 Carneades’ theological sorites arguments set out from apparently unobjectionable ideas about divinity and little by little, on the basis resemblances and implied grounds for bestowing divine status on the generally acknowledged gods, enlarge the extension of the divine until a conclusion that will be received as absurd is reached (cf. Burnyeat, 1982). The first argument in Sextus’ account, for example, proceeds as follows (M 9.182): If Zeus is a god, then Poseidon is a god, but if Poseidon is a god, then Achelous (a river) is a god; Achelous is a god, then so too is the Nile; if the Nile, then every river, then every stream. This, it is implied, is absurd. Therefore Zeus is not a god, and we are invited to draw the conclusion that there are no gods because if any being were a god, Zeus would be a god and it has apparently just been shown that he is not.