Onatas () was a

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

philosopher who lived in or around the 5th century BC, possibly in either Croton or Tarentum in

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

. Nothing more is known about his life, but he is credited by

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; ; 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each. The tw ...

as the author of a pseudonymous

Neo-Pythagorean Neopythagoreanism (or neo-Pythagoreanism) was a school of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy which revived Pythagorean doctrines. Neopythagoreanism was influenced by middle Platonism and in turn influenced Neoplatonism. It originated in the 1st ce ...

work from the 1st century BC or AD entitled ''On God and the Divine'' (), which Stobaeus excerpts a long passage from. The author of the passage ("Pseudo-Onatas") argues against the belief in a single deity, on the basis that the universe itself is not God but only divine, but that

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

is a governing part of the universe. He argues that since there are many "powers" in the universe, therefore they must belong to different gods. Pseudo-Onatas also claimed that the earthy mixture of the body defiles the purity of the soul.James M. Reese, (1970), ''Hellenistic influence on the Book of Wisdom and its consequences'', page 87. Pontificium Institutum Biblicum

Notes

5th-century BC Greek philosophers Ancient Crotonians Pythagoreans of Magna Graecia {{DEFAULTSORT:Onatas