Xenophanes of Colophon
(c. 570- c 480 B.C.) A contemporary of Pythagoras who may have been a student of Anaximander. Usually associated with the Milesian school, his studies carried him into an examination of the phenomena of nature. He held that all living creatures had an origin, that plants and animals had natural origins. — E.H.
To Xenophanes is due the saying”The gods of the Ethiopians are dark-skinned and snub-nosed, the gods of the Thracians are fair and blue-eyed; if oxen could paint, their gods would be oxen.”