Xenophanes
Xenophanes
Xenophanes of Colophon was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and social and religious critic. Xenophanes lived a life of travel, having left Ionia at the age of 25 and continuing to travel throughout the Greek world for another 67 years. Some scholars say he lived in exile in Sicily. Knowledge of his views comes from fragments of his poetry, surviving as quotations by later Greek writers. To judge from these, his elegiac and iambic poetry criticized and satirized a wide...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
bodies cattle draw forms gods horses men produce shape works
If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands, or were able to draw with their feet and produce the works which men do, horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make the gods' bodies the same shape as their own.
bodies cattle draw forms gods horses lions men work
But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the work that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves.
gods men
Men create the gods in their own image.
horses men strength wisdom
Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.
among god gods men mortals neither nor supreme
There is one God - supreme among gods and men - who is like mortals in neither body nor mind.
horse looks ifs
If horses had Gods, they would look like horses.
god effort mind
But without effort [God] sets in motion all things by mind and thought.
judging
It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.
science water matter
All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.
science water matter
For we are all sprung from earth and water
horse believe men
There is one god, greatest among gods and men, who bears no similarity to humans either in shape or thought... but humans believe that the gods are born like themselves, and that the gods wear clothes and have bodies like humans and speak in the same way... but if cows and horses or lions had hands or could draw with the hands and manufacture the things humans can make, then horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, cows like cows, and they would make the gods' bodies resemble those which each kind of animal had itself.
men thinking honey
If God had not made brown honey, men would think figs much sweeter than they do.
horse hands lions
If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands...
men knows pure
Pure truth no man has seen, nor ever shall know.