Xenophanesについての英文

質問

Xenophanes of Colophon

Following Thales, he criticizes the Homeric concept of anthropomorphic gods. Homer’s gods, Xenophanes complained, had all the immoral and disgraceful traits of flawed human beings and should hardly be the object of veneration.

In one of the earliest known expressions of cultural relativism, Xenophanes remarked that Homer’s gods were simply a reflection of Homerian culture. As he proclaimed, ‘the Ethiopians make their Gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair’. If oxen and horses had hands and could paint, Xenophanes said, oxen would no doubt paint the forms of gods like oxen and horses would paint them like horses.

Likewise, he criticized Pythagoras’ doctrine of the transmigration of souls, making fun of the idea that a human soul could inhabit another animal. Xenophanes held some vague concept of a single deity that was ‘in no way like men in shape or in thought’ but rather ‘causing all things by the thought of his mind’.

最後のところなのですが、
‘in no way like men in shape or in thought’ but rather ‘causing all things by the thought of his mind’.はどういう意味ですか？前半の‘in no way like men in shape or in thought’のところがわかりません。

よろしくお願いいたします。

回答No.1

bakansky · ベストアンサー

> Likewise, he criticized Pythagoras’ doctrine of the transmigration of souls, making fun of the idea that a human soul could inhabit another animal. Xenophanes held some vague concept of a single deity that was ‘in no way like men in shape or in thought’ but rather ‘causing all things by the thought of his mind’.

　クセノパネスも、ピタゴラスの魂の転生説、すなわち人間の魂は別の動物の魂に輪廻するという考えを受け入れなかった。クセノパネスは、姿かたちや心はいささかも人間と異なり、万象をその心のままに作り出すような、単一神という考えをぼんやりと抱いていた。

　not A but B という構文はご存知かと思いますが、ここではその変形ともいえる形が使われています。in no way が not と等価、あるいはもっと強い表現としてあり、その先に but が現れてきます。構文としては not A but B と同じことです。

　like men in shape or in thought は、ユダヤ教の神 （後にはキリスト教の神にもなりますが） のような、人の姿は神の姿を映したものだとする考え方です。姿だけでなく、思考する特製も神 （唯一神） に通じるものだとすることを表現する文です。

お礼

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