Notes Toward Gods Among Men

Last Updated: 2025-01-21

(See also passages from Democritus, with others to follow.)

• Epigraph: "Man can either be less than man or more than man, and both are monstrous, the last more dread." —Henry Beston
• "According to early tradition, the awakening left the Buddha in a stunned silence." (Batchelor, Secular Buddhism, p. 221.) This is exactly what was claimed of Pyrrho - ἀφασία.
• "In some places, the Macedonians worshipped Zeus in combination with the supreme god of Egypt, Amon. The oracle of Zeus at Dodona, in the mountains of Epirus west of Greece, instructed them to. All things Egyptian were prestigious, and so the Macedonians obeyed the oracle and worshipped Zeus and Amon together. Later, when Alexander came to the throne, this local idiosyncrasy would provide him an introduction to Egyptian religion." From Soldier, Priest, and God: A Life of Alexander the Great by F.S. Naiden.
• Xenocrates went with Aristotle to Atarneus at or before the death of Plato in 348 (even though he was opposed to Macedonian influence) and in 340 was called by Speusippus to return so as to become scholiarch of the Academy; yet there was an election anyway in 339/338. Note also that Xenocrates was three times a member of Athenian legations to Macedonian leaders, once to Philip and twice to Antipater.
• Being adoxastos is similar to the cultivation of naive perception in painting. (cf. Bergson on pure perception.)
• I need to look into the positions of all the schools on doxa; specifically, the interactions among hupolepsis (consideration), epamphotizerein (going both ways, accepting ambiguity), psellizein (hesitation), adoxastos (lacking opinions), aklines (being uninclined), epoche (suspension of judgment), and ataraxia (serenity).
• There is a good quote from Lieh Tzu on conquering oneself: "In the world there is a Way by which one will always conquer and there is a way by which one will never conquer. The former is called Weakness, ther latter is called Strength. The two are easy to recognise, but still me do not recognise them. Hence the saying of the men of the most ancient times: 'The strong surpass those weaker than themselves, the weak surpass those stronger than themselves.' The man who surpasses men weaker than himself is in danger when he meets someone as strong as himself, but the man who surpasses men stronger than himself is never in dngaer. The saying 'By this you conquer your own body and make it your servant, but this you employ the whole world as your servant' means that you conquer not others but yourself, employ not others but yourself." (tr Graham, p. 52)
• Another meaning of astathmeta could be “conditional” (nothing is quite haplos, i.e., plain and simple, without caveats).
• Another meaning of adiaphora could be “dependent” (since to be completely independent or autarkic is to be fully differentiated).
• On the road to action, anepikrita comes last: nothing is fully decidable and determinate, there is always some uncertainty about the situations we find ourselves in and some imprecision in our actions, the consequences cannot be completely foreseen, etc. Note that epikritos means “capable of determination or resolution” (LSJ).
• In LSJ, one meaning of pragmata is “circumstances” or “fortunes”
• The best examples of doxa are broadly ethical, e.g., that happiness consists in the pursuit of pleasure, that success is a matter of wealth and power, or that the only real good is virtue. To be adoxastos is to refrain from accepting these beliefs and engaging in the associated practices. The result of being adoxastos is moderation, humaneness, spontaneity, and wisdom.
• As with the Odyssey, the story should include a series of tests (peirai) that establish Pyrrho’s quality as a person and philosopher.
• Lattimore observes that the qualities of Odysseus are strength, courage, ingenuity, patience, and self-control (p. 19); also wisdom and persuasiveness.
• Creative beholding of the kind that Pyrrho engaged in as an artist requires letting go of memories and opinions about what something should be, in favor of pure presence; this is a paradigm case of being adoxastos. In this connection, note that immediate perception is not something for which one can provide an account (logos) or a spelling-out (apodeixis).
• Compare the mutiny of Alexander’s army in India to Iliad 2.110ff.
• The gods are “unpredictable, whimsical, and capricious beings” (Ahrensdorf, p. 57) who are “unreliable” and “fundamentally indifferent” (ibid., p. 59) as well as “mysterious” (ibid., p. 246); thus they contribute to (or represent) the very precarity of human affairs that Pyrrho identifies through his concept of astathmeta (Buddhist dukkha). Indeed, we could say that, regarding human affairs, the gods are unpredictable (astathmeta), indifferent (adiaphora), and inscrutable (anepikrita). The antidote is for humans to be steadfast, caring, and forthright toward each other. Note also that the missing qualities of the gods seem to be correlated with good character, good will, and good judgment (cf Aristotle Rhetoric); thus the gods cannot be trusted. Why then was Pyrrho a priest of Zeus?
• If the gods are indifferent and unpredictable and inscrutable, you might think the antidote is to be humane and steadfast and forthright. Yet that isn't the conclusion that Pyrrho draws, at least not directly. Instead, he takes a detour through the need to be adoxastos. Why?
• There are hints in Greek mythology that someday Athena (wisdom) might overthrow Zeus (power); given that Alexander claimed to be the son of Zeus-Ammon, the role of philosophy here is intriguing.
• One angle on the story is Homer’s revenge on Plato. Investigate the dialogues (esp the Republic) in this light.
• "To serve the god was ... the foremost of the original functions of the priest.... The Greek priest neither taught nor preached; he was mainly the servant of the god and a professional of sacrifice." (Sabourin, Priesthood: A Comparative Study, pp. 36-37)
• "Greek priests ... did not constitute a particularly transcendent class of professionals. In the Stoic philosophical speculation, however, only the sage is truly equipped for what a priest is called to be, and the human attainment of virtue is made the basis of priesthood." (Sabourin, Priesthood: A Comparative Study, pp. 40)

Peter Saint-Andre > Writings > Gods Among Men