Forgotten Books Atheism in Pagan Antiquity (Classic Reprint)

TIE present inquiry is the outcome of a equest to write an article on " Atheism " or a projected dictionary of the religious history c classical antiquity. On going through the sourcs I found that the subject might well deserve more comprehensive treatment than the scope ofn dictionary would allow. It is such a treatmen that I have attempted in the following pages. A difculty that occurred at the very beginning of the iquiry was how to define the notion of atheism Nowadays the term is taken to designate the attitde which denies every idea of God. Even antiquit sometimes referred to atheism in this sense ; ut an inquiry dealing with the history of religion ould not start from a definition of that kind. I would have to keep in view, not the philosop.ical notion of God, but the conceptions of the god as they appear in the religion of antiquity. Hence I ame to define atheism in Pagan antiquity as the pint of view which denies the existence of the ancient cds. It is in this sense that th Table of Contents Prtcface P V; Introduction Pp 1-4; Definition of atheism ; its extension in antiquity and later ; doubtful cases, a-Limitation of the inquiry; its relation to the conception of antiquity, 4; CHAPTER I; CONCErTION AND TREATMENT OF DENIAL OF THE GODS; in Antiquity; Accounts of Denisks , Pp 5-14; Atheism and atheist modem words; the terms of antiquity and their meaning, 5-Judicial conception and treatment of deniers at Athens and at Rome, 6-Risum$, 11-Lists of atheists, 13; CHAPTER II Naive Criticism of Popular Religion ; Xenophanes Pp 15-21; Character of the ancient religion: higher and lower notions; the beginning of criticism (Titular, Euripides), 15 -Xenophanes, 17; CHAPTER III Ionic Naturalism; Diagoras Pp 22-34; Natural philosophy critics1 of popular belief, but its criticism not radical Pantheism Democrilus, 22-Anaxagoras ; circle of Pericles; Thucydides, 25-Hippo and Diogenes, 29-Diagoras, 31; vii;