I get asked this question a lot on AIM...
Xenophanes was an early Greek philosopher (570 - 470 B.C.). He was also a critic of the social and religious mores of the time. Xenophanes did not believe in the pantheon of less-than-moral Greek gods; rather, he reasoned that there must be only one perfect, omnipresent God. He's sometimes seen as one of the first non-Hebrew monotheists. He has a rather funny quote somewhere about how if oxen created gods, their gods would look like oxen, so why should the Greeks believe in human-like gods?
Xenophanes also criticized the great love that Greeks had for athletics. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that that's another reason I like Xen; I'm not a sports fan at all either.
And yes, supposedly he lived to be one hundred years old, quite impressive for the time (though Cicero's first wife, Terentia, beat Xen by three years--and
her age is historical fact!).
