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Olympiad (536-533). In one of the extant fragments he speaks of himself as having begun his wanderings sixty-seven years before, when he was twenty-five years of See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age, so that he was not less than ninety-two when he died. His teaching found expression in poems, which he recited rhapsodically in the course of his travels. In the more considerable of the elegiac fragments which have survived, he ridicules the See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine of the See also:

MIGRATION

migration of souls (xviii.), asserts the claims of See also:

WISDOM, BOOK OF, or WISDOM OF SOLOMON (Sept. Io4ia IaXwµwvos; Lat. Vulg. Liber sapientiae)

wisdom against the prevalent athleticism, which seemed to him to conduce neither to the See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

government of states nor to their material prosperity (xix), reprobates the introduction of Lydian luxury into Colophon (xx.), and recommends the reasonable enjoyment of social pleasures (xxi.). Of the epic fragments, the more important are those in which he attacks the " anthropomorphic and anthropopathic polytheism " of his contemporaries. According to See also:

Aristotle, " the first of Eleatic unitarians was not careful to say whether the unity which he postulated was finite or in-finite, but, contemplating the whole See also:

FIRMAMENT

firmament, declared that the One is See also:

God." Whether Xenophanes was a monotheist, whose assertion of the unity of God suggested to Parmenides the doctrine of the unity of Being, or a pantheist, whose assertion of the unity of God was also a See also:

DECLARATION (from Lat. declarare, to make fully clear, clams)

declaration of the unity of Being, so that he anticipated Parmenides—in other words, whether Xenophanes's teaching was purely theological or had also a philosophical significance—is a question about which authorities have differed and will probably continue to differ. The silence If the extant fragments, which have not one word about the unity of Being, favours the one view; the See also:

VOICE (Fr. voix, from Lat. vox)

voice of antiquity, which proclaims Xenophanes the founder of Eleaticism, has been thought to favour the other. Of Xenophanes's utterances about (1) God, (2) the See also:

WORLD

world, (3) knowledge, the following survive: (i) " There is one God, greatest among gods and men, neither in shape nor in thought like unto mortals. . . . He is all sight, all mind, all See also:

EAR (common Teut.; O.E. are, Ger. Ohr, Du. oor, akin to Lat. auris, Gr. ovs)

ear (i.e. not a composite organism). . Without an effort ruleth he all things by thought.

He abideth ever in the same See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place motionless, and it befitteth him not to wander hither and thither. . Yet men imagine gods to be born, and to have raiment and voice and See also:

BODY

body, like themselves. . Even so the gods of the Ethiopians are swarthy and See also:

FLAT (a modification of O. Eng. flet, an obsolete word of Teutonic origin, meaning the ground beneath the feet)

flat-nosed, the gods of the Thracians are See also:

FAIR

fair-haired and See also:

BLUE (common in different forms to most European languages)

blue-eyed. . . Even so See also:

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

Homer and See also:

HESIOD

Hesiod attributed to the god; all that is a shame and a reproach among men—See also:

THEFT

theft, See also:

ADULTERY (from Lat. adulterium)

adultery deceit and other lawless acts. . . . Even so oxen, lions and horses if they had hands wherewith to See also:

GRAVE

grave images, would See also:

FASHION (adapted from Fr. facon, agon, Lat. factio, making, facere, to do or make)

fashion god; after their own shapes and make them bodies like to their own. (2) From See also:

earth all things are and to earth all things return. . From earth and See also:

WATER

water come all of us. . . . The See also:

sea is the well whence water springeth. . .

. Here at our feet is the end of the earth where it reacheth unto See also:

air, but, below, its See also:

FOUNDATIONS

foundations are without end. . . . The See also:

RAINBOW

rainbow, which men See also:

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

call See also:

IRIS

Iris, is a See also:

CLOUD (from the same root, if not the same word, as " clod," a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages for a mass or lump; it is first applied in the usual sense in the late 13th century; the Anglo-Saxon chid is only used in the sense of " a ma

cloud that is See also:

PURPLE

purple and red and yellow. (3) No See also:

man hath certainly known, nor shall certainly know, that which he saith about the gods and about all things; for, be that which he saith ever so perfect, yet See also:

CLOTH

cloth he not know it; all things are matters of See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion. That which I say is opinion like unto truth. . . . The gods did not reveal all things to mortals in the beginning; See also:

long is the See also:

SEARCH, or VISIT AND SEARCH

search ere man findeth that which is better." There is very little secondary See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence to See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record. " The Eleatic school," says the Stranger in See also:

PLATO

Plato's Sophist, 242 D, " beginning with Xenophanes, and even earlier, starts from the principle of the unity of all things." Aristotle, in a passage already cited, See also:

META

Meta-physics, A5, speaks of Xenophanes as the first of the Eleatic unitarians, adding that his monotheism was reached through the contemplation of the obpav6s. See also:

THEOPHRASTUS

Theophrastus (in See also:

SIMPLICIUS

Simplicius's Ad Physica, 5) sums up Xenophanes's teaching in the propositions, " The All is One and the One is God." See also:

Timon (in Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. i. 224), ignoring Xenophanes's See also:

THEOLOGY

theology, makes him resolve all things into one and the same unity.

The demonstrations of the unity and the attributes of God, with which the See also:

TREATISE

treatise De Melisso, Xenophane et Gorgia (now no longer ascribed to Aristotle or Theophrastus) ac-credits Xenophanes, are plainly framed on the See also:

MODEL (0. Fr. modelle, mod. modele; It. modello, pattern, mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard)

model of Eleatic proofs of the unity and the attributes of the Ent, and must therefore be set aside. The epitomators of a later time add nothing to the testimonies already enumerated. Thus, whereas in his writings, so far as they are known to us, Xenophanes appears as a theologian protesting against an anthropomorphic polytheism, the ancients seem to have regarded him as a philosopher asserting the unity of Being. How are we to under-stand these conflicting, though not irreconcilable, testimonies? According to See also:

ZELLER, EDUARD (1814-1908)

Zeller, the discrepancy is only apparent. The See also:

Greek gods being the See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers of nature personified, See also:

PANTHEISM (Gr. 7rav, all, Oeos, god)

pantheism See also:

lay nearer to See also:

hand than monotheism. Xenophanes was, then, a pantheist. Accordingly his assertion of the unity of God was at the same time a declaration of the unity of Being, and in virtue of this declaration he is entitled to See also:

RANK (O.Fr. rant or rent, mod. rang, generally connected with the O.E. and O.H.G. bring, a ring)

rank as the founder of Eleaticism, inasmuch as the philosophy of Parmenides was his forerunner's pantheism divested of its theistic See also:

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

element. This reconciliation of the See also:

INTERNAL

internal and the See also:

EXTERNAL

external evidence, countenanced as it is by Theophrastus, one of the best informed of the See also:

ancient historians, and approved by Zeller, one of the most learned of the See also:

MODERN

modern critics, is more than plausible; but there is something to be said on the contrary See also:

PART

part. In the first place, it may be doubted whether to a Greek of the 6th century pantheism was nearer than monotheism. Secondly, the external evidence does not See also:

bear examination. The Platonic testimony, if it proved anything, would prove too much, namely, that the doctrine of the unity of Being originated, not with Xenophanes, but before hint; and, in fact, the passage from the Sophist no more proves that Plato attributed to Xenophanes the philosophy of Parmenides than Theaetetus, t6c D, proves that Plato attributed to Homer the philosophy of Heraclitus.

Again, Aristotle's description of Xenophanes as the first of the Eleatic unitarians does not necessarily imply that the unity asserted by Xenophanes was the unity asserted by Parmenides; the phrase, " contemplating the firmament, he declared that the One is God," leaves it doubtful whether Aristotle attributed to Xenophanes any philosophical theory whatever; and the epithet &ypoisorspos discourages the belief that Aristotle regarded Xenophanes as the author of a new and important departure. Thirdly, when Xenophanes himself says that theories about gods and about things are not knowledge, that his own utterances are not verities but verisimilitudes, and that, so far from learning things by See also:

REVELATION, BOOK OF

revelation, man must laboriously seek a better opinion, he plainly renounces the "disinterested pursuit of truth." If then he was indifferent to the problem, he can hardly be credited with the Eleatic See also:

SOLUTION (from Lat. solvere, to loosen, dissolve)

solution. In the See also:

JUDGMENT

judgment of the See also:

PRESENT

present writer, Xenophanes was neither a philosopher nor a sceptic. He was not a philosopher, for he despaired of knowledge. He was not a sceptic, if by "sceptic" is meant the misologist whose despair of knowledge is the consequence of disappointed endeavour, for he had never hoped. Rather he was a theologian who arrived at his theory of the unity of the Supreme Being by See also:

criticism of the contemporary See also:

MYTHOLOGY

mythology. But, while he thus stood aloof from philosophy, Xenophanes influenced its development in two ways: first, his theological henism led the way to the philosophical henism of Parmenides and See also:

ZENO

Zeno; secondly, his assertion that so-called knowledge was in reality no more than opinion taught his successors to distinguish knowledge and opinion, and to assign to each a See also:

SEPARATE

separate See also:

province. Apart from the old controversy about Xenophanes's relations to philosophy, doubts have recently arisen about his theological position. In fragments i., xiv., xvi., xxi., &c., he recognizes, thinks Freudenthal, a See also:

PLURALITY (0. Fr. pluralitd, Late Lat. pluralitas, plural number)

plurality of deities; whence it is inferred that, besides the One God, most high, perfect, eternal, who, as immanent intelligent cause, unifies the plurality of things, there were alsolesser divinities, who govern portions of the universe, being them-selves eternal parts of the one all-embracing Godhead. Whilst it can hardly be allowed that Xenophanes, so far from denying, actually affirms a plurality of gods, it must be conceded to Freudenthal that Xenophanes's polemic was directed against the anthropomorphic tendencies and the mythological details of the See also:

con-temporary polytheism rather than against the polytheistic principle, and that, apart from the treatise De Melisso Xenophane et Gorgia, now generally discredited, there is no See also:

DIRECT

direct evidence to prove him a consistent monotheist. The wisdom of Xenophanes, like the wisdom of the See also:

HEBREW

Hebrew Preacher, showed itself, not in a theory of the universe, but in a sorrowful recognition of the nothingness of things and the futility of endeavour. His See also:

theism was a declaration not sc much of the greatness of God as rather of the littleness of man.

His cosmology was an assertion not so much of the immutability of the One as rather of the mutability of the Many. Like See also:

SOCRATES

Socrates, he was not a philosopher, and did not pretend to be one; but, as the reasoned See also:

SCEPTICISM (o-Kesrroµai, I consider, reflect, hesitate, doubt)

scepticism of Socrates cleared the way for the philosophy of Plato, so did Xenophanes's " abnormis sapientia" for the philosophy of Parmenides.

End of Article: XENOPHANES

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