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
eye light hair
The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.
art horse eye
If oxen and lions had hands and could paint with their hands and produce works of art, as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods likes horses and oxen like oxen. Each would represent them with bodies according to the bodies of each. So the Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians give theirs red hair and blue eyes.
horse eye men
The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. “If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and oxen would draw them to look like oxen, and each would make the gods' bodies have the same shape as they themselves had.
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.
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.
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.
The gods did not reveal, from the beginning, all things to us.
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