Xenophanes
Xenophanes of Colophon ( ; ; – c. 478 BC) was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and critic of Homer. He was born in Ionia and travelled throughout the Greek-speaking world in early classical antiquity.
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Xenophanes was an ancient Greek philosopher, poet, and theologian from Ionia who traveled widely around the Greek world and became known for challenging Homer's portrayal of the gods. He matters because he represented an early skeptical voice in Western thought, questioning traditional religious beliefs rather than simply accepting them.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- ca. 570 B.C.
- Died
- ca. 478 B.C.
- Works
- 8
Top works
- Spvr. & Cont. Tomus undecimus operum in quo libelli quidam spurii Aris. ascripti continentur
- Testimonianze e frammenti
- Tegen de fabels van weleer
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- Philosophorum graecorum veterum, praesertim qui ante Platonem floruerunt ...
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Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 19
- Total plays
- 392
Tags
latinized name
Article
31 sectionsContents
- Life
- Poems
- Satires
- ''On Nature''
- Philosophy
- Social criticism
- Divine nature
- Natural philosophy
- Epistemology
- Legacy and influence
- Influence on Eleatics
- Influence on Pyrrhonism
- Pantheism
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Ancient primary sources
- Biography
- Apothegems
- Descriptions of poems
- Doctrines
- Fragments, elegies
- Fragments, silloi
- Fragments, ''On Nature''
- Imitation
- Modern criticism
- Modern scholarship
- Translations of the fragments with commentary
- Extended studies and reviews
- Further reading
- External links
Xenophanes of Colophon ( ; ; – c. 478 BC) was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and critic of Homer. He was born in Ionia and travelled throughout the Greek-speaking world in early classical antiquity.
As a poet, Xenophanes was known for his critical style, writing poems that are considered among the first satires. He composed elegiac couplets that criticised his society's traditional values of wealth, excesses, and athletic victories. He criticised Homer and the other poets in his works for representing the gods as foolish or morally weak. His poems have not survived intact; only fragments of some of his work survive in quotations by later philosophers and literary critics.