Battling the Gods

September 14, 2015
In this lucid work, Whitmarsh (Greek Literature and the Roman Empire), AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge, reviews prominent atheist or questioning thinkers in the ancient world, from the archaic Greek writers of the pre-classical era to the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire. Whitmarsh’s textual analysis and presentation of ancient debates reveal dynamics of change and diversity within a culture too often regarded (in historical perspective) as fixed or flat and easily summarized. Countering that tendency, Whitmarsh covers everyone from the famous Socrates and Plutarch to lesser-known figures such as Aemilianus, with discussions of their thoughts on religion and how their contemporaries confronted and dealt with those ideas. Whitmarsh is a skilled writer, employing accessible prose, clear organization of well-researched details, and erudite references and connections beyond the classical world that reveal his wide-ranging intellect. In his capable hands, this topic will engage readers from classical scholars to interested laypeople, and may even introduce new context and perspectives into our own era’s treatment of religion, secularism, and the role of doubt.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
Whitmarsh (Greek Culture/Univ. of Cambridge; Beyond the Second Sophistic: Adventures in Greek Postclassicism, 2013, etc.) explores the evolution of atheism from Homer to the Roman Empire. With a nonprofessorial, relaxed style, he first explains that ancient Greece had no real religion. They had no centralized political or religious hub and no sacred texts. Their mythical, polytheistic gods were regionalized to suit geographic needs, and the myths were an expression of community through shared sacrifice and feasting. They revealed values and explained why things were as they were. The gods were not omnipotent, and the myths illustrated theomachy, wherein man confronts and tries to usurp the gods-e.g., the tale of Prometheus. The pre-Socratic philosophers pondered the nature of the world through philosophy rather than religion. Whitmarsh delves deeply into the many philosophers who felt gods were invented by humans or saw laws, in addition to religion, as merely imposition of order. The author's erudition is impressive as he thoroughly explains the works of Plato, Diagoras, Anaxagoras, Theodorus, and Xenophon; however, less-informed readers may be overwhelmed. Whitmarsh examines the works of the dramatists, including Sophocles and Euripides, of the Hellenistic world, who introduced the idea of a king as god. The work of the Sophists, Stoics, Epicureans, and Lucian all contributed to what was still an evolving thought process. While the narrative can be exhausting, it is never dull, and the author clearly explains the idea that atheism wasn't truly a concept until the arrival of established religion. To disbelieve in a god, you must disprove him. However, as the author writes, "this is a work of history, not of proselytism. It is not my aim to prove the truth (or indeed falsehood) of atheism as a philosophical position." Though not for those seeking a light read, this is a seminal work on the subject, to be studied, reread, and referenced.

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November 1, 2015

Whitmarsh (A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge Univ.; Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel) provides a chronological survey of heterodoxical philosophy in the ancient Mediterranean, revealing how the elasticity of Greek thought allowed for the development of scientific naturalism and materialism. He focuses on the Greek world, beginning with Homer and Hesiod, pushing forth through the classical period up to the adoption of Christianity during the late Roman Empire. The book provides context to the lives and personalities of Greek heterodoxical thinkers, including Democritus, Socrates, Diogenes, and Lucian. Important Greek schools, such as the Stoics and Epicureans, are compared and contrasted, and social and historical contexts fleshed out. So deeply does the text discuss the evolution and transformation of Greek thought that the work also succeeds as a general overview of ancient philosophy. Oftentimes, Whitmarsh details the personalities who "battled the gods," revealing the subtle wordplay that can turn ideas and assumptions inside out. Occasionally, however, he paints with a big paintbrush, and generalizations appear, as when he claims that Greek polytheism did not display the intolerance characterized by later monotheism; Antiochus IV comes to mind as at least one counterexample. VERDICT A thorough survey of philosophical counterculture in ancient Greek society.--Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA

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Starred review from October 1, 2015
Among the scrolls retrieved from beneath the lava that destroyed Pompeii, a work of Prodicus of Ceos declares, The gods of popular belief do not exist. That provocative declaration attracts Whitmarsh, a historian intent on tracing a lineage of unbelievers among the ancient Greeks. That lineage includes the historian Thucydides, who discerned no divine influences in the Peloponnesian War; the philosopher Democritus, whose physics involved only the chance movement of atoms; and the poet Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first person to advance atheism as an intellectual virtue. Predictably, early Greek atheists aroused the ire of pious contemporaries, including Athenian legislators, who outlawed unbelief as a threat to their democracy, and Plato, who justified such legal measures. Deep ironyunderscored by Whitmarshinheres in Plato's justifications for laws against impiety, given that his revered teacher, Socrates, was condemned under such a law. Further ironies emerge in the way Christian apologists claimed Greek iconoclasts as forerunners whose doubts about the Greek gods cleared the ground for faith in the true God. Not all readers will share Whitmarsh's dismay at how Christianity drove atheism underground for centuries. But fans of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, and the other New Atheists will value his account of their forebears.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)