Xenophanes

American  

[zuh-nof-uh-neez] / zəˈnɒf əˌniz /

noun

1. c570–c480 b.c., Greek philosopher and poet.

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Xenophanes British  

/ zɛˈnɒfəˌniːz /

noun

1. ?570–?480 _bc , Greek philosopher and poet, noted for his monotheism and regarded as a founder of the Eleatic school

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Other Word Forms

• Xenophanean adjective

Example Sentences

A strikingly original thinker, Xenophanes knew that fossilized marine organisms had been found on Mediterranean islands like Malta, south of Italy, and Paros, near Athens.

From Salon

Pythagoras taught that God is a number; Xenophanes that it is a sphere, passionless and consubstantial with all things; Parmenides that it is but the confluence of earth and fire.

From Literature

Xenophanes of Colophon famously ridiculed the anthropomorphic projections of human religion: if every different ethnic society imagines the gods look like them, how can they all be right?

From Time

All is but a woven web of guesses, the early philosopher of science, Xenophanes, wrote—but if the weaving is taut, the web holds water, or stars.

From The New Yorker

Another generation of visitors comes now to this spot,—pilgrims from far, like ourselves, to the shrine of a "stoic greater than Zeno or Xenophanes,"—a man whose "breath and core was conscience."

From Project Gutenberg