Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Homer
- Hesiod
- Archilochus
- Tyrtaeus
- Solon
- Theognis
- Hymn to Hephaestus
- Simonides
- Xenophanes
- Pindar
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Xenophanes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal dates
- Bibliographical note
- Glossary
- Table of equivalents
- Part I Early poetry
- Homer
- Hesiod
- Archilochus
- Tyrtaeus
- Solon
- Theognis
- Hymn to Hephaestus
- Simonides
- Xenophanes
- Pindar
- Part II Tragedy
- Part III History and folklore
- Part IV Philosophy and science
- Part V Sophists
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
Xenophanes of Colophon was a philosopher and poet of the late sixth and early fifth centuries. Although an Ionian by birth, he evidently lived as an exile in Sicily.
(DK 2, W2, lines 11–19)
… Better than the strength
of men or of horses is my sophia.
And though it is often foolishly believed to be so, it is not just
to prefer strength to good sophia.
For it is not having a good boxer among the people,
or a good pentathlete or wrestler,
or one who is swift of foot – which has the highest
honor in men's contests of strength – none
of these could give a city a good constitution (eunomia).
(DK 15)
But if cows and horses and lions had hands
and could draw with their hands and accomplish what men do,
horses would draw images of gods like horses,
and cows like cows, and each would make statues
of the gods like the bodies they have themselves.
(DK 16)
Ethiopeans make their gods black and snub-nosed,
Thracians make theirs blue-eyed and red-haired.
(DK 11)
Both Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the gods
everything that calls for blame and reproach among humans:
stealing, adultery, and deceiving one another.
(DK 34)
And no man has seen with certainty or will ever know
about the gods or any other thing of which I speak;
even if someone happened to speak with highest perfection,
he still would not know, but opinion is built into everything.
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- Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists , pp. 38 - 39Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995