Xenophanes Topples Traditional Poetic Conceptions of the Gods

The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black,

While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.

Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw,

And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods

Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape

Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.

-- Xenophanes (570 – 480 BCE) - Greek philosopher, poet and social and religious critic - Writes in rebuttal to the "oral mythos" of Homer and Hesoid.