Xenophanes
The gods of the poets are human inventions; there is one god unlike us, and human knowledge about such things is only opinion.
Placement
Wandering poet-philosopher who mocked the human-shaped gods of Homer and Hesiod and taught one god unlike mortals.
Key ideas
- Critique of anthropomorphic gods
- One unmoved god
- Human knowledge as opinion
Influence
Influenced by 1
Anaximander
influenced by disputed
Xenophanes’ view that earth was once mixed with sea, inferred from fossils, continues Milesian inquiry like Anaximander’s; whether he heard Anaximander is uncertain. Xenophanes, DK 21 A33 (Hippolytus, Refutatio I.14), B29, B33; Anaximander, DK 12 A27; SEP “Xenophanes”
Evidence: AI draft
Anaximander › c. 610–546 BCE
Influenced 1
Parmenides
influenced disputed ✓
Aristotle reports that Parmenides was said to be Xenophanes’ pupil (Metaphysics I.5, 986b22); a debt to Xenophanes’ unmoving god and his doubts about opinion is disputed. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.5, 986b21–25; Xenophanes, DK 21 B26, B34; Diogenes Laertius IX.21; SEP “Xenophanes”
Parmenides › c. 515–450 BCE
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Heraclitus
criticised by
Heraclitus named Xenophanes, with Hesiod, Pythagoras and Hecataeus, among those whose much learning had not taught them understanding (DK 22 B40). Heraclitus, DK 22 B40 (Diogenes Laertius 9.1)
Evidence: AI draft
Heraclitus › c. 535–475 BCE
Criticizes 1
Pythagoras
criticised
Xenophanes mocked Pythagoras’ doctrine of transmigration: he stops a man beating a puppy because he recognises a friend’s soul in its yelping (DK 21 B7). Xenophanes, DK 21 B7 (Diogenes Laertius 8.36); SEP “Xenophanes”
Evidence: AI draft
Pythagoras › traditionally c. 570–495 BCE
Position
Xenophanes attacked the gods of Homer and Hesiod, who steal, commit adultery and deceive one another. Humans make gods in their own image: Ethiopians picture them snub-nosed and dark, Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired – and if oxen and horses had hands, they would draw gods like oxen and horses. Against this he set one god, unlike mortals in body or thought, who without moving sets all things in motion by the power of his mind. Yet no one, he held, knows the plain truth here; opinion is our lot, though by searching we find better in time. Later tradition saw him as a forerunner of the Eleatics.
Life & context
Xenophanes was born around 570 BCE in Colophon, an Ionian city in Asia Minor. Probably after the Persian conquest of Ionia he left home and, by his own account, spent sixty-seven years wandering the Greek world as a poet reciting his own verses, above all in Sicily and southern Italy. He lived into his nineties. Only fragments of his poems survive.
Main works
- Satires (Silloi, fragments, late 6th century BCE)
- Elegies (fragments, late 6th century BCE)
Appears in
- Journey ‘From Mythos to Logos’ · Stop 3 of 8
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