Euhemerus and the Myth of Ancient Astronauts

Euhemerus was an ancient Greek mythographer who upended the idea of myth and religion with his ideas about the Gods.

His simple, elegant idea was that myths as we know them are true stories of actual people, changed and exaggerated over time.

The Gods, he said, such as Zeus and Apollo, were merely ancient kings, who were praised and admired by the people to the extent that they eventually became deified.

We call the process of demythologizing ancient myths euhemerism.

Though it is difficult to know how great an influence Euhemerus was in his own time, the arrival of Christianity brought his views into sharp focus. Early Christian apologists were keen to portray the pagan Gods as merely men who were overly venerated by the gullible and misguided. They used Euhemerus’ ideas as a wedge to drive their own agenda.

Which brings us of course to theories of ancient astronauts.

Many people have looked at ancient cultures and myths and wondered if the ancient Gods were actually extraterrestrials, their advanced science mistaken for magic and miracles. Erich von Däniken took this idea and ran with it with the publication of his book Chariots of the Gods? in 1968.  Though most people have regarded von Däniken’s claims as nonsensical and unsupported by science, the original idea seems to have been first suggested for serious consideration by Carl Sagan, who speculated on the possibility of human contact with ancient astronauts in 1966.

What is the appeal of Euhemerism?

Everyone engages in this kind of thought, even those who are very religious. A Christian will claim that Muhammad was a man, not a prophet, and a Muslim will counter that Jesus was a prophet, not a God, because all of us are skeptical of religions not our own. It seems as if the process by which myth is created entails the ongoing deconstruction of the same myth. No one, it seems, is overly worried about exploring the possibility that Zeus might have been an ordinary ancient king, or even an extraterrestrial, but many people will fight to the death to demand that their God is real.

We privilege our own myths over the myths of others.

We are quick to apply rational scrutiny to views that are not our own, and slow to apply them to ourselves. In his day Euhemerus was considered  by some to be an atheist, but that’s just a label. What he brought to the table was rational thinking, even as he toyed with concepts that were far from rational. In that sense, he’s the model for what this column has been all about.