Leon of Pella (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ) or Leo the Egyptian (4th century BC) was a historian, priest and theologian. He wrote the book ''On the Gods in Egypt ()'', based on an apocryphal letter of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

to his mother Olympias. He was a contemporary of Euhemerus and explained similarly the human origin of the gods. The early Christian writers, in their controversy with the heathens, refer not infrequently to a Leo or Leon as "having admitted that the deities of the ancient gentile world had been originally men, agreeing in this respect with Euhemerus, with whom he was contemporary, or perhaps rather earlier.

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North A ...

, who is most explicit in his notice of him, says he was an Egyptian priest of high rank, "magnus antistes", and expounded the popular mythology to Alexander the Great, in a manner which, though differing from those, rationalistic explanations received in Greece, accorded with them in making the gods (including even the ''dii majorum gentium'') to have been originally men. Augustine refers to an account of the statements of Leo contained in a letter of Alexander to his mother. It is to be observed, that although Leon was high in his priestly rank at the time when Alexander was in Egypt (b. c. 332–331), his name is Greek; and

Arnobius Arnobius (died c. 330) was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin during the reign of Diocletian (284–305). According to Jerome's ''Chronicle,'' Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Ven ...

(Adv. Gentes, iv. 29) calls him Leo Pellaeus, Leo of

Pella Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient cit ...

, an epithet which Fabricius does not satisfactorily explain. Euhemerus was also at the court of

Cassander Cassander ( el, Κάσσανδρος ; c. 355 BC – 297 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 305 BC until 297 BC, and ''de facto'' ruler of southern Greece from 317 BC until his death. A son of Antipater and a conte ...

, the king of Macedon.

References

Jahrbuch Des Deutschen Archaeologischen InstitutsDictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William SmithRoman and European Mythologies by Yves BonnefoyMyth and Poetry in Lucretius by Monica Gale
{{authority control Hellenistic-era historians Hellenistic philosophy and religion Ancient Pellaeans 4th-century BC Egyptian people Ancient Macedonian historians Ancient Macedonian priests Alexander the Great in legend 4th-century BC Greek people 4th-century BC historians Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources