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What is a God?

In his old age, the poet Simonides went to live in the court of Dionysios, the tyrant of Syracuse.

One day, Dionysios asked him, “Simonides, what is a god?”

“Give me a day to think about it,” said Simonides.

The next day, Simonides went to Dionysios and said, “Give me another two days to think about it.”

Two days later, Simonides went to Dionysios again and said, “Give me another four days to think about it.”

Dionysios says, “What's up?”

Simonides says, “I find that the longer I think about the matter, the more obscure it becomes.”

 

Retold from: Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 1.22.60

 

 

 

 

 

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Tagged in: Gods Simonides
Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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