Sisyphus

The Sisyphus fragment is a fragment from Classical Attic drama which is thought to contain an early argument for atheism, claiming that a clever man invented "the fear of the gods" in order to frighten people into behaving morally. The fragment was preserved in the works of the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus. In antiquity, its authorship was disputed and is attributed in one tradition to Euripides, in another Critias, but the fragment indicates clear intellectual influences that are less under dispute. This includes the thought of Democritus, as Charles H. Kahn has argued. Like the Sisyphus fragment, Democritus wrote that early humans believed in the gods through fear of natural celestial phenomena: Text The Greek text is conserved in Sextus Empiricus Against the Physicists Book 1 Section 54 Several English versions exist. That by R. G. Bury runs:- A time there was when anarchy did rule The lives of men, which then were like the beasts, Enslaved by force; nor was there then reward For good men, nor for wicked punishment. Next, as I deem, did men establish laws For punishment, that Justice might be lord Of all mankind, and Insolence enchain'd; And whosoe'r did sin was penalized. Next, as the laws did hold men back from deeds Of open violence, but still such deeds Were done in secret,—then, as I maintain, Some shrewd man first, a man in counsel wise, Discovered unto men the fear of Gods, Thereby to frighten sinners should they sin E'en secretly in deed, or word, or thought. Hence was it that he brought in Deity Telling how God enjoys an endless life, Hears with his mind and sees, and taketh thought And heeds things, and his nature is divine, So that he hearkens to men's every word And has the power to see men's every act. E'en if you plan in silence some ill deed, The Gods will surely mark it; for in them Wisdom resides.