From the Beginning to Plato

216 ANAXAGORAS AND THE ATOMISTS
have no knowledge of how, if at all, Democritus attempted to deal with this
problem.
Theology
Another disputed question is whether Democritus’ materialistic account of the
universe left any room for the divine. According to most of the ancient sources,
he believed that there are gods, which are living, intelligent, material beings (of a
peculiar sort), playing a significant role in human affairs. They are atomic
compounds, and like all such compounds they come to be and perish. They did
not create the physical world (of which they are pan), nor, though they are
intelligent, do they organize or control it. They are as firmly part of the natural
order as any other living beings. Specifically, Democritus believed the gods to be
living eidōla, probably of gigantic size, possessing intelligence, moral character
and interest in human affairs. While some sources suggest that these eidōla
emanate from actual divine beings, the majority of sources agree that they are
themselves the only divine beings which Democritus recognized. Some modern
scholars (e.g. Barnes [2.8], ch. 21 (c)) interpret this as amounting to atheism,
taking Democritus to have held that the gods are nothing more than the contents
of human fantasy. But for Democritus eidōla are not intrinsically psychological;
they are not contents of subjective states, but part of the objective world, causing
psychological states through their impact on physical minds. In that case the theory
must explain their source and their properties, notably their being alive. Since
they are of human form, it is plausible to suggest that their source is actual
humans, possibly giants living in the remote past. They are themselves alive in
that, flowing from beings permeated with soul-atoms, they contain soul-atoms
themselves. Consistently with this naturalistic theology Democritus gave a
naturalistic account of the origin of religion, identifying two types of phenomena
as having given rise to religious belief, first the occurrence of eidōla themselves,
presumably in dreams and ecstatic states, and second celestial phenomena such
as thunder, lightning and eclipses.
Democritus’ theology thus contrives to incorporate some of the most
characteristic features of the gods of traditional belief, notably their
anthropomorphism, power, longevity (though not, crucially, immortality)
personal interaction with humans and interest (for good or ill) in human affairs,
within the framework of a naturalistic and materialistic theory. It is thus, despite
the bold originality of its account of the divine nature, notably more conservative
than some of its predecessors (especially the non-anthropomorphic theology of
Xenophanes) and than its Epicurean successor, whose main concern is to exclude
the gods from all concern with human affairs.