Usener, Hermann

USENER, HERMANN. - Protestant, classical philologist and historian of religions, b. at Weilburg on 23 Oct. 1834, d. at Bonn on 21 Oct. 1905.

He taught at the Universities of Bern, Greifswald and finally at Bonn from 1866 to 1902. As a classical philologist he edited, together with Rademacher, the edition of the rhetorical works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1899, 1904); he dealt with philosophy (Epicurea, 1887) and with Greek metrics (Altgriechischer Versbau, 1887). As a historian of religions he dealt with classical religion and with Christianity (Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, I. Das Weihnachtsfest, Bonn 1889, 2nd ed., 1911; II. Christlicher Festbrauch, ibid. 1889; III. Die Sintfluthsagen, ibid. 1896). His most important work in the field of mythology and the history of religions is: Götternamen, Versuch einer Lehre von der religiösen Begriffsbildung, Bonn 1896; 2nd ed. edited by E. Norden, ibid. 1929. His minor writings on religion (Kleine Schriften) were published in 4 vols. at Leipzig (1912-14), edited by R. Wünsch.

U. is a follower of the philological-historical method while nevertheless taking into account the contribution of ethnology, and this is seen especially in the work Götternamen, with which he intends to constitute a scientific mythology by combining philology and anthropology. On the basis of the examination of the primitive divine conceptions of the mythology of the Lithuanians and of the Latin Indigitamenta he constructs a threefold hierarchy of divine beings which, from the simplest, corresponding to the momentary impression that their action makes on primitive man (Augenblicksgötter = "momentary gods"), proceeds, through an intermediate category in which are grouped all the primitive divinities of the same type (Sondergötter = "category gods") found in the various religions, up to the "personal gods" (Persönliche Götter), who are, at bottom, the category gods that, especially for linguistic reasons, have assumed a personal physiognomy and name. Thus, for example, Apollo, who at first was a Sondergott insofar as he was the sun in its prerogative of "averter of evils" (apo-pello), becomes, from apo-pello, Apollo, a personal god rich in prerogatives. This scheme recalls that of the anthropological school, which in turn harks back, though without the aid of linguistics, to that of the positive philosophy of A. Comte.

Nicola Turch