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Stefan Stenudd           Author, Artist, Aikido instructor
ANCIENT GREECE
Introduction
Thales
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Pherecydes of Syros
Pythagoras
Xenophanes
Theagenes
Hecataeus
Heraclitus
Pindar
Parmenides
Anaxagoras
Empedocles
Herodotus
Gorgias
Melissus
Protagoras
Euripides
Prodicus of Ceos
Leucippus
Democritus
Critias
Antisthenes
Diagoras of Melos
Plato
Aristotle
Epicurus
Euhemerus
Table of the Greek Philosophers
Literature

Aristotle - life and work
Aristotle's Poetics

MYTH

Myths of Creation

The Logics of Myth

Psychoanalysis of Myth

Genesis 1: The first creation of the Bible

Enuma Elish: Babylonian Creation

Cosmos of the Ancients: Greek philosophers

Cosmos of the Ancients: The book

Aristotle - life and work

Aristotle's Poetics

Ideas and learning

Life Energy
Encyclopedia


Taoist source

About the writer

Books by Stefan Stenudd:
Cosmos of the Ancients, by Stefan Stenudd.
Cosmos of the Ancients
by Stefan Stenudd. What the Greek philosophers thought about religion, cosmology, myth, and the gods.
Get the book at Amazon.


Life Energy Encyclopedia, by Stefan Stenudd.
Life Energy Encyclopedia
by Stefan Stenudd. Qi, prana, spirit, and other life forces around the world explained and compared.
Get the book at Amazon.


Murder, by Stefan Stenudd.
Murder
by Stefan Stenudd. Thoughts on life, death, and the meaning of it all.
Get the book at Amazon.


QI - increase your life energy.
Qi
Increase your life energy
by Stefan Stenudd. The life energy qi (also chi or ki), with exercises on how to awaken, increase, and use it.
Get the book at Amazon.



Parthenon

Cosmos of the Ancients

The Greek Philosophers
on Myth and Cosmology


Euripides


E uripides (480-406 BC) cannot be grouped among the philosophers, but in his plays some parts are serving well to illustrate by this one example, how questions on the gods and the myths of them could be treated by the writers of drama. He did, of course, allow discussions on cosmology and such to enter his plays through the mouths of their characters. That certainly does not imply their views being identical with his own, suffice it here to use him as example of in what manner these questions were discussed in his time.
Euripides      He lets one of his cha­racters reason in Bacchae: "The goddess Demeter, – she is earth, call her by whichever name you wish." In the same monologue, the legend of Dionysos being sewn into the thigh of Zeus is explained as a change of word through time. Not that what Euri­pides regards as the authen­tic version is any less fabu­lous: "Having broken off a part of the air of heaven that encircles the earth, he gave this as a hostage, removing Diony­sos from quarrels with Hera."
     Another view, downright atheist in its reasoning along the lines repeated innumerable times in the Christian era – according to Euripides old already at his time, questioning how a benevolent god could allow injustice, is expressed in Bellerophon, a drama remaining only in fragments:
     Does someone say that there are gods in heaven?
     There are not, there are not, if a man will
     not in folly rely on the old argument.
     Consider it yourselves; do not build your opinion
     on my words. I say that a tyranny
     kills many men and deprives them of their possessions,
     and breaking oaths destroys cities;
     and doing this they are more happy
     than those who live each day in pious peace.
     And I know of small cities that honor the gods
     which obey greater and more impious ones,
     overcome by the greater number of spears.


Literature
Euripides, Bacchae, translated by Richard Seaford, Warminster 1996.
Barnes, Jonathan, The Presocratic Philosophers, volume 2, London 1979.

© Stefan Stenudd 2000

How to get the book
An edited and extended version of the texts on this website was published in 2007.
     If you want to buy the book, you can do so at most international web based bookstores, such as Amazon and the like. Here are links to the book on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Use the latter if you are European - then you get the book cheaper and quicker. Otherwise, you may want to buy it at Amazon US.

At Amazon US:
Cosmos of the Ancients, by Stefan Stenudd - at Amazon US.
At Amazon UK:
Cosmos of the Ancients, by Stefan Stenudd - at Amazon UK.


Search Amazon for books about Euripides:




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Stefan Stenudd
Stefan Stenudd
is a Swedish author and historian of ideas, who researches the thought patterns in creation myths. He has also written books about Chinese and Japanese traditions.



Tao Te Ching - the Taoist source.
TAOIST SOURCE
The Taoist source. The complete Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu.


More on this website:
Aikido
Aikibatto sword exercises
Myth
Greek Philosophers
Aristotle and his Poetics
Taoist source
Qi - life energy
Fiction by Stenudd
Art by Stenudd
Astrology and horoscopes