Xenophanes' main claim to fame is as a pre-Socratic philosopher who inveighed against the Homeric and Hesiodic portrayal of the gods, argued for a single, non-anthropomorphic deity, and offered "rational" explanations of various physical phenomena (wind, rain, celestial bodies etc.). For the most part these topics were dealt with in hexameters and will consequently receive little attention in what follows. I
Date and Life
In fr. 8 Xenophanes tells us that he spent 67 years wandering about Greece and that 25 years had elapsed prior to this, and in fr. 22 he introduces an interlocutor who asks, "How old were you when the Mede came?" It is generally assumed that the Mede is Harpagus who subjugated Xenophanes' native city Colophon in the late 540s and that this was the date at which the poet began his 67 years of wandering. Diogenes Laertius (9.20) gives the 60th Olympiad (540- 37) as Xenophanes' floruit and he or his source may have used the arrival of Harpagus in Colophon as the evidence for his dating. It seems therefore that Xenophanes was born c. 565 and died c. 470. He clearly lived for at least 92 years (or 91 by inclusive reckoning) and Censorinus (15.3) states that he lived to be over 100. The poet's death c. 470 would be consistent with the testimony of Timaeus (21 A 8 D-K) that Xenophanes lived in the time of Hieron, tyrant of Sy racuse from 478 to 467. A divergent chronology, proposed by Apol lodorus, assigns Xenophanes' birth to the 40th Olympiad (620-17) and represents him as living "until the times of Darius and Cyrus" (Darius ascended the throne in 522 and Cyrus died in 529). This chronology, however, has been generally rejected and a detailed explanation of how it may have arisen is provided by Woodbury.2
1 The most recent general study of Xenophanes is by J. H. Lesher, Xeno phanes of Colophon, Fragments: A Text and Translation with a Commentary (Toronto 1992). There is an adequate bibliography on pp. 235-42. See also Lustrum 33 (1991) 215-19. 2 L. Woodbury, "Apollodorus, Xenophanes, and the Foundation of Massi- 130 ELEGY Poetry
According to Diogenes Laertius 9.18-20 Xenophanes' writings consisted of hexameters, elegies, iambi and a poem or poems on the foundation of Colophon and the colonization of Elea in Italy containing 2000 verses. 3 Diogenes mentions iambi, but it is uncertain what he means by the term. There is no evidence that Xenophanes composed poems consisting entirely of iambic verses·, although there is evidence that some of his poetry contained both iambic trimeters and dactylic hexameters (e.g., fr. 14). Perhaps this is what Diogenes had in mind. It is significant that Diogenes speaks not simply of iambi, but of "iambi against Hesiod and Homer" (icij...t~ouc; Ka9' 'Hm6Bou Kat 'Oj...ti)pou) , and fr. 14 could be placed in this category:
a'A'A' oi 13PO't0t DOKBOUcrt yevviicr9at 9eouc;, 'ti}v crcj>e'tep1')V S' ecr911'ta eX,.E'L v
Several sources state that Xenophanes composed a type of poetry called Silloi (1:iA.A.ot), apparently of considerable quantity since fr. 2la is cited from Book 5. The etymology is unclear, but the term is especially associated with Timon of Phlius, a sceptic philosopher and poet who lived in the 3rd century B.C.4 Timon's Silloi, com prising 66 fragments, all in hexameters, are characterized by a derisive and scornful ridicule directed towards rival philosophers. According to Sextus Empiricus (Pyrrh. hypot. 1.223-24) Timon frequently praised Xenophanes and actually dedicated his Silloi to him. It is uncertain, however, whether Xenophanes himself used the term Silloi or whether the title was assigned because Timon viewed him as a model. None of the sources which mention Xeno phanes' Silloi is earlier than the date of Ti.mon. Timon's hexa meters are not interspersed with iambic trimeters, but their ethos is certainly iambic and the same can be said of a number of Xeno-
lia," Phoenix 15 (1961) 134-55. Reprinted in: Collected Writings (Atlanta 1991) 96- 117. 3 See the section on Elegy (p. 9). 4 See M. Di Marco, Timone di Fliunte, Silli. Introduzione, edizione critica, tradu z.ione e comrnento (Rome 1989).