Xenofan biography

If their hands had bulls, or lions, or horses, if people would write, as if people, they knew anything, horses would liken the gods, the image of the Bychy gave the immortal bulls; Their appearance would compare each with the breed to which he himself was cooked on earth. So how do the gods differ in this case from people? The fact that they are immortal, strong and endowed with some unique abilities?

But these abilities themselves do not go beyond human imagination. If you look at the lifestyle of the gods described in traditional poems, then the gods also love and suffer, enter into relationships, give birth to children, etc. This all makes us doubt their reality. Such gods were invented by people, endowing them with features in their image and likeness, making them anthropomorphic.

Ksenofan wrote his “Sillas”, that is, Satire in five books, directing his causticity and wit against all philosophers and poets of his time, criticizing their passion for Homer and Hesiod, as well as the image of anthropomorphic gods. He believed that the best could be only whole, one. Since they are all gods, then none of them can be under the rule of the other. He talked about the existence of only one god, who cannot be compared with mortal people either in the image or in thought, "he is all an eye, the whole - an ear, all - thinking." However, the image of such a single god in him coincides with the whole world.

It is eternal and unchanged, there are no judgments regarding its limitation or infinity. Probably, he considered the world that he had not arisen, as well as enduring, however, he most likely attributed this only to the very substance, matter, since he did not say this about the universe. He believed that the Earth arose from the sea, he made such a conclusion on the basis of studying fossils, which sometimes appeared from sea waters, and then again plunged into them.

He called the sun and stars burning vapors, which are formed from day to day. At the death of the Earth, the entire human race will die, but during its revival, a person will appear again.

The remark 2 is surprising, but Xenofan was not an atheist, but was religious in his own way. His statement about the existence of a single God confirms this. In addition to polytheism, Xenofan opposed the prophets and predictors. Xenofan first raised the question of the boundaries of human knowledge. In his opinion, the highest knowledge, absolutely reliable, can only be possessed by God.

Human knowledge is not able to go beyond its subjectivity and has a probabilistic character. This statement made it the forerunner of skepticism. He first contrasted opinion and knowledge in his philosophy. Ksenofan’s poetry in his poetry Xenofan criticizes the common ideas about gods. However, in addition to this, he seeks to explain the various natural phenomena in it, to give them a rational interpretation.

So, the rainbow, which was considered the manifestation of the goddess Irida,, according to Xenofan, was a cloud visible to red, green and purple. He believed that stars and moon arose from ignited clouds. At night they flare up, and gradually fading it during the day. The same thing happens with the Sun, only on the contrary. Xenophanes also believed that the human soul consists of water and earth.

He knew the views on the resettlement of the souls of Pythagoras, in one of his poems he ridicules them: once on the way, seeing that someone is offending the puppy, he, he regretted the puppy, said such words: “Full to beat, stop it! His poem “On Nature” was almost completely lost, however, the existing passages allow us to say that it laid the foundations of the genre of philosophical poem, which was then developed by Parmenid, Empedocd, Lucretius.

Her fragments were translated by A. Date of the last renewal of the article: