I maintain,
Some shrewd man first, a man in counsel wise,
Discovered unto men the fear of Gods,
Thereby to frighten sinners should they sin
E'en secretly in deed, or word, or thought.
" - Meaning and context.">
Sisyphus fragment, in Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, bk. 1 sec. 54 (tr. R. G. Bury, L311)
He was a wise man who originated the idea of God. (Cassell's, 1907)

Σοφὸς ἦν τις, ὃς τὸ θεῖον εἰσηγήσατο.
I maintain,
Some shrewd man first, a man in counsel wise,
Discovered unto men the fear of Gods,
Thereby to frighten sinners should they sin
E'en secretly in deed, or word, or thought.

— Euripides

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Σοφὸς ἦν τις, ὃς τὸ θεῖον εἰσηγήσατο.
I maintain,
Some shrewd man first, a man in counsel wise,
Discovered unto men the fear of Gods,
Thereby to frighten sinners should they sin
E'en secretly in deed, or word, or thought.
" in the context of "Sisyphus fragment, in Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, bk. 1 sec. 54 (tr. R. G. Bury, L311)
He was a wise man who originated the idea of God. (Cassell's, 1907)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Euripides" (Disputed) 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.