Atheism in Pagan Antiquity

Atheism in Pagan Antiquity by A. B. Drachmann

A difficulty that occurred at the very beginning of the inquiry was how to define the notion of atheism. Nowadays the term s taken to designate the attitude which denes every idea of God. Even antiquity sometimes referred to atheism n this sense, but an inquiry dealing with the history of religion could not start from a definition of that kind. It would have to keep n view, not the philosophical noton of God, but the conceptions of the gods as they appear n the religion of antiquity. Hence I came to define atheism n Pagan antiquity as the point of view which denes the existence of the ancient gods. It is an the sense that the word will be used n the following inquiry.