“He was translated”: Euhemerism in Steinbeck’s Work and Worldview

This article will explore Steinbeck’s idea that the gods and heroes of human history developed from the lives and exploits of real people through veneration and the exaggeration and embellishment of storytellers in specific cultural contexts. The idea appears in Steinbeck’s works from as early as Tortilla Flat and clearly still informs his worldview in the Vietnam War dispatches that are his last published works. The concept was first suggested by the ancient Greek philosopher Euhemerus.