Oenomaus of Gadara ( grc-gre, Οἰνόμαος ὁ Γαδαρεύς, ''Oinomaus ho Gadareus''; fl. 2nd century AD), was a Pagan Cynic philosopher. He is known principally for the long extracts of a work attacking oracles, which have been preserved among the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea.

Life

Oenomaus was a native of

Gadara Gadara ( el, Γάδαρα ''Gádara''), in some texts Gedaris, was an ancient Hellenistic city, for a long time member of the Decapolis city league, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. Its ruins are today located at Umm ...

,Blank, David
"Philodemus"
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), accessed 3 June 2020. which was then a partially Hellenized community in northern Jordan. He is listed in the '' Chronicle'' of

Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...

as flourishing in the 224th Olympiad (117 to 121 AD): "

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

of Chaeronea,

Sextus Sextus is an ancient Roman '' praenomen'' or "first name". Its standard abbreviation is Sex., and the feminine form would be Sexta. It is one of the numeral ''praenomina'', like Quintus ("fifth") and Decimus ("tenth"), and means "sixth". Althoug ...

, Agathobulus and Oenomaus are considered notable philosophers." He is also mentioned in ''The Chronography of

George Synkellos George Syncellus ( el, Γεώργιος Σύγκελλος, ''Georgios Synkellos''; died after 810) was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine (region), Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra o ...

'' associated with events from 109 to 120 AD "The philosopher

, as well as Agathobulus and Oenomaus were becoming known." It has been suggested that Oenomaus is identical to the philosopher ''Abnimos ha-Gardi'', who is mentioned several times in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

and

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

as the pagan friend of

Rabbi Meir Rabbi Meir ( he, רַבִּי מֵאִיר) was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah. He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139-163). He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishn ...

. Although this is not impossible, there is nothing in the Jewish stories to provide a convincing link to Oenomaus.

Works

According to the '' Suda'', Oenomaus wrote the following works: *''On Cynicism'' (Περὶ Κυνισμοῦ) *''Republic'' (Πολιτεία) *''On philosophy according to Homer'' (Περὶ τῆς καθ' Ὅμηρον φιλοσοφίας) *''On Crates and Diogenes'' (Περὶ Κράτητος καὶ Διογένους) *And other books about other subjects. The Emperor Julian also mentions that Oenomaus wrote tragedies. This list, however, does not include the work which is best known to us, namely, his attack on the oracles, which is sometimes entitled ''Against the Oracle'' (), but the proper title of which seems to have been ''Detection of Deceivers'' (, la, Detectio Praestigiatorum).

''Detection of Deceivers''

Long extracts of this work are preserved by

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

in his '' Praeparatio Evangelica''. Oenomaus was provoked to write this work having himself been deceived by an oracle. In the extracts available to us, Oenomaus attacks the various legendary accounts of the oracles (especially the

Oracle at Delphi Pythia (; grc, Πυθία ) was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness ...

), launching a facetious attack on the supposed god (

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

) behind the oracular pronouncements:

In so great a danger all were looking to you, and you were both their informant of the future, and their adviser as to present action. And while they believed you trustworthy, you were sure that they were fools; and that the present opportunity was convenient for drawing on the simpletons, and driving them headlong, not only to the schools of sophistry at Delphi and Dodona, but also to the seats of divination by barley and by wheat-flour, and to the ventriloquists.

His scorn culminates in an attack on the quackery which he sees behind the pronouncements:

And it seems to me that you are no better than the so-called marvel-mongers, nay not even than the rest of the quacks and sophists. At them, however, I do not wonder, that they abandon men for pay; but I do wonder at you, the god, and at mankind, that they pay to be abandoned.

Naturally, not everyone in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

world was impressed Oenomaus' thoughts; the Emperor Julian accused him of impiety:

Let not the Cynic be shameless or impudent after the fashion of Oenomaus, a scorner of all things divine and human: rather let him be, like
Diogenes Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...
, reverent towards the divine.

Oenomaus, like most Cynics, was not an atheist, but he did view the gods as being unconcerned with human affairs. One of his targets was the Stoics who held that

Fate Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...

governs everything and yet admitted human liberty in how we respond to Fate:

For surely the most ridiculous of all things is this, the mixture and combination of the two notions, that there is something in men's own power, and that there is nevertheless a fixed chain of causation.Eusebius
''Praeparatio Evangelica'', book vi.
7.

This apparent contradiction was at the heart of Oenomaus's attack on oracles, since Apollo at Delphi, far from being able to do his own will, would be compelled by

to make his pronouncements. More importantly, oracular pronouncements, according to Oenomaus, if true, remove free-will from human beings.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oenomaus Of Gadara 2nd-century philosophers Roman-era Cynic philosophers Pagans Cynicism