Sophist Kriti... — In Late Fifth-century Athens, The

He was the most violent leader of the Thirty Tyrants , the pro-Spartan oligarchy that ruled Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War.

His most famous intellectual contribution is an argument found in the play Sisyphus , which suggests that the gods are a clever human invention designed by early lawmakers to keep people in check through fear. In late fifth-century Athens, the sophist Kriti...

Critias was a complex figure in the "Sophistic Enlightenment" of late 5th-century Athens. Unlike itinerant sophists like Protagoras or Gorgias, he was a native Athenian and a relative of Plato. He was the most violent leader of the