USENER, HERMANN. - Protestant, classical philologist, and historian of religions, born at Weilburg on 23 Oct. 1834, died at Bonn on 21 Oct. 1905.
He taught at the Universities of Bern, Greifswald, and finally Bonn from 1866 to 1902. As a classical philologist, he edited, together with Rademacher, the rhetorical works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1899, 1904); he also dealt with philosophy (Epicurea, 1887) and Greek metrics (Altgriechischer Versbau, 1887). As a historian of religions, he worked on classical religion and Christianity (Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, I. Das Weihnachtsfest, Bonn 1889, 2nd ed., 1911; II. Christlicher Festbrauch, 1889; 1911; Die Sintfluthsagen, 1886). 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, 1912. His minor writings on religion (Kleine Schriften) were published in 4 vols. at Leipzig (1912-14), edited by R. Wünsch.
Usener was a follower of the philological-historical method, while also taking into account the contribution of ethnology; this is especially evident in the work Götternamen, with which he aimed to establish a scientific mythology by combining philology and anthropology. Based on an examination of primitive divine conceptions in Lithuanian mythology and the Indigitamenta of the Latins, he constructed a threefold hierarchy of divine beings, ranging from the simplest, corresponding to the momentary impression their action made on the primitive mind (Augenblickgötter = 'momentary gods'), through a middle category comprising all primitive deities of the same type (Sondergötter = 'category gods') found in various religions, up to 'personal gods' (Persönliche Götter), who are ultimately category gods that, especially for linguistic reasons, had assumed a personal identity and name. Thus, for example, Apollo, who was originally a Sondergott as the sun in its role of 'averter of evils' (apo-pello), becomes from apopellon Apollo, a personal god rich in prerogatives. This schema recalls that of the anthropological school, which in turn, though without the aid of linguistics, harks back to that of Auguste Comte’s positive philosophy.