ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a twofold approach to what has become a theory with a name, viz. euhemerism: a microscopic and a macroscopic study of Euhemerus’s theory, which will perhaps allow us to address this multi-layered process of both tradition and reception that accompanies the euhemeristic theory. In the case of euhemerism, tradition refers to the very influence of the theory, whereas reception concentrates on the ‘different meanings, functions, and forces’ this ancient theory ‘acquires at the moment of reception’. Numerous examples could be cited in which euhemerism is described as nothing more than the unveiling of a fallacy about the gods, which in turn makes euhemerism synonymous with, or a subcategory of, atheism. Most scholars draw from the primarily Christian 'collective library' of euhemerism when referring to or applying Euhemerus’s theory – a library that also includes figures such as Prodicus or the (in)famous Sisyphus fragment.
