Euhemerism
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 5 anchored passages
euhemerism · deification of dead men · the gods were once men · theory that famous men became gods
in the texts
On the Nature of the Gods
The theory that the gods worshipped by humans were originally mortal men who became divine through fame or power after death.
And those who hand down that brave, or famous, or powerful men have after death come to be gods, and that these are the very ones whom we are wont to worship, pray to, and revere — are they not devoid of all religion?
Protrepticus
The recurring claim, central to Clement's polemic, that the pagan gods were originally mortal men and women who died and were later deified.
Zeus himself partook of a human table among the Ethiopians, and of an inhuman and lawless one, feasted by Lycaon the Arcadian;
As for the Muses, whom Alcman traces to Zeus and Mnemosyne, and whom the rest of the poets and prose-writers deify and reverence — so that whole cities consecrate temples to them as Muses — these were Mysian handmaids, bought by Megaclo, the daughter of Macar.
" You have also a physician, not a smith only, among the gods;
Apologeticum
The doctrine that the pagan gods were originally mortal men later deified, and that this deification was unjustified.
But if there were no one to make gods, you presume in vain that gods were made, taking away the maker.
But, just as you cannot deny that they were men, so these further marks accrue, which do not allow it to be believed that they were afterward made gods.
And since, as you do not dare to deny that they were men, so you have established the practice of asserting that they were made gods after death, let us examine the causes that demanded this.