Abstract
Having analyzed the implications of using the term " religion ", the aim is to carry out the same type of exercise for the term " polytheism ". The various stages in the word's history are analyzed, from the unique use of polytheos in a tragedy by Aeschylus in the5th century B.C. to the current uses of the word " polytheism " in studies of ancient Greek religion, to emphasize the plurality of the Greeks' superhuman world. Between these two times, the analysis focuses on the use of polytheos/polytheia by Philo of Alexandria and the Church Fathers, then on the treatises of Guillaume Budé, who recovers these Greek words by transliterating them into Latin to designate ancient idolatry and paganism, while Jean Bodin coined the French term polythéisme to stigmatize Christian heresies. Secondly, there was a paradigm shift, as the word polytheism gradually replaced idolatry, thus mitigating the negative charge conveyed by this word inherited from the Greek translation of the Bible. Finally, the reflection on religion and religions carried out by the various human sciences that emerged in the 19th century introduced polytheism as one of the stages in the religious history of mankind, and defined it in contrast to other -ism systems, such as animism, totemism, fetishism, monotheism, etc., until the second half of the 20th century, until the second half of the 20th century, when the term became a tool in its own right - and not just by contrast - to designate religious systems that populate the superhuman sphere with a plurality of entities.
