Hiszpański biskup Izydor z Sewilli i jego Etymologie o mitologii antycznej Grecji i Rzymu

Abstract

Saint Isidore of Seville, the Spanish bishop and the Doctor of the Church was one of the most productive writers. Etymologiarum libri XX is the most important and the best known work written by him. In this monumental encyclopaedia he includes information from all the fields of science, humanities and culture, passing the knowledge coming from the antiquity and giving it to the people of the Middle Ages. The author of the article tries to explain, in what way the most read encyclopaedia of the Early Middle Ages presents the issue of gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Isidore mentions the most important pagan gods and mythical monsters in his work. He does not reject ancient mythology but he treats it only as stories, fairy tales describing unreal non-existent things that are the work of literary fantasy.