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September 25, 2006
Integrity Restored, Zeus Attacked
What a juicy contretemp (relatively speaking) followed the decision by the Raving Atheist to cease all attacks on Jesus and Christianity. Suffering from contretemps envy and in a moment of heightened cravenness, I contemplated withholding all attacks on Zeus and paganism. And, faithful (so to speak) readers will note that there has not been one attack on Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Athena or any of the Olympians in the past month.
However, my commitment to free and open discussion has proven stronger even than my desire for an attention-getting scandal. So blogosphere, you can forget your angry charges of hypocrisy (which, to be sure, seemed a bit slow in coming)! To demonstrate that this is once again a site where No God is Safe, I give you an attack on Zeus.
It is from one of the satires written by Lucian, the popular 2nd-century Greek writer. In it Zeus explains that he heard "Professor Anaxagoras" -- a pre-Socratic philosopher/scientist --"trying to convince his students that we gods are just nobodies." Zeus' response? He hurled his thunderbolt at him. "I threw it too hard," the god acknowledges. And he missed, hitting a temple instead. (Thunderbolts hitting temples have always been among the signs from the heavens that interest disbelievers most.) Now, Lucian reports, the king of the gods is complaining that he needs to get his "thunderbolt…fixed."
Posted by Mitchell Stephens at September 25, 2006 9:50 AM
Comments
Trust me. The contretemp is NOT all it's cracked up to be. You're better off without one. As is this site, which probably has the most intelligent discussion I've seen on the web in months.
Posted by: Melinda Barton at September 25, 2006 1:19 PM
Is that ancient greek for Zeus needing to get his groove back? (dangerous thought since his groove seemed to do a whole lot of damage most of the time, whether his thunderbolt hit the 'right' target or not)
Posted by: JM at September 25, 2006 11:20 PM
