What is Euhemerism?

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickolas Roubekas
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Travel Narrative ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Divine Kingship ◽  
The Way

The third century BCE Greek writer Euhemerus of Messene composed a utopian travel narrative entitled Sacred Inscription where he articulated a theory, known as euhemerism, regarding the origin of religion. The theory maintained that all Olympian gods were deified prominent kings and later scholars made use of it as a justification of divine kingship in the Graeco-Roman world. Euhemerism managed to survive in the early Christian era as a theory that represents the falsity of the gods of the pagans. From a theory of myth to a theory of religion and from a less important element of Euhemerus’ utopian narrative to mere historiography, euhemerism has managed to preserve itself in scholarly discussions without the existence of a comprehensive examination of the theory from a religious studies perspective and the way it was used in later periods. Based on the various and divergent usages and applications of euhemerism both in historical studies and in theoretical discussions on religion, the question remains: What is euhemerism?

Post Mortem Makes a Difference: On a Redescription of Euhemerism and Its Place in the Study of Graeco-Roman Divine Kingship

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 319-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nickolas P. Roubekas
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Lost Work ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Divine Kingship

Abstract 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 deified 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 different interpretative 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 different 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 deification 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 justification for the deification of the Graeco-Roman kings.

Early Christian Reception of the Prophets

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Heine
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Vision Of God ◽  
Hebrew Prophets ◽  
The Way

The Hebrew prophets were essential to the early Christian understanding of the identity of Jesus. This chapter first examines the use of the Hebrew prophets in the reading practices in the second-century worship assemblies of the Christians in relation to those of the early synagogue. This provides an understanding of an early Christian appropriation of the prophets that was not apologetic. It then turns to the third century to show the concern for unity between the Hebrew prophets and the Christian Gospel. Finally, it compares the way four major Christian exegetes of the third and fourth centuries, traditionally separated into the opposing hermeneutical camps of Alexandria and Antioch, interpreted Isaiah’s vision of God, to argue that differing theological positions had come to influence the interpretation of Scripture more than differing hermeneutical procedures.

Heresiology in the Third-Century Mishnah: Arguments for Rabbinic Legal Authority and the Complications of a Simple Concept

2015 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-529
Author(s):  
Naftali S. Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Legal Text ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Simple Concept

When members of the early rabbinic group created the Jewish legal text known as the Mishnah in the late second or early third century, the concept of heresy was relatively common in the wider cultural discourse of the Roman world. Christian apologists, among others, frequently employed the Greek termhairesis(“heresy”/“heretic,” originally meaning “school of thought”/“adherent”) as part of their larger projects of drawing boundaries, defining identities, and making an argument for the authority of their own ideas and practices.

Longinus, on Sublimity

2000 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 43-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Heath
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the treatise On sublimity was universally attributed to the third-century critic, rhetorician and philosopher Cassius Longinus. Weiske's edition, first issued in 1809, marked a turning-point in the trend of scholarly opinion, and Longinus' claim to authorship is now generally rejected, often summarily. A variety of alternative attributions have been canvassed; most commonly the work is assigned to an anonymous author of the first century A.D. But a minority of scholars have resisted the consensus and defended Longinus' claim to authorship. This paper will argue that they were right to do so.To avoid ambiguity, I shall follow Russell in using the symbol ‘L’ as a non-committal way of designating the author of On sublimity; by ‘Longinus’ I shall always mean Cassius Longinus. So the question before us is whether L is Longinus. I begin by explaining why manuscript evidence (§2) and stylistic comparison with the fragments of Longinus (§3) fail to resolve the question. I then try to find a place for the composition of the treatise within Longinus' career (§4). This leads to a consideration of the final chapter, widely regarded as inconsistent with a third-century date; I shall argue that there is no inconsistency (§5). If so, the way lies open to a reassessment of the case in favour of Longinus' claim.

Gendered Space

2021 ◽  
pp. 290-302
Author(s):  
Joan E. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Christian Women ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
House Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
Gendered Space ◽  
Eusebius Of Caesarea

This chapter considers the meeting place of the Therapeutae, described in Philo of Alexandria’s De Vita Contemplativa, as represented by Eusebius of Caesarea. Since Eusebius read Philo’s treatise as indicating an early Christian community, he sees a church here, with gendered space, affirming this is Christian practice. The ministries of Christian women overall then need then to be considered within a gendered construct of space and movement. While the appropriate ‘place’ for women in the earliest congregations depends on how meeting spaces are configured (for meals, charity, teaching, healing, and prayer), the recent work of Edward Adams has contested the ubiquitous house-church model and allowed for more cognitive templates for how gendered space was constructed. The third-century ‘Megiddo church’ seems to suggest a divided dining hall for women and men, in line with gendered dining as a Hellenistic norm, with centralized ritual space.

Roman Water-Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-194
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Water Power ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Grain Milling ◽  
Over Time

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence currently known for Roman water-mills, tracing the development and spread of water-powered grain milling over time across the Roman Empire. Problems of quantification and evidence bias, both documentary and archaeological, are addressed. In particular, it is argued that large discoidal millstones, formerly thought to derive either from animal-powered or water-powered mills, must come from water-mills, and that the idea of Roman animal-driven mills with discoidal millstones is a myth. This dramatically increases the amount of evidence available for water-powered grain milling, although very unevenly spread across the empire, and heavily dependent on the intensity of research in particular regions—good for Britain, parts of France, and Switzerland; poor everywhere else. The chapter also summarizes the state of knowledge on other applications of water-power—for ore-crushing machines at hard-rock gold and silver mines (by the first century AD), trip-hammers, tanning and fulling mills, and marble sawing (by the third century AD). The picture is fast-changing and the body of evidence continues to grow with new archaeological discoveries. The chapter ends with some thoughts about the place of water-power in the overall economy of the Roman world, and on the transmission of water-powered technologies between the Roman and medieval periods.

The Shepherd of Hermas

1925 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-280
Author(s):  
Kirsopp Lake
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Literature

There is no danger that anyone will overlook the importance of Mr. Bonner's article on the Michigan Papyrus of the Shepherd of Hermas in the number of this Review for April, 1925. The publication of a manuscript of the Shepherd of Hermas dating from the third century will be a real event in the history of the interpretation of early Christian literature. But there is one point in his statement which, though it will appeal at once to those who have worked on the Shepherd, is likely to escape the notice of others unless attention be drawn to it.

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