 In the 1980’s Alexander Mourelatos argued that Xenophanes employs an important new pattern of explanation: X is really Y, where Y reveals the true character of X. Xenophanes signals this by the use of pephuke in DK21B32/LM8D39, and no doubt it (or some word like it) was there in the original of DKA39/LMD36 as well. Xenophanes thus provides an account of a phenomenon often taken to be a sign from the divine—Iris as the messenger; the Dioscuri (St. Elmo’s fire) as comfort for sailors—that reduces it to a natural occurrence. 