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Euhemerus’s theory is no doubt the last serious attempt in the old pagan world to give an explanation of the popular faith which may be called genuine atheism.
Ancient philosophy never got clear of this dilemma; hence Plato’s open recognition of the absurdity; hence Aristotle’s delight at being able to meet the popular faith half-way in his assumption of the divinity of the heavenly bodies; hence Xenocrates’s demons, the allegories of the Stoics, the ideal Epicureans of Epicurus, Euhemerus’s early benefactors of mankind.
Moreover, Euhemerus had had an immediate precursor in the slightly earlier Hecataeus of Abdera, who had set forth a similar theory, with the difference, however, that he took the view that all excellent men became real gods. But Euhemerus’s theory appeared just at the right moment and fell on fertile soil.
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