Expanding the scope of work by Warburg Institute scholars Fritz Saxl and Erwin Panofsky, Seznec presented a broad view of the transmission of classical representation in Western art.
[3] Thanks largely to Seznec,[citation needed] it is widely understood that the Olympian gods, and the earlier spirits of field and spring, did not die with the advent of Christianity, but lived on.
His work traces the process in which they were already transformed during late antiquity, whether embedded within history as transfigured former human beings in the Euhemerist view that was embraced by Christian apologists (interpretatio christiana), or given planetary roles as astral divinities in the worldview of astrology and magic or allegorized as moral emblems.
They surviving in pictorial and in literary traditions and among the common people went underground to feature in folk culture, took on strange new guises and were transformed in various ways, their myths recast to suit some of the mythic saints of late antiquity.
Godwin further explores Seznec's theme, how pagan deities captivated the European imagination during the Renaissance, taking their place side-by-side with Christian iconography and doctrines.