| Onatas | |
| Native Name: | Ὀνάτας |
| Birth Place: | Croton or Tarentum |
| Era: | Ancient philosophy |
| Region: | Ancient Greek philosophy |
| School Tradition: | Pythagoreanism |
Onatas (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ὀνάτας) was a Pythagorean philosopher who lived in or around the 5th century BC,[1] possibly in either Croton[2] or Tarentum[3] in Magna Graecia. Nothing more is known about his life, but he is credited by Stobaeus as the author of a pseudonymous Neo-Pythagorean work from the 1st century BC or AD entitled On God and the Divine (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Περὶ θεοῦ καὶ θείου), which Stobaeus excerpts a long passage from.[4] The author of the passage ("Pseudo-Onatas") argues against the belief in a single deity, on the basis that the universe itself is not God but only divine,[5] but that God is a governing part of the universe.[6] He argues that since there are many "powers" in the universe, therefore they must belong to different gods.[7] Pseudo-Onatas also claimed that the earthy mixture of the body defiles the purity of the soul.[8]