Euhemerism is defined as the theory of the Greek writer Euhemerus that the Greek gods were created from real stories about humans and historical events. The theory holds that these Greek Gods were kings, queens, and rulers who lived in the past. However, one would naturally expect that if the theory of Euhemerus were true, that the stories of the Greek Gods would be about specifically Greek kings and rulers, not the kings and rulers of another civilization. But Ignatius Donnelly, in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, not only claimed that the Greek Gods were ancient kings of Greece, as Euhemerists believe, but that the Greek Gods were the kings of Atlantis. Regardless of whether this claim is true, it is a critically important one. The implications of Euheremerism being true are vast as it relates to the study of Atlantis. For if it is true, it would mean the entire body of Greek mythology, which is chiefly concerned with the Greek Gods and their interactions with each other and with humans, is a historical record of events that took place in Atlantis. Atlantis would become central to Greek mythology rather than marginal as it today. It would mean that there isn't only one source for the Atlantis legend (Plato), as is commonly claimed by scholars, but hundreds of sources - essentially every Greek myth. It would mean that stories of Atlantis, far from being a civilization that Plato introduced to the Western world only as recently as the 5th century, have been told ever since the earliest days of Ancient Greece back to a time immemorial...that Atlantis is not just one of several stories in the Western mythological tradition but by far the single most important one.

• published: 09 Apr 2020
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