Euhemerics in early Ptolemaic Alexandria

Abstract

The article presents a new original view on the circumstances and features of the origin of euhemerism in all its genre diversity - from mythographic utopias, chorographies and mirabilia to pseudoperiples and paradoxography. An in-depth analysis of the sources that have come down to us gives grounds to assume with a fairly high degree of probability early Ptolemaic Alexandria as its main launch pad and epicenter and to link it with the activities of Demetrius Phalereus, the founder of the famous in antiquity Mouseion and the Library.