TIL

[timelets]

Triggered, among other things, angerona's posts about "the guy in the sky", I recently learned a passage from Odyssey where Homer describes "lawless outrageous cyclops" as those who rely exclusively on gods:

“ and reached the country of the lawless outrageous
Cyclopes who, putting all their trust in the immortal
gods, neither plow with their hands nor plant anything,
but all grows for them without seed planting, without cultivation,
110 wheat and barley and also the grapevines, which yield for them
wine of strength, and it is Zeus' rain that waters it for them.
These people have no institutions, no meetings for counsels;”

--- Homer, The Odyssey.

Even three thousand years ago, people knew quite well that in human affairs laws of man vs the will of gods separate civilized nations from barbarians.