Note 2 — The History of the Dolphin

Euhemerus (circa second half of the fourth century B.C.) attempted a rationalistic explanation of the mythology prevailing in his time. The theory he propounded, in his novel of travel, Sacred History, was simply an extension of the current skeptical-scientific attitude to matters which until that time had been accepted without question. That theory was that the gods were merely men who because of their great exploits or beneficence had been accorded divine honors. In Crete, coming upon the remains of a tomb bearing the name of Zeus, Euhemerus argued that even Zeus had probably been no more than a great conqueror, who died and was buried in Crete, and afterwards deified. This creditable anthropological attempt to historicize mythology, though it failed to convince, is nevertheless worthy of great respect. As A. B. Cook wrote, if Euhemerus said that Zeus was a Cretan king when he ought to have said that Cretan kings played the part of Zeus, it is a pardonable error. (Zeus, I, 662.)