Atheism in Pagan Antiquity Part 6

P. 21. For Xenophanes's theology, comp. Freudenthal, _Arch. f. Gesch. d.

Philos._ i. p. 322, and Zeller's criticism, _ibid._ p. 524. Agreeing with Freudenthal: Decharme, p. 46; Campbell, _Religion in Greek Literature_, p.

293.

P. 21. Parmenides does not even appear to have designated his "Being" as G.o.d (Zeller, i. p. 563).

P. 23. In the eighteenth century people discussed diffusely the question whether Thales was an atheist (of course in the sense in which the word was taken at that time); comp. Tennemann, _Gesch. d. Philos._ i. pp. 62 and 422. Tennemann remarks quite truly that the question is put wrongly.

P. 24. Thales: Diels, _Vorsokr._ 1, A 22-23.-Att.i.tude of Democritus towards popular belief: _Vorsokr._ 55, A 74-79; comp. 116, 117; B 166, and also B 30. Diels, _Ueber den Damonenglauben des D._ (_Arch. f. Gesch. d.

Philos._ 1894, p. 154).

P. 25. Trial of Anaxagoras: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 1, 17, 18, 19.

P. 26. Ram's head: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 16.

P. 27. Geffcken (in _Hermes_, 42, p. 127) has tried to make out something about a criticism of popular belief by Anaxagoras from some pa.s.sages in Aristophanes (_Nub._ 398) and Lucian (_Tim._ 10, etc.), but I do not think he has succeeded.-Pericles a free-thinker: Plut. _Pericl._ 6 and 38; comp.

Decharme, p. 160.-Personality of Anaxagoras: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 30 (Aristotle, _Eud. Ethics_, A 4, p. 1215_b_, 6).

P. 28. Herodotus: 8, 77.-Sophocles: _Oed. rex._ 498, 863.-Diopeithes: Plut. _Pericl._ 32 (_Vorsokr._ 46, A 17).-Thucydides: Cla.s.sen in the preface to his 3rd ed., p. lvii.

P. 29. Thucydides, a disciple of Anaxagoras: Marcellinus, _vit. Thuc._ 22.-Generally Thucydides is thought to have been more conservative in his religious opinions than I consider probable; see Cla.s.sen, _loc. cit._; Decharme, p. 83; Gertz in his preface to the Danish translation of Thucydides, p. xxvii.-Hippo: _Vorsokr._ 26, A 4, 6, 8, 9; B 2, 3.

P. 30. Aristotle: _Vorsokr._ 26, A 7.-Diogenes an atheist: Aelian, _v.h._ 2, 31.-The air his G.o.d: _Vorsokr._ 51, A 8 (he thought that Homer identified Zeus with the air, and approved of this as ?? ??????, ????

?????? e???e???); B 5, 7, 8.-Allusions to his doctrines by Aristophanes: _Nub._ 225, 828 (_Vorsokr._ 51, C 1, 2).

P. 31. A chief representative of the navely critical view of natural phenomena is for us Herodotus. The _locus cla.s.sicus_ is vii. 129; comp.

Gomperz, _Griech. Denker_, i. p. 208; Heiberg, _Festskrift til Ussing_ (Copenhagen, 1900), p. 91; Decharme, p. 69.-Princ.i.p.al pa.s.sages about Diagoras: s.e.xt. Emp. _adv. math._ 9, 53; Suidas, art. _Diagoras II._; schol. Aristoph. _Nub._ 830 (the legend); Suidas, art. _Diagoras I._; Aristoph. _Av._ 1071 with schol.; schol. Aristoph. _Ran._ 320; [Lysias]

vi. 17; Diod. xiii. 16 (the decree); Philodem. _de piet._ p. 89 Gomp.

(comments of Aristoxenus); Aelian, _v.h._ ii. 22 (legislation at Mantinea).-Wilamowitz (_Textgesch. d. Lyr._ p. 80) has tried to save the tradition by supposing that the _acme_ of Diagoras has been put too early.

Comp. also his remarks, _Griech. Verskunst._ p. 426, where he has taken up the question again with reference to my treatment of it. As he has now conceded the possibility of referring the legislation to the earlier date, the difference between us is really very slight, and it is of course possible, perhaps even probable, that the acme of the poet has been antedated.-Aristoph. _Av._ 1071: "On this very day it is made public, that if one of you kills Diagoras from Melos, he shall have a talent, and if one kills one of the dead tyrants, he shall have a talent." The parallel between the two decrees, of which the latter is of course an invention of Aristophanes, would be without point if the decree against Diagoras was not as futile as the decree against the tyrants (_i.e._ the sons of Peisistratus, who had been dead some three-quarters of a century), that is, if it did not come many years too late.-Wilamowitz (_Griech.

Verskunst, loc. cit._) takes the sense to be: "You will not get hold of Diagoras any more than you did of the tyrants." But this, besides being somewhat pointless, does not agree so well as my explanation with the introductory words: "On this very day." On the other hand, I never meant to imply that Diagoras was dead in 415, but only that his offence was an old one-just as that of Protagoras probably was (see p. 39).

P. 39. Trial of Protagoras: _Vorsokr._ 74, A 1-4, 23; the pa.s.sage referring to the G.o.ds: _ibid._ B 4.-Plato: _Theaet._ p. 162_d_ (_Vorsokr._ 74, A 23).

P. 41. Distinction between belief and knowledge by Protagoras: Gomperz, _Griech. Denker_, i. p. 359.

P. 42. Prodicus: _Vorsokr._ 77, B 5. Comp. Norvin, _Allegorien i den graeske Philosophi_ (_Edda_, 1919), p. 82. I cannot, however, quite adopt Norvin's view of the theory of Protagoras.

P. 44. Critias: _Vorsokr._ 81, B 25.-W. Nestle, _Jahrbb. f. Philol._ xi.

(1903), pp. 81 and 178, gives an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but I cannot share his view of it.

P. 46. Euripides: _Suppl._ 201.-Moschion: _Trag. Fragm._ ed. Nauck (2nd ed.), p. 813.-Plato: _Rep._ ii. 369b.

P. 47. Democritus: Reinhardt in _Hermes_, xlvii (1912), p. 503 In spite of Wilamowitz's objections (in his _Platon_, ii. p. 214), I still consider it probable that Plato alludes to a philosophical theory.-Protagoras on the original state: _Vorsokr._ 74, B 8_b_.

P. 48. Euripides: _Electra, 737_ (Euripides does not believe in the tale that the sun reversed its course on account of Thyestes's fraud against Atreus, and then adds: "Fables that terrify men are a profit to the worship of the G.o.ds").-Aristotle: _Metaph._ A 8, 1074_b_; see text, p.

85.-Polybius: vi. 56; see text pp. 90 and 114.-Plato's _Gorgias_, p. 482 and foll.

P. 49.-Callicles: see _e.g._ Wilamowitz, _Platon_, i. p. 208.

P. 50.-Thrasymachus: Plato, _Rep._ i. pp. 338_c_, 343_a_; comp. also ii.

p. 358_b_. His remark on Providence (_Vorsokr._ 78, B 8) runs thus: "The G.o.ds do not see the things that are done among men; if they did, they would not overlook the greatest human good, justice. For we find that men do not follow it." Comp. text, p. 61.-Diagoras as Critias's source: Nestle, _Jahrbb._, 1903, p. 101.

P. 51. Euripides: see W. Nestle, _Euripides_ (Stuttgart, 1901) pp. 51-152.

Here, too, the material is set forth exhaustively; the results seem to me inadmissible. Browning's theory (_The Ring and the Book_, x. 1661 foll.) that Euripides did believe in the existence of the G.o.ds, but did not believe them to be perfect, is a possible, perhaps even a probable, explanation of many of his utterances; but it will hardly fit all of them.

I have examined the question in an essay, "Browning om Euripides" in my _Udvalgte Afhandlinger_, p. 55.

P. 52. G.o.ds identified with the Elements: _Bacch._ 274; fragm. 839. 877, 941 (Nestle, p. 153).

P. 53. Polemic against sophists: Nestle, p. 206.-_Bellerophon_: fragm.

286.

P. 54. "If the G.o.ds--": fragm. 292, 7.

P. 55. _Melanippe_: fragm. 480. The words are said to have given offence at the rehearsal, so that Euripides altered them at the production of the play (Plut. _Amat._ ch. 13).-Aeschylus: _Agam._ 160.-Aristophanes: _Thesmoph._ 450.-In the _Frogs_, 892, Euripides prays to the Ether and other abstractions, not to the G.o.ds.-_Clouds_: 1371.

P. 56. Plato: _Republ._ viii. p. 568a.-Quotation from _Melanippe_: Plut.

_Amat._ 13.

P. 57. Aristophanes and Naturalism: see note to p. 30.

P. 58. Denial of the G.o.ds in the _Clouds_, 247, 367, 380, 423, 627, 817, 825, 1232.-Moral of the piece: 1452-1510.-In Aristophanes's own travesties of the G.o.ds, scholars have found evidence for a weakening of popular belief, but this is certainly wrong; comp. Decharme, p. 109.-Words like "believe" and "belief" do not cover the Greek word ????e??, which signifies at once "believe" and "be in the habit," "use habitually," so that it covers both belief and worship-an ambiguity that is characteristic of Greek religion.-Xenophon: _Memorab._ i. 1; _Apol. Socr._ 10 and foll.

P. 59. Plato: _Apol._ p. 24_b_ (the indictment); 26_b_ (the refutation).

P. 60. Aristodemus: Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 4.-Cinesias: Decharme, p. 135.-The Hermocopidae: Decharme, p. 152. Beloch, _Hist. of Greece_, ii. 1, p. 360, has another explanation. To my argument it is of no consequence what special motive is a.s.signed for the crime, as long as it is a political one.

P. 61. Plato on impiety: _Laws_, x. p. 886b; comp. xii. p. 967_a_.

Curiously enough, the same tripart.i.tion of the wrong att.i.tude towards the G.o.ds occurs already in the _Republic_, ii. p. 365_d_, where it is introduced incidentally as well known and a matter of course.

P. 62. Euripides: _e.g._ _Hecuba_, 488; _Suppl._ 608.-Reference to Anaxagoras: _Laws_, x. p. 886_d_; to Sophistic, 889_b_.

P. 65. Plato in the _Apology_: p. 19_c_.-Socrates's _daimonion_ a proof of _asebeia_: Xenoph. _Memorab._ i. 1, 2; _Apol_. _Socr._ 12; Plato, _Apol._ p. 31_d_.

P. 66. Accusation of teaching the doctrine of Anaxagoras: Plato, _Apol._ p. 26_d_; comp. Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 1, 10.-Plato's defence of Socrates: _Apol._ p. 27_a_.

P. 67. Xenophon's defence of Socrates: _Memor._ i. 1, 2; 6 foll., 10 foll.-Teleological view of nature: Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 4; iv. 3.-On the religious standpoint of Socrates, comp. my _Udvalgte Afhandlinger_, p. 38.

P. 68. Plato's _Apology_, p. 21_d_, 23_a_ and _f_, etc.-The G.o.ds all-knowing: _Odyss._ iv. 379 and 468; comp. Nagelsbach, _Hom. Theol._ p.

18; _Nachhom. Theol._ p. 23.

P. 69. The G.o.ds just: Nagelsbach, _Hom. Theol._ p. 297; _Nachhom. Theol._ p. 27.

P. 71. The relation between early religious thought and Delphi has been explained correctly by Sam Wide, _Einleit. in die Altertumswissensch._, ii. p. 221; comp. also I. L. Heiberg in _Tilskueren_, 1919, ii. p.

44.-Honours shown to Pindar at Delphi: schol. Pind. ed. Drachm. i. p. 2, 14; 5, 6. Pausan, x. 24. 5.

P. 72. Plato on the Delphic Oracle: _Apol._ p. 20_e_. On the following comp. I. L. Heiberg, _loc. cit._ p. 45.-Socrates on his _daimonion_: Plato, _Apol._ p. 31_c_.

P. 74. Antisthenes: Ritter, _Hist. philos. Gr.__9_ 285.-On the later Cynics, especially Diogenes, see Diog. Laert. vi. 105 (the G.o.ds are in need of nothing); Julian, _Or._ vi. p. 199_b_ (Diogenes did not worship the G.o.ds).