Never thought at the time (1991-1995) that these would still be here.
d...@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (dolan andrew patrick) writes:
>I have heard a bit about Euhemerism, the basic premise of which is that the
>myths are just distorted recollections of actual historical persons whose deeds
>have acquired a supernatural aura with the [passage of thousands of years.
>I would be interested in learning bout any books or poapers that write about
>the Greek Gods and Goddesses (as well as the perasonailities of other
>mythologies) from the point of view of history, as well as any estimates
>of the age that the historical personages may have lived in - i.e. - what
>point in time. Were the tales of the \Gods just propaganda created to
>keep the masses pacified by telling them that their royal family was
>of supoernatural origin? I understand that someone called Banier wrote about
>this but have not come across any of his writings.
Certainly the historical reality of treating natural rulers as divine is
well established. In addition to the divine right of kings and the living
god emperors, you also had Alexander the Great inserting images of himself
into the local temples of newly conquered regions. A number of classical
writers either explicitly, or more often, implicitly treated the gods as
historical figures of old whose stories were magnified by time and their
propaganda. In _Sacred History_ this premise appears quite clearly. Many
later writers treated other relgions and myths in the same way, see for
example Bocaccio's _Geneology of the Gentile Gods_. Someone did this sort
of analysis of the Judeo-Christian thing - historical figures whose actions
were given religious significance only after many years had passed. Banier?
The name rings a bell, but I'd have to check back on my lit theory notes
to find anything of substance.
Mike DuVernois
Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, University of Chicago
NB: I have long since forgotten what I once knew about Sacred History alas.
Posted by duver001 at July 8, 2005 8:10 PM | TrackBack