The Epimenides paradox reveals a problem with self-reference in logic.

A paradox of self-reference arises when one considers whether it is possible for Epimenides to have spoken the truth.

Thomas Fowler ( 1869 ) states the paradox as follows: " Epimenides the Cretan says, ' that all the Cretans are liars ,' but Epimenides is himself a Cretan ; therefore he is himself a liar.

Paradoxical versions of the Epimenides problem are closely related to a class of more difficult logical problems, including the liar paradox, Russell's paradox, and the Burali-Forti paradox, all of which have self-reference in common with Epimenides.

Indeed, the Epimenides paradox is usually classified as a variation on the liar paradox, and sometimes the two are not distinguished.

During the early 4th Century, Saint Augustine restates the closely related liar paradox in Against the Academicians ( III. 13. 29 ), but without mentioning Epimenides.

In the Middle Ages, many forms of the liar paradox were studied under the heading of insolubilia, but these were not explicitly associated with Epimenides.

Finally, in 1740, the second volume of Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique explicitly connects Epimenides with the paradox, though Bayle labels the paradox a " sophisme ".

In that article, Russell uses the Epimenides paradox as the point of departure for discussions of other problems, including the Burali-Forti paradox and the paradox now called Russell's paradox.

Since Russell, the Epimenides paradox has been referenced repeatedly in logic.

The first paradox ( the Liar ) is probably the most famous, and is similar to the famous paradox of Epimenides the Cretan.

One of the secular peculiarities of the Epistle to Titus is the inclusion of text which has become known as the Epimenides paradox.

An oblique reference to Epimenides in the context of logic appears in " The Logical Calculus " by W. E. Johnson, Mind ( New Series ), volume 1, number 2 ( April, 1892 ), pages 235 – 250.

Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful.

Epimenides was also said to have prophesied at Sparta on military matters.

Several prose and poetic works, now lost, were attributed to Epimenides, including a theogony, an epic poem on the Argonautic expedition, prose works on purifications and sacrifices, a cosmogony, oracles, a work on the laws of Crete, and a treatise on Minos and Rhadymanthus.

Diogenes Laertius, an Epicurean philosopher of the third century, includes the story of Epimenides in his book On the Lives, Opinions, and Sayings of Famous Philosophers, in chapter ten in his section on the Seven Sages of Greece, precursors to the first philosophers.

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Epimenides.

He writes that the Cretan-seer Epimenides, purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae, and that the seer's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state.

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

All of the works of Epimenides are now lost, and known only through quotations by other authors.

The quotation from the Cretica of Epimenides is given by R. N.

: Compare, for example, such occasions for fallacy as are supplied by " Epimenides is a liar " or " That surface is red ," which may be resolved into " All or some statements of Epimenides are false ," " All or some of the surface is red.

Epimenides the Cretan said that all Cretans were liars, and all other statements made by Cretans were certainly lies.

Plutarch writes that Epimenides purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae, and that the seer's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state.

As revealed in the Epistle to Titus in the New Testament and confirmed by Cretan poet Epimenides the people of Crete were considered by these Christians to be liars and gluttons.

The case of Democritus is different from the case of, for example, Epimenides of Crete ( 7th, 6th centuries BC ), who is said to have lived 154, 157 or 290 years, as has been said about countless elders even during the last centuries as well as in the present time. The philosopher and theologian Ramanuja lived from 1017CE to 1137 CE. His body is said to be not perished and kept at Sri Ranganather temple, Trichy district, Tamilnadu India as exhibit These cases are not verifiable by modern means.

" The so-called Epimenides paradox (" All Cretans are liars ," as stated by Epimenides the Cretan ) is a forerunner of this, though its status as a paradox is disputed.

Phaistian in his descent was Epimenides who was the wise man who had been invited by the Athenians to clean the city from the Cylonian affair ( Cyloneio agos ) at the 6th cent.

Paul introduced another quotation from Epimenides ( de Oraculis ) by calling him a prophet of the Cretans ( Titus 1: 12-13 ).

Diogenes Laertius preserves a number of spurious letters between Epimenides and Solon in his Lives of the Philosophers.

An exception common to all the different views of inspiration is that, although the New Testament Scriptures quote, paraphrase, and refer to other works including other New Testament documents, the Septuagint ( the Jewish translation of the Torah into Greek, later books were translated anonymously and later included in the Septuagint ), including the Apocrypha, and the Greek writers Aratus, Epimenides, Menander, and perhaps Philo, none of the various views of inspiration teach that these referenced works were also necessarily inspired, though some teach that the use and application of these other materials is inspired, in some sense.

* Epimenides ( and later Aratus, Phaenomena 5 ), ( Acts 17: 28 ).

Imitations of his work have been observed in Alcaeus, Epimenides, Mimnermus, Semonides, Tyrtaeus and Archilochus, from which it has been inferred that the latest possible date for him is about 650 BC.

Other ancient sources which could suggest the liar paradox, including Saint Augustine, Cicero, and the quotation of Epimenides appearing in the Epistle to Titus, were not cited in discussions of insolubilia.

About five kilometers southeast from the crater's southern edge is the satellite crater Epimenides S, which is almost the same size as the main crater and is nearly circular, except for a craterlet making an indentation in its eastern side.

The story indicates that Epimenides was probably heir to the shamanic religions of Asia, and proves together with the Homeric hymn, that Crete had a resisting religion up to the historical times.

It is named after the Cretan philosopher Epimenides of Knossos ( alive circa 600 BC ) who is credited with the original statement.

Pausanias reports that when Epimenides died, his skin was found to be covered with tattooed writing.

Some modern scholars have seen this as evidence that Epimenides was heir to the shamanic religions of Central Asia, because tattooing is often associated with shamanic initiation.

Epimenides is also reckoned with Melampus and Onomacritus as one of the founders of Orphism.