Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World (31 page)

1.
On Macedon’s ambiguous position within Greek ethnicity, see Hall’s “Contested Ethnicities: Perceptions of Macedonia Within Evolving Definitions of Greek Identity,” in I. Malkin (ed.),
Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity
(Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2001), 159–86. Alexander I: Herodotus 5.22. For a comprehensive historical account of Macedonia see the three volumes of N. G. L. Hammond’s
A History of Macedonia
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972–1988; vol. 2 jointly with G. T. Griffith), and more recently J. Roisman and I. Worthington (eds.),
A Companion to Ancient Macedonia
(Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010); R. Lane Fox (ed.),
Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Ancient Macedon, 650 B.C.—300 A.D.
(Leiden: Brill, 2011).

2.
Euripides’s visit to Macedonia is recorded in the ancient
Life of Euripides,
the fragmentary dialogue of Satyrus, and the letters. For a highly skeptical reading of the tradition see M. R. Lefkowitz,
Lives of the Greek Poets,
2nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 98–100. There is certainly a lively inventiveness in these various sources about Euripides and Macedonia (see for example J. Hanink, “The
Life
of the Author in the Letters of ‘Euripides,’ ”
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
50 (2010): 537–64). On the date of 408–407 BC for Euripides’s
Archelaus
see A. Harder,
Euripides’ Kresphontes and Archelaus: Introduction, Text and Commentary
(Leiden: Brill, 1985), 125–26, although the argument admittedly rests on crediting the Macedonian visit (see however her further arguments at 125 n.1).

3.
R. Lane Fox,
Alexander the Great
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1973) remains an excellent overview of Alexander’s career.

4.
On the Hellenistic world in general see F. W. Walbank,
The Hellenistic World,
rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993); G. Shipley,
The Greek World After Alexander
(London and New York: Routledge, 2000); A. Erskine,
A Companion to the Hellenistic World
(Malden, MA: Wiley, 2005); G. R. Bugh,
The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

1.
On the iconography of Alexander see A. Stewart,
Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics
(Berkeley: University of California Press).

2.
Iliad:
Plutarch,
Alexander
 8. Visit to Troy: Arrian,
Anabasis
1.11–12, Plutarch,
Alexander
15. Anecdote:
Alexander Romance
1.42.11–13.

3.
On Alexander’s insistence on
proskyn
ē
sis
and introduction of foreign dress see Arrian,
Anabasis
4.11 and especially Plutarch,
Alexander
45 (where he suggests this may have been a strategy to win over “the barbarians”).

4.
Sophocles:
Oedipus the King
48, 31; Aristophanes,
Birds
1706–19. Lysander: Plutarch,
Lysander
18. Samian cult: P. Cartledge,
Agesilaus and the Crisis of Sparta
(London: Duckworth, 1987), 83–96. Possible precedents for ruler cult in Greece: see R. Mondi, “
ΣΚΗΠΤΟΥΧΟΙ
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΣ
: An Argument for Divine Kingship in Early Greece,”
Arethusa
13 (1980): 203–16.

5.
Dionysius and the Olympics: Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Lysias
28. Great King: Lysias 33 Dionysus: Favorinus,
Corinthiaca
(= “Dio Chrysostom” 37) 21, and for all the evidence for divinization L. J. Sanders. “Dionysius I of Syracuse and the Origins of the Ruler Cult in the Greek World,”
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte
40 (1991): 275–87. It has sometimes been claimed that Philip II, Alexander’s father, received cult at Macedon, but there is no firm proof: see M. Mari, “The Ruler Cult in Macedonia,”
Studi Ellenistici
20 (2008): 219–68.

6.
On the details of Alexander’s campaigns see R. Lane Fox,
Alexander the Great
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1973).

7.
“Two-horned one”: Qur’an 18:83–99. On artistic depictions of Alexander as a god during his lifetime see Stewart,
Faces of Power,
95–102.

8.
On
isotheoi timai,
and specifically on a decree of Teos relating to Antiochus III and his wife, Laodike, see A. Chaniotis, “La divinité mortelle d’Antiochos III à Téos,”
Kernos
20 (2007): 153–71. The ambiguity of the term
“isotheoi timai”
is discussed on pp. 158–59.

9.
The examples here are drawn from A. Chaniotis, “The Divinity of Hellenistic Rulers,” in A. Esrkine,
A Companion to the Hellenistic World
(Malden, MA: Wiley, 2005), 436–37. Interpretations of ruler cult: C. Habicht,
Gottmenschentum und griechische Städte,
2nd ed. (Munich: Beck, 1970); S. R. F. Price,
Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); P. P. Iossif, A. N. Chankowski, and C. C. Iorber (eds.),
More Than Men, Less Than Gods: Studies in Ruler Cult and Emperor Worship
(Louvain: Peeters, 2011).

10.
Impiety: Philippides in R. Kassel and C. Austin (eds.),
Poetae Comici Graeci
vol. 7 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010), 347.

11.
On the contradictions of ruler cult see especially H. S. Versnel,
Coping with the Gods: Wayward Readings in Greek Theology
(Leiden: Brill, 2011), 439–92. The quotation is from an orally delivered paper by Richard Gordon, and it is recorded by Versnel on p. 471.

12.
Theocritus 17.1–19.

13.
Entry of Demetrius: Versnel,
Coping with the Gods,
444–45.

14.
Hermocles of Cyzicus, in J. U. Powell,
Collectanea Alexandrina
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925; reprint 1970), 173–74.

15.
The three types of divine absence correspond to the three types of disbelief listed at Plato,
Laws
885b.

16.
The Greek texts of Euhemerus are collected by M. Winiarczyk,
Euhemerus Messenius, Reliquiae
(Stuttgart and Leipzig: Teubner, 1981). The authoritative, book-length discussion is M. Winiarczyk,
The Sacred History of Euhemerus of Messene
(Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013). I discuss Euhemerus in
Beyond the Second Sophistic: Adventures in Greek Postclassicism
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 49–62.

17.
Euhemerus is summarized by Diodorus of Sicily,
Library
5.41–46 and 6.1.

18.
Diodorus does tell us that Euhemerus says that “the ancients” envisaged two types of god: as well as the Olympians, i.e., the divinized humans, there were the natural elements (sun, moon, stars, winds, and so forth) (fragment 25 Winiarczyk (in
Euhemerus Messenius, Reliquiae).
But there is no reason to believe that Euhemerus thought these were really divine, rather than the fantasies of the ancients. In other words, it is probable that Euhemerus was atheistic in the modern sense, i.e., that he denied all divinity.

19.
Iambus
1.9–11. Callimachus’s poem probably dates to the 270s.

20.
Biography of Persaeus and list of his book titles: Diogenes Laertius 7.6, 7.36 = H. von Arnim,
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
(Munich: K. G. Saur, 2004), vol. 1, nos. 439 and 435 (henceforth
SVF
). On the background of the court of Antigonus Gonatas see A. Erskine,
The Hellenistic Stoa
(London: Duckworth, 1989), 87–88. Cicero:
On the Nature of the Gods
1.38. The papyrus is
Herculaneum Papyrus
1428, from Philodemus’s
On Piety;
Persaeus is discussed at ii.28–iii.13 (printed, along with the Cicero passage, at
SVF
448). For the two-stage interpretation I follow the analysis of Philodemus by A. Henrichs, “Two Doxographical Notes: Democritus and Prodicus,”
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
79 (1975): 115–23. The first attempt to argue away Persaeus’s atheism appears at A. Dyck,
Cicero De Natura Deorum Book I
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 110; the second at K. Algra, “Stoic Theology,” in B. Inwood (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Stoicism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 158.

1.
For good introductions to Hellenistic philosophy see A. A. Long,
Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics,
2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); K. Algra, J. Barns, J. Mansfeld, and M. Schofield (eds.),
The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). The major sources are available in A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers,
vol. 1,
Translations of the Principal Sources with Philosophical Commentary
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). Volume 2 has the original Greek and Latin texts.

2.
For introductions to the Stoics see B. Inwood,
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); J. Sellars,
Stoicism
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). Stoic theology is discussed (with ancient sources) by Long and Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers,
274–79, 323–33.

3.
Epictetus’s leg: Origen,
Against Celsus
7.53. On Epictetus’s philosophy see especially A. A. Long,
Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002). Stockdale: J. B. Stockdale,
Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior
(Hoover Institution, 1990:
http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/StockdaleCourage.pdf
); “world of technology” quotation on p. 7.

4.
Zeus, Athena, Hera, and so forth: Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
7.147 = Long and Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers,
323. On the influence of Stoic cosmic ideas on Christianity see T. Rasimus, T. Engberg-Pedersen, and I. Dunderberg (eds.),
Stoicism in Early Christianity
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010).

5.
For a succinct history of Cynicism, see W. Desmond,
Cynics
(Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2008); interesting, provocative essays in R. B. Branham and M.-O. Goulet-Cazé,
The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). The jokes are found at Diogenes Laertius 6.22–69; on these see R. B. Branham, “Defacing the Currency: Diogenes’ Rhetoric and the Invention of Rhetoric,” in Branham and Goulet-Cazé,
The Cynics,
81–104.

6.
Brisk survey of early Cynic views of religion in M.-O. Goulet-Cazé, “Religion and the Early Cynics,” in Branham and Goulet-Cazé,
The Cynics,
47–80; also Desmond,
Cynics,
115–22, who focuses on later material. Mockery of sacrifice and dedications: Diogenes Laertius 6.63, 6.59. Diogenes on the nonexistence of gods: Cicero,
On the Nature of the Gods
3.34–35; Lysias the pharmacist: Diogenes Laertius 6.42. Cercidas: fragment 4.44–48 in J. U. Powell (ed.),
Collectanea Alexandrina
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925).

7.
For introductions see R. J. Hankinson,
The Skeptics
(London: Routledge, 1988); H. Thorsrud,
Ancient Skepticism
(Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2009).

8.
Rhetoricians, hair, and nails: Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
4.62. Embassy to Rome: Plutarch,
Life of Cato the Elder
22.2, 23.2. Speeches on justice: Cicero,
Republic
3.12.21. Expulsion: Athenaeus,
Sophists at Supper
12.547a; Aelian,
Varied History
9.12. For discussion of the historical circumstances around the embassy see E. Gruen,
Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 174–77.

9.
Contradictory views of the gods: Sextus Empiricus,
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
3.2–4. Carneades’s argument from sensation: Sextus Empiricus,
Against the Mathematicians
9.139–41. Skepticism toward religion: see A. A. Long, “Skepticism About Gods in Hellenistic Philosophy,” in M. Griffith and D. J. Mastronarde (eds.),
Cabinet of the Muses: Essays on Classical and Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas J. Rosenmeyer
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 279–91; Long and Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers,
462–63; P. A. Meijer,
Stoic Theology: Proofs for the Existence of the Cosmic God and the Traditional Gods
(Delft: Eburon, 2007), 149–206.

10.
Cicero,
On the Nature of the Gods
3.38; Sextus Empiricus,
Against the Mathematicians
9.152–77.

11.
Sextus Empiricus,
Against the Mathematicians
9.182–84 = Long and Sedley,
The Hellenistic Philosophers,
463. Also Cicero,
On the Nature of the Gods
3.43–44. See M. E. Burnyeat, “Gods and Heaps,” in M. Schofield and M. Nussbaum (eds.),
Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 315–38.

12.
Carneades not an atheist: e.g., Long, “Skepticism About Gods,” 280–81; A. Drozdek, “Skeptics and a Religious Instinct,”
Minerva
18 (2005): 93–108. Cicero:
On the Nature of the Gods
3.44.

13.
This paragraph and the previous rest heavily on the interpretation of D. Sedley, “From the Pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic Age,” in S. Bullivant and M. Ruse (eds.),
The Oxford Handbook of Atheism
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 139–51.

14.
Biography of Clitomachus: Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
4.67. Atheist catalogue: M. Winiarczyk, “Der erste Atheistenkatalog des Kleitomachus,”
Philologus
120 (1976): 32–46. The title
On Atheism
is recorded at Theophilus,
To Autolycus
3.7. The lists appear at Cicero,
On the Nature of the Gods
1.117–19, and Sextus Empiricus,
Against the Mathematicians
9.50–58. On Epicurus see the following chapter.

15.
Sextus’s teacher and student: Diogenes Laertius,
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
9.116. Doctor: Sextus Empiricus,
Against the Mathematicians
1.260;
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
2.238. On Sextus see more generally Thorsrud,
Ancient Skepticism,
123–46; P. Pellegrin, “Sextus Empiricus,” in R. Bett (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010): 120–41.

16.
Arguments against the gods:
Against the Mathematicians
9.14–194; also H. W. Attridge, “The Philosophical Critique of Religion Under the Early Empire,” in W. Haase (ed.),
Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
2.16.1 (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1978), 46–51. Arguments equally strong on both sides: 9.59; Skeptic practices but does not believe: 9.49.

17.
Against the Mathematicians
9.14–47.

18.
Ibid., 9.49–59.

19.
Ibid., 9.60–74.

20.
Ibid., 9.75–122.

21.
Ibid., 9.123–32.

22.
Ibid., 9.133–36. This tactic of using
parabol
ē
(comparison) argumentation to refute Zeno’s syllogisms may derive from Alexinus: see M. Schofield, “The Syllogisms of Zeno of Citium,”
Phronesis
28 (1983): 31–57. Skeptics take part in ritual but do not believe: 9.49.

23.
Against the Mathematicians
9.136–75.

24.
Ibid., 9.176–77.