In existographies, Diagoras (c.448-388BC) (IQ:155|#475) (FA:17), aka "Diagoras of Melos" was a Greek lyric poet, philosopher, and sophist, student of Democritus, noted for []. [N1]
Overview
Diagoras is semi-labeled, by some, as the "first true atheist", followed by Theodorus; known as “Diagoras ‘the Atheist’ of Melos”, a disciple of Democritus (Ѻ), cited by Cicero, among others, sometimes referred to, in the history of atheism (Ѻ), as the “first atheist” or history's earliest known “confirmed atheist”, as some (Ѻ) describe him.
In 423BC, Aristophanes, in is comedy Clouds, lampooned Diagoras as an anti-religious contrarian. [2]
In 1697, Pierre Bayle, in his Historical and Critical Dictionary, penned the first serious attempt to present Diagoras as a person in article form. [1]
In 2016, Marek Winiarczky, in his Diagoras of Melos: a Contribution to the History of Atheism, argues that “cannot be considered to have been an atheist in the modern sense.” [1]
Quotes | On
The following are related quotes:
“With reason did the Athenians adjudge Diagoras guilty of atheism, in that he not only divulged the Orphic doctrine, and published the mysteries of Eleusis and of the Cabiri, and chopped up the wooden statue of Hercules to boil his turnips, but openly declared that there was no god at all.”
— Athenagoras (200AD), A Plea for the Christians
“Diagoras and Theodorus flatly deny that there were ever gods at all.”
— Michel Montaigne (c.1580)
“Diagoras, nicknamed ‘the atheist’, was the Hitchens of ancient Athens.”
— Boyd Tonkin (2016) [2]
Notes
N1. Diagoras was Hmolpedia article #4,000.
References
1. Winiarczyk, Marek. (2016). Diagoras of Melos: a Contribution to the History of Atheism (§1, pg. #). Walter de Gruyter.
2. Tonkin, Boyd. (2016). “Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh, book review. Tim Whitmarsh salutes the Ancient Sceptics who Cocked a Snook at Organized Religion” (Ѻ), The Independent, Feb 18.
External links
● Diagoras of Melos – Wikipedia.
