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DOI: 10.18413/2408-932X-2025-11-1-0-4

Euhemerism and representations of ancient Celtic religion in the studies of the 18th century:
works by P.-Y. Pezron (1639
1706) and P. H. Mallet (17301807)
 

The article analyzes the problem of the reception of euhemerism as a historical, polemical and political tool in the 18th century, using the works by P.-Y. Pezron and P. H. Mallet as examples. They wrote about the religion of the ancient Celts, and their ideas about the morals, customs and beliefs of these peoples differed in many ways from modern ones. In the last decade, interest in the works by Mallet has increased in Russian historiography, but the works by Pezron have so far eluded the close attention of our researchers. The purpose of the article is to supplement the already known information about the works by Mallet, as well as to analyze the works by Pezron. In the article, the theories of both authors were placed in a broader context of the use of euhemerism by intellectuals of the 18th century. This made it possible to analyze them in a new way. Pezron created a speculative construction in which the history of the peoples contemporary to the author was intertwined with the Old Testament narrative and ancient Greek and Roman mythology. The tool that allowed these components to be linked together was euhemerism. With its help, Pezron constructed a theory according to which the Celts, in particular the Gauls, were the heirs of the people mentioned in the Scripture. Many European ethnic groups and nations, according to the French intellectual, originated from this people. Born in Brittany, Pezron wrote about modern Bretons as the heirs of Homer, mentioned in the Old Testament, and thereby putting a political subtext into his works. The works by Mallet, written in the middle of the18th century, balanced between old means of interpreting mythological plots, enlightenment ideas and historicism. The euhemeristic theory in his works was one of the most significant tools for interpreting the history and mythology of the ancient Scandinavians. They, according to Mallet's theory, belonged to the Celtic peoples, like the majority of the population of Europe.

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