Xenophanes was a poet and singer of epic verse who lived in various parts of the Greek world during the late sixth and early fifth centuries bce. A number of the surviving fragments of his poetry touch on the usual subjects of Greek sympotic verse: on proper conduct at symposia (21 B 1, 5, 22 DK [= Diels & Kranz 1951–2]), the measures of personal excellence (B 2, 3) and aspects of his life and interactions with various notable individuals (B 6–8, 10, 19–21, 45). But in seven other fragments (B 27–33) Xenophanes follows the lead of the Milesian philosopher-scientists in describing a number of natural phenomena as products of a set of basic physical substances and processes. And in a series of remarks concerning the stories about the gods told by Homer and Hesiod (B 11–12), the true nature of the divine (B 23–6), and the tendency of believers to conceive of the gods as like themselves (B 14–16), Xenophanes explored, so far as we know for the first time, questions central to the philosophy of religion.