Anders Bjorn Drachmann

Atheism in Pagan Antiquity Anders Bjorn Drachmann

The study of the concept of atheism, or of heresy, irreligion, and related topics, is a fascinating one; and this particular work, initially an oratory series of lectures, focuses on the idea within ancient Greece and in Greece after the culmination of Roman occupation.

It is a dense topic. The idea of mere improper worship in a civic sense has to be differentiated from abject disbelief itself, and the evolution of philosophy goes hand in hand with the concept; from Anaximander, and Xenophanes, then Socrates- drinking hemlock after being condemned- through Diogenes and others. A bit of linguistics is studied here as well due to the differential interpretations of words such as "Daemon." The importance of rituals in the sense of being "proper" is key in many passages here.