euhemerism means the belief that legends and mythology arise from exaggerated descriptions of historical people and events. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
euhemerism is pronounced /juˈhiməˌɹɪzəm/.
Why “euhemerism” is a great word
EUHEMERISM — [Noun] The theory that myths, especially of gods, originate from the deification or exaggerated glorification of actual historical persons and events. From the name Euhemerus (Latin Euhēmerus, from Ancient Greek Εὐήμερος (Euḗmeros), an ancient Sicilian Skeptic philosopher) + the suffix -ism, denoting a theory or system; first attested in English in 1846. Unlike allegory, which decodes myth as symbolic ideas, or mythic literalism, which accepts it as supernatural truth, euhemerism is a rationalizing reduction, translating the divine into the biographical. It is the stubborn conviction that every thunder god was once a charismatic chieftain, every goddess of wisdom a shrewd matriarch, and every Olympus merely a hill where someone extraordinary died—a sobering archaeology that finds a human skeleton inside every divine suit of armor.
noun
- The belief that legends and mythology arise from exaggerated descriptions of historical people and events.“In regard to the Thracian god Zalmosis, the Hellespontic Greeks interpreted his character and attributes according to the scheme of Euemerism.”