Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis (c. 405 BCE), l. 1035. Translated by Edward P. Coleridge, 1891.
• Translated by Charles R. Walker, 1958, as "If there are none, all our toil is without meaning."
• Translated by W. S. Merwin and George E. Dimock, Jr., 1978, as "If there are none, what does anything matter?"

If there are none [no gods], what need to toil?

— Euripides on Atheism

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If there are none [no gods], what need to toil?" in the context of "Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis (c. 405 BCE), l. 1035. Translated by Edward P. Coleridge, 1891.
• Translated by Charles R. Walker, 1958, as "If there are none, all our toil is without meaning."
• Translated by W. S. Merwin and George E. Dimock, Jr., 1978, as "If there are none, what does anything matter?"" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Atheism" (E) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Euripides

About Euripides

Euripides (Greek: Εὐριπίδης; c. 480 BC–406 BC) was a Greek playwright.