The Sentences of the Pseudo-Greek Poets

The Sentences of the Pseudo-Greek Poets

[Verses on the one God, circulated under the names of famous Greek poets and quoted by later writers as witnesses to monotheism among the Greeks. Their attribution is not genuine; they are presented here as the tradition preserved them.]

[Attributed to Sophocles]

There is one God, in truth there is but one,

who made the heaven and the broad earth,

the gleaming swell of the sea and the might of the winds.

But we mortals, wandering in our hearts,

set up images of gods in stone and wood and gold,

and to these dead things we offer worship.

[Attributed to Aeschylus]

Set God apart from mortals, and do not suppose

that he is, like yourself, but flesh.

You do not know him: now he appears as fire,

now as water, now as gloom of night.

He is the all, and over the all he reigns.

[Attributed to Menander]

If you would honor God, be good and just;

do good, and seek no costly sacrifice.

God looks not on the greatness of the gift,

but on the heart of the one who brings it.