Customer Reviews

Xenophanes of Colophon (Bibliographies of Writings by American and British Women to) (Vol 30)

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Living about a century before Herodotus, Xenophanes of Colophon (a now defunct Ionian city) said some pretty prescient stuff.

Among his gems are:

"But mortals suppose that gods are born

wear their own clothes and have a voice and body."

"Ehtiopians say that theirs gods are snub nosed and black;

Thracians that theirs are blue eyed and red haired."

And finally:

"But if horses or oxen or lions had hands

...

horses would draw the figures of gods as similar to horses,

and the oxen as similar to oxen..."

In each quotation Xenophanes said things that actually came to be confirmed by recent scientific studies on religious ideation performed by the likes of Pascal Boyer, Justin Barrett, Stuart Vyse and their ilk.

Unfortunately, like so many ancient writers (like notably Manetho the second century BCE priest of Thoth who wrote the Egyptian version of the biblical Exodus) we only know Xenophanes through his brief but insightful snippets in which he was quoted by other writers.

Perhaps fate may someday grant us a more complete copy of his writings but until then this slender volume does great justice to pull together what remains of this great pre Socratic thinker.