- euhemerism by Gianna Fox
Attempt to find a historical basis for mythical beings and events. It takes its name from Euhemerus (fl. 300 BC), a Greek scholar who examined popular mythology in his Sacred History and asserted that the gods originated as heroes or conquerors who were admired and later deified. Though modern scholars do not accept ...
- Euhemerus by Aniyah Wolfe
... which only fragments remain. Euhemerus' theory, called after him euhemerism, was that the gods originated from the elaboration of traditions of distinguished historical persons. His theory was consistent with the attempts of his period to explain religious beliefs in terms of naturalism.
- Atheism by Great Soviet Encyclopedia
... antiquity: Protagoras of Kos, Euhemerus of Crete, Protagoras of Abdera, Diagoras of Melos, and Theodorus of Cyrene). Xenophanes counterposed a single world deity to the anthropomorphism of the gods of Greek popular religion, which he criticized; he advanced the idea that it was precisely human beings who created gods after their own image and likeness. Various ...