|
Fragments
by Xenophanes
There is one god, supreme among gods and men;
resembling mortals neither in form nor in mind.
The whole of him sees, the whole of him thinks,
the whole of him hears.
Without toil he rules all things by the power of
his mind.
And he stays always in the same place, nor moves
at all, for it is not seemly that he wander about
now here, now there.
But mortals fancy gods are born, and wear
clothes, and have voice and form like
themselves.
Yet if oxen and lions had hands, and could paint
with their hands, and fashion images, as men do,
they would make the pictures and images of their
gods in their own likeness; horses would make them
like horses, oxen like oxen.
Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed;
Thracians give theirs blue eyes and red hair.
Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all
deeds that are a shame and a disgrace among men:
thieving, adultery, fraud.
The gods did not reveal all things to men at the
start; but, as time goes on, by searching, they
discover more and more.
There never was, nor ever will be, any man who
knows with certainty the things about the gods and
about all things which I tell of. For even if he
does happen to get most things right, still he
himself does not know it. But mere opinions all may
have.
Excerpted from Source Book in Ancient
Philosophy.
|