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On
Nature (Peri Physeos) Parmenides
of On
Nature has survived only in fragments; there are many competing
translations and organizational schemes for these. The translated fragments themselves
– indicated below using a superscript numeral – may be found at http://www2.arnes.si/~kpzkoizo1/parmenides/a-F1.html 1The mares, which carry me as far
as my heart desires, were escorting me. They brought and placed me upon the
well-spoken path of the Goddess, which carries everywhere unscathed the
mortal who knows. Thereon was I carried, for thereon the wise mares did carry
me, straining to pull the chariot, with maidens guiding the way. The axle,
glowing in its naves, gave forth the shrill sound of a musical pipe, urged on
by two rounded wheels on either end, even whilst maidens, Daughters of the
Sun, were hastening to escort me, after leaving the House of Night for the
light, having pushed back the veils from their heads with Ahead are the gates of
the paths of Night and Day. A lintel and stone threshold surround them. The
aetherial gates themselves are filled with great doors, for which much-avenging
Justice holds the keys of retribution. Coaxing her with gentle words, the
maidens did cunningly persuade her to push back the bolted bar for them
swiftly from the gates. These made of the doors a yawning gap as they were
opened wide, swinging in turn the bronze posts in their sockets, fastened
with rivets and pins. Straight through them at that point did the maidens
drive the chariot and mares along the broad way. The Goddess received me
kindly, took my right hand in Hers, uttered speech and thus addressed me:
"Youth, attended by immortal charioteers, who come to our House by these
mares that carry you, welcome. For it was no ill fortune that sent you forth
to travel this road (lying far indeed from the beaten path of humans), but
Right and Justice. And it is right that you should learn all things, both the
persuasive, unshaken heart of Objective Truth, and the subjective beliefs of
mortals, in which there is no true trust. But you shall learn these too: how,
for the mortals passing through them, the things-that-seem must 'really
exist', being, for them, all there is. The Way of Objectivity
(Aletheia)
2"Come now, listen, and convey
my story. I shall tell you what paths of inquiry alone there are for
thinking: #1. The one: that it is and it
is impossible for it not to be. #2. The other: that it is not
and it necessarily must not be. 6"Whatever can be spoken or
thought of necessarily is, since it is possible for it to be, but it
is not possible for nothing to be. I urge you to consider this last point,
for I restrain you firstly from that path of inquiry (#2), and secondly from:
#3. The one on which mortals, knowing
nothing, wander, two-headed, for helplessness in their breasts guides their wandering
minds and they are carried, deaf and blind alike, dazed, uncritical tribes,
for whom being and not-being are thought the same and yet not the same, and
the path of all runs in opposite directions. 7For never
shall this be proved: that things that are not are. But do restrain
your thought from this path of inquiry, and do not let habit, born from much
experience, compel you along this path, to guide your sightless eye and
ringing ear and tongue. But judge by reason the highly contentious disproof that
I have spoken. 8a"One path only is left for us
to speak of: that it is. On this path there are a multitude of
indications that what-is, being ungenerated, is also imperishable, whole, of
a single kind, immovable and complete. Nor was it once, nor will it be, since
it is, now, all together, one and continuous. For what coming-to-be of it
will you seek? How and from where did it grow? I shall not permit you to say
or to think that it grew from what-is-not, for it is not to be said or
thought that it is not. What necessity could have impelled it to grow
later rather than sooner, if it began from nothing? Thus it must either fully
be, or be not at all. Nor will the force of conviction ever allow anything,
from what-is, to come-to-be something apart from itself; wherefore Justice
does not loosen her shackles so as to allow it to come-to-be or to perish,
but holds it fast. "The decision on
these matters depends on this: either it is or it is not. But
it has been decided, as is necessary, to let go the one as unthinkable and
unnameable (for it is no true path), but to allow the other, so that it is,
and is true. How could what-is be in the future? How could it come-to-be? For
if it came-to-be, it is not, nor is it if at some time it is going to be.
Thus, coming-to-be is extinguished and perishing unheard of. "Nor is it
divisible, since it all alike is. Nor is there any more of it here
than there, to hinder it from holding together, nor any less of it, but it is
all a plenum, full of what-is. Therefore, it is all continuous, for what-is
touches what-is. "Moreover,
unchanging in the limits of great bonds, it is without beginning or end,
since coming-to-be and perishing were banished far away, and true conviction
drove them out. Remaining the same, in the same place, it lies in itself, and
thus firmly remains there. For mighty Necessity holds it fast in the bonds of
a limit, which fences it about, since it is not right for what-is to be
incomplete. For it lacks nothing. If it lacked anything, it would lack
everything. 8c"Since, then, there is an
ultimate limit, it is completed from every direction like the bulk of a
perfect sphere, evenly balanced in every way from the centre, as it must not
be any greater or smaller here than there. For neither is there what-is-not,
which could stop it from reaching its like, nor is there a way in which
what-is could be more here and less there, since it all inviolably is.
For equal to itself in every direction, it reaches its limits uniformly. 3"The same thing is there for
thinking of and for being. 4Look upon things which, though
absent, are yet firmly present in thought (for you shall not cut off what-is
from holding fast to what-is, since it neither disperses itself in all
directions throughout the order of the Cosmos, nor does it gather itself
together). 8bIt is the same thing, to think of something
and to think that it is, since you will never find thought without
what-is, to which it refers, and on which it depends. For nothing is nor will
be except what-is, since it was just this that Fate did shackle to be whole
and unchanging; wherefore it has been named all things that mortals have
established, persuaded that they are true: 'to come-to-be and to perish', 'to
be and not to be' and 'to shift place and exchange bright colour'. The Way of Subjectivity (Doxa)
5"Wherever I begin, it is all
one to me, for there I shall return again. 8d"Here I stop my trustworthy
speech to you and thought about Objective Truth. From here on, learn the
subjective beliefs of mortals; listen to the deceptive ordering of my words.
For they made up their minds to name two forms, one of which it is not right
to name at all (here is where they have gone astray) and have distinguished
them as opposite in bodily form and have assigned to them marks
distinguishing them from one another: #1. Here, on the one hand, aetherial
flame of fire, gentle, very light, everywhere the same as itself... #2. But not the same as this other,
which in itself is opposite: dark night, a dense and heavy body. "All this order I present to
you as probable, so that no mortal belief shall ever outdo you. 9But
since all things have been named light and night, and their powers have been
assigned to each, all is a plenum of light and obscure night together, both
equal, since nothingness partakes in neither. 10"You shall know the nature of
the aether and all the signs in the aether, the destructive works of the splendid
Sun's pure torch, and whence they came-to-be. And you shall learn the
wandering works of the round-faced Moon, and its nature, and you shall know
also the surrounding heaven, whence it grew and how Necessity did guide and
shackle it to hold the limits of the stars. 14The Moon:
night-shiner, wandering around the Earth, an alien light, 15always
looking towards the rays of the Sun. 15aThe Earth:
rooted-in-water. 11And you shall learn how Earth and Sun
and Moon and the aether common to all, the Milky Way and the outermost
heaven, and the hot force of the stars did surge forth to come-to-be. 12"For the narrower rings are
filled with unmingled fire, the ones next to them with night, but a due
amount of fire is inserted amongst it. In the midst of these is the goddess
who governs everything. For she rules over hateful birth and union of all
things, sending female to unite with male, and again conversely male with
female. 13"She devised Love first of
all the gods. 18When man and woman mingle the seeds of love
that spring from their veins, a formative power, maintaining proper
proportions, moulds well-formed bodies from this diverse blood (for if, when
the seed is mingled, the forces therein clash and do not fuse into one, then
cruelly will they plague the offspring with a double-gender). 17She
placed young males on the right side of the womb, young females on the left. 16"According to the union
within each person of disparate body parts, thus does mind emerge in humans.
For it is the composition of body parts which does the thinking, and Thought
(since it defines the plenum) is the same in each and every human. 19"Thus, according to belief,
these things were born and now are, and hereafter, having grown from this,
they will come to an end. And for each of these did humans establish a
distinctive name. 20One and unchanging is that for which as
a whole the name is: 'to be'." |
