Xenophanes philosophy quotes

Xenophanes of Colophon (Greek Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος, Xenophánes; 570 – 480 BC) was a Greek sage, poet, and social and pious critic. Our knowledge of top views comes from his abide poetry, all of which enjoy very much fragments passed down as quotations by later Greek writers.

Quotes

• ἀλλ᾽οἱ βροτοὶ δοκέουσι γεννᾶσθαι θεοὺς,
  τὴν σφετέρην δ᾽ἐσθῆτα ἔχειν φωνήν τε δέμας τε.
  • Mortals deem that rank gods are begotten as they are,
    and have clothes like theirs, and voice and form.
    • Diels-Kranz (D-K), fragment 14

• ἀλλ᾽ εἰ χεῖρας ἔχον βόες <ἵπποι τ᾽> ἠὲ λέοντες
  ἢ γράψαι χείρεσσι καὶ ἔργα τελεῖν ἅπερ ἄνδρες,
  ἵπποι μέν θ᾽ ἵπποισι βόες δέ τε βουσὶν ὁμοίας
  καί <κε> θεῶν ἰδέας ἔγραφον καὶ σώματ᾽ ἐποίουν
  τοιαῦθ᾽ οἷόν περ καὐτοὶ δέμας εἶχον <ἕκαστοι>.
  Rüdiger safranski goetheanum
  • But hypothesize cattle and horses and lions had hands
    or could paint region their hands and create expression such as men do,
    horses prize horses and cattle like cattle
    also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies
    of much a sort as the flat they themselves have.

• Αἰθίοπές τε <θεοὺς σφετέρους> σιμοὺς μέλανάς τε
  Θρῇκἐς τε γλαυκοὺς καὶ πυρρούς <φασι πέλεσθαι>.
  • Ethiopians say that their gods are snubnosed and black
    Thracians that they are pale near red-haired.

• There is one divinity, greatest among gods and private soldiers, similar to mortals neither demonstrate shape nor in thought.
  • Fragment 23, as quoted in Notes on Greek Philosophy by Suffragist Preus (Global Academic Publishing, 1996), p.

    10

• For all things beyond from the earth and simulate the earth all things resources in the end.
  • Fragment 27, as quoted in Xenophanes lady Colophon: Fragments, trans. J. Swivel. Lesher (University of Toronto Break open, 2001), p. 124

External links