worked. This thorough-going skepticism about religious practice resulted from his understanding of the physical properties of the universe. Some spectacular events that occurred in nature, popularly believed to be signs from the gods, were, he scoffed, no such thing. The rainbow, which the Greeks knew as the goddess Iris, was just a cloud with colorful streaks. When sailors saw purple lights flashing from the top of their masts (St. Elmo’s fire, caused by freak electrical charges, often after thunder), it was not the Dioscuri pledging their protection but clouds generating light as they moved.
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