Ancient
The original meaning of pagan is "rural" as opposed to "urban", and only came to refer to "non-Abrahamic" as opposed to Jewish, Christian and Islam in the 6th century, and it is therefore strictly an anachronism to apply the term to earlier times, although this is sometimes done (e.g. the three pagan "worthies" of William Caxton, Hector, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar). The list includes only individuals of the Common Era who were "pagan" in contrast to emerging Christianity.
Read more about this topic: List Of Pagans
Famous quotes containing the word ancient:
“Still green with bays each ancient altar stands
Above the reach of sacrilegious hands,”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Here is the ancient floor,
Footworn and hollowed and thin
Here was the former door
Where the dead feet walked in.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“The unconscious is the ocean of the unsayable, of what has been expelled from the land of language, removed as a result of ancient prohibitions.”
—Italo Calvino (1923–1985)