Editing Epimenides paradox (section)

== Origin of the phrase ==
Epimenides was a 6th-century BC philosopher and religious prophet who, against the general sentiment of Crete, proposed that [[Zeus]] was immortal, as in the following [[poem]]:
{{Quotation|They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one<br>The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!<br>But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,<br>For in thee we live and move and have our being.|Epimenides|Cretica}}

Denying the immortality of Zeus, then, was the lie of the Cretans.

The phrase "Cretans, always liars" was quoted by the poet [[Callimachus]] in his ''Hymn to Zeus'', with the same theological intent as Epimenides:

{{Quotation|O Zeus, some say that thou wert born on the hills of Ida;<br> Others, O Zeus, say in Arcadia;<br> Did these or those, O Father lie? -- "Cretans are ever liars". <br>Yea, a tomb, O Lord, for thee the Cretans builded;<br> But thou didst not die, for thou art for ever.|Callimachus|Hymn I to Zeus}}