemeros did not say that the first gods were dead kings: he said that they were living kings.

   • 1985, Marie-Louise von Franz, Open Court Publishing (translator), Reflections of the Soul: Projection and Re-collection in Jungian Psychology, page 113,

     The Church Father Athenagoras, in the manner of Euhemeros, conceives many demons as the postmortal souls of important deceased men, like heroes and kings.

Derived terms

• euhemerism
• euhemerization
• euhemerize