Inventions and Praises by Critias of Athens

Inventions and Praises is a collection of philosophical prose passages attributed to Critias of Athens, a prominent figure of the late 5th century BCE. The work survives not as a complete text but as a series of seven fragments preserved by later authors, most notably the anthologist John Stobaeus in the 5th century CE. It presents a rationalist history of human culture, systematically arguing that civilization was built not by divine intervention but through a series of human inventions and discoveries. The fragments catalogue various cultural and technological advancements, attributing them to specific peoples or cities, and include a notable passage praising the deliberate discovery of wine and drunkenness for their benefits of pleasure and relief from sorrow.

Reflecting the sophistic intellectual movement of its time, which sought naturalistic explanations for social customs and religious beliefs, the work proposes a proto-euhemerist theory. Critias suggests that the gods were originally mortal inventors or benefactors who were later deified by a grateful populace. Inventions and Praises is a secular, anthropological account aimed at an educated audience engaged in contemporary debates concerning the human origins of law, religion, and technology. These quoted fragments, though limited, offer a significant glimpse into sophistic theories on cultural progress and the deliberate human agency behind societal development.