The First Philosophers of Greece (fragments and testimonia)

Accorpineé to Aristotle the founder of the Ionic physical philosophy, and therefore the founder of Greek philosophy, was Thales of Miletos. According to Diogenes Laertios, Thales was born in the first year of the thirtyfifth Olympiad (640 B.c.), and his death occurred in the fifty-eighth Olympiad (548-545 s.c.). He attained note as a scientific thinker and was regarded as the founder of Greek philosophy because he discarded mythical explanations of things, and asserted that a physical element, water, was the first principle of all things. There are various stories of his travels, and in connection with accounts of his travels in Egypt he is credited with introducing into Greece the knowledge of geometry. Tradition also claims that he was a statesman, and as a practical thinker he is classed as one of the seven wise men. A, work entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy’ was ascribed to him, but it was recognised as spurious even in antiquity. 2 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE (a) PAssaAGES RELATING To THALES IN PLaro AND IN ARISTOTLE.

Plato, de Legg. x. 899 8. And as for all the stars and the moon and the years and the months and all. the seasons, can we hold any other opinion about them than this same one—that inasmuch as soul or souls appear to be the cause of all these things, and good souls the cause of every excellence, we are to call them gods, whether they order the whole heavens as living beings in bodies, or whether they accomplish this in some other form and manner? Is there any one who acknowledges this, and yet holds that all things are not full of gods ?

Arist. Met. i. 3; 983 b 6. Most of the early students of philosophy thought that first principles in the form of matter, and only these, are the sources of all things ; for that of which all things consist, the antecedent from which they have sprung, and into which they are finally resolved (in so far as being underlies them and is changed with their changes), this they say is the element and first principle of things. 983b18. As to the quantity and form of this first principle, there is a difference of opinion; but Thales, the founder of this sort of philosophy, says that it is water (accordingly he declares that the earth rests on water), getting the idea, I suppose, because he saw that the nourishment of all beings is moist, and that warmth itself is generated from moisture and persists in it (for that from Which all things spring is the first principle of them) ; and getting the idea also from the fact that the germs of all beings are of a moist nature, while water is the first principle of the nature of what is moist. And there are some who think that the ancients, and they who lived long before the present generation, and thie ‘first students of the gods, had a similar idea in regard - to nature; for in their poems Okeanos and Tethys were

the parents of generation, and that by which the gods swore was water,—the poets themselves called it Styx ; for that which is most ancient is most highly esteemed , and that which is most highly esteemed is an object to swear by. Whether there is any such ancient and early opinion concerning nature would be an obscure question; but Thales is said to have expressed this opinion in regard to the first cause. Arist. de Coelo ii. 18; 294 a 28. Some say that - the earth rests on water. We have ascertained that the oldest statement of this character is the one accredited to Thales the Milesian, to the effect that it rests on water, floating like a piece of wood or something else of that sort.! Arist. de Anima i. 2; 405 a 19. And Thales, according to what is related of him, seems to have regarded the soul as something endowed with the power of motion, if indeed he said that the loadstone has a soul because it moves iron. i.5; 411 a7. Some say that’ soul is diffused throughout the whole universe; and ii may have been this which led Thales to think that all things are full of gods.

Simpl. in Arist. de Anima 8 r 32, 16.2—Thales posits water as the element, but it is the element of bodies, and he thinks that the soul is not a body at all. 31, 21 p.—And in speaking thus of Thales he adds with a degree of reproach that he assigned a soul to the magnetic stone as the power which moves the iron, that he might prove soul to be a moving power in it; but he did not assert that this soul was water, although water had been designated as the element, since he said that water is the element of substances, but he supposed soul to be unsubstantial form. 20 r 73, 22. For Thales, also, I suppose, thought all things to be full of gods, the gods being blended with them ; and this is strange. 1 Cf. Herm. J. G. P. 10 (Dox. 653). 2 In references to Simpl. in Arist. de Anima and Physica, the first numbers give folio and line, the second, page (and line) in the edition published by the Berlin Academy. 4 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE (b) PassaGES RELATING TO THALES IN THE . DoxoGRraPuHists.

(Theophrastos, Dox. 475) Simpl. Phys. 6r; 28, 21. Of those who say that the first principle [apy7] is one and movable, to whom Aristotle applies the distinctive name of physicists, some say that it is limited; as, for instance, Thales of Miletos, son of Examyes, and Hippo who seems also to have lost belief in the gods. These say that the first principle is water, and they are led to this result by things that appear to sense; for warmth lives in moisture and dead things wither up and all germs are moist and all nutriment is moist. Now it is natural that things should be nourished by that ~~ from which each has come; and water is the first “that water is the first principle of all things, and they assert that the earth rests on water. Thales is the first to have set on foot the investigation of nature by the Greeks; although so many others preceded him, in Theophrastos’s opinion he so far surpassed them as to cause them to be forgotten. It is said that he left nothing in writing except a book entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy.’

Hipp. i.; Dow. 555. It is said that Thales of Miletos, one of the seven wise men, was the first to undertake the study of physical philosophy. He said that the beginning (the first principle) and the end of all things is water. All things acquire firmness as this solidifies, and again as it is melted their existence is threatened; to this are due earthquakes and whirlwinds and movements of the stars. And all things are movable and in a fluid state, the character of the compound being determined by the nature of the principle from which it springs. is principle is god, and it has neither beginning nor end. Thales was the first of the Greeks to devote himself to the study and investigation of the stars, and was the originator of this branch of science ; on one occasion he was looking up at the heavens, and was just saying he was intent on studying what was overhead, when he fell into a well; whereupon a maidservant named Thratta laughed at him and said: In his zeal for things in the sky he does not see what is at his feet.! And he lived in the time of Kroesos.

Plut. Strom.1; Dox.579.2 Hesays that Thales was the earliest thinker to regard water as the first principle of all things. For from this all things come, and to it they all return. Aet. Plac. i. 2; Dox. 275. Thales of Miletos regards the first principle and the elements as the same thing. But there is a very great difference between them, for elements are composite, but we claim that first principles are neither composite nor the result of processes. So we call earth, water, air, fire, elements ; and we call them first principles for the reason that there is nothing antecedent to them from which they are sprung, since this would not be a first principle, but rather that from which it is derived. Now there is something anterior to earth and water from which they are derived, namely the matter that is formless and invisible, and the form which we call entelechy, and privation. So Thales was in error when he called water an element and a first principle. i.3; 276. Thales the Milesian declared that the first principle of things is water. [This man seems to have been the first philosopher, and the Ionic school derived its name from him; for there were very many successive leaders in philosophy. And Thales was a student of philosophy in

Egypt, but he came to Miletos in his old age.|] For he says that all things come from water and all are resolved into water. The first basis for this conclusion is the fact that the seed of all animals is their first principle and it is moist; thus it is natural to conclude that all things come from water as their first principle. Secondly, the fact that all plants are nourished by moisture and bear fruit, and unless they get moisture they wither away. ‘Thirdly, the fact that the very fire of the sun and the stars is fed by the exhalations from the waters, and so is the universe itself. 7; 301. Thales said that the mind in the universe is god, and the all is endowed with soul and is full of spirits; and its divine moving power pervades the elementary water. 8; 307. Thales et al. say that spirits are psychical beings; and that heroes are souls separated from bodies, good heroes are good souls, bad heroes are bad souls. 8; 307. The followers of Thales et al. assert that matter is turned about, varying, changing, and in a fluid state, the whole in every part of the whole. 12; 310. Thales and his successors declared that the first cause is immovable. 16; 314. The followers of Thales and Pythagoras hold that bodies can receive impressions and can be divided even to infinity; and so can all figures, lines, surfaces, solids, matter, place, and time. 18; 315. The physicists, followers of Thales, all recognise that the void is really a void. 21; 821. Thales: Necessity is most powerful, for it controls everything.

Aet. ii. 1; Dox. 827. Thales and his successors hold that the universe is one. 12; 840. Thales et al. hold that the sphere of the entire heaven is divided into five circles which they call zones ; and of these the first is called the arctic zone, and is always visible, the next is the summer solstice, the next is the equinoctial, the next the winter solstice, and the next the antarctic, which is invisible. And the ecliptic in the three middle ones is

called the zodiac and is projected to touch the three middle ones. All these are cut by the meridian at a right angle from the north to the opposite quarter. 13; 341. The stars consist of earth, but are on fire. 20; 349. The sun consists of earth. 24; 353. The eclipses of the sun take place when the moon passes across it in direct line, since the moon is earthy in character ; and it seems to the eye to be laid on the disk of the sun. 28; 358. The moon is lighted from the sun. 29; 3860. Thales et al. agree with the mathematicians that the monthly phases of the moon show that it travels along with the sun and is lighted by it, and eclipses show that it comes into the shadow of the earth, the earth coming between the two heavenly bodies and blocking the light of the moon. _ Aet. i. 9-10; 876. The earth is one and spherical inform. 11; 877. It is in the midst of the universe. 15; 879. Thales and Demokritos find in water the cause of earthquakes.

Aet. iv. 1; 384. Thales thinks that the Etesian winds blowing against Egypt raise the mass of the Nile, because its outflow is beaten back by the swelling of the sea which lies over against its mouth. 2; 386. Thales was the first to declare that the soul is by nature always moving or self-moving. Aet. v. 26; 488. Plants are living animals; this is evident from the fact that they wave their branches and keep them extended, and they yield to attack and relax them freely again, so that weights also draw them down. (Philodemos) Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 10; Dox. 581. For Thales of Miletos, who first studied these matters, said that water is the first principle of things, while god is the mind which formed all things from water. If gods exist without sense and mind, why should god be connected with water, if mind itself can exist without a body ? 8 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

of Thales. According to Apollodoros he was born in the second or third year of the forty-second Olympiad (611-610 8.c.). Of his life little is known ; Zeller infers from the statement of Aelian (V. H. iii. 17) to the effect that he led the Milesian colony into Apollonia, that he was a man of influence in Miletos. He was a student of geography and astronomy ; and various inventions, such as the sundial, are attributed to him. His book, which was referred to as the first philosophical treatise in Greece, may not have received the title ‘epi gvcews’ until after his death. It soon became rare, and Simplicius does not seem to have had access to it. hauser, De Anaxz. Miles. Bonn 1879, and in more 1. Arist. Phys. iii. 4; 203b18 ff. The words d0dvardy yap kal av@deOpov and by some the words mepueyew 2. In Simpl. Phys. 6 r (24, 19); Dox. 476, it is generally agreed that the following phrase is from Anaximandros: cata TO ypewv: Siwovar yap adTa adAndois ticw Kal Siknyv ths adixias.} Translation—1. ‘Immortal and _ indestructible,’ ‘surrounds all and directs all.’ 2. ‘(To that they return when they are destroyed) of necessity; for he says that they suffer punishment and give satisfaction to one another for injustice.’

(b) PASSAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN ARISTOTLE. Arist. Phys. 1.4; 187a12. For some who hold that the real, the underlying substance, is a unity, either one of the three [elements] or something else that is denser than fire and more rarefied than air, teach that other things are generated by condensation and rarefaction. . . . 20. And others believe that existing opposites are separated from the unity, as Anaximandros says, and those also who say that unity and multiplicity exist, as Empedokles and Anaxagoras; for these separate other things from the mixture [pyiypa |.” Phys. iii. 4; 203 b7. There is no beginning of the infinite, for in that case it would havean end. But it is without beginning and indestructible, as being a sort of first principle ; for it is necessary that whatever comes into existence should have an end, and there is a conclusion of all destruction. Wherefore as we say, there is no first principle of this [i.e. the infinite], but it itself 1 The fragment is discussed at length by Ziegler, Archiv f. d. Gesch. 10 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

seems to be the first principle of all other things and to surround all and to direct all, as they say who think that _ there are no other causes besides the infinite (such as mind, or friendship), but that it itself is divine; for it is immortal and indestructible, as Anaximandros and most of the physicists say. Simpl. Phys. 32 r; 150, 20. There is another method, according to which they do not attribute change to matter itself, nor do they suppose that generation takes place by a transformation of the underlying substance, but by separation; for the opposites existing in the substance which is infinite matter are separated, according to Anaximandros, who was the earliest thinker to call the underlying substance the first principle. _ And the opposites are heat and cold, dry and moist, and the rest.

Phys. iii. 5 ; 204 b 22. But it is not possible that infinite matter is one and simple; either, as some say, that it is something different from the elements, from which they are generated, or that it is absolutely one. For there are some who make the infinite of this character, but they do not consider it to be air or water, in order that other things may not be blotted out by the infinite; for these are mutually antagonistic to one another, inasmuch as air is cold, water is moist, and fire hot; if one of these were infinite, the rest would be at once blotted out; but now they say that the infinite is something different from these things, namely, that from which they come. Phys. iii. 8; 208 a 8.- In order that generation may actually occur, it is not necessary to prove that the infinite should actually be matter that sense can perceive; for it is possible that destruction of one thing is generation of another, provided the all is limited. De Coelo iii. 5; 803 b 11. For some say that thire is only one underlying substance; and of these some

say that it is water, some that it is air, some that it is fire, and some that it is more rarefied than water and denser than air; and these last say that being infinite it surrounds all the heavens. Meteor. 2; 855 a 21. It is natural that this very thing should be unintelligible to those who say that at first when the earth was moist and the universe including the earth was warmed by the sun, then air was formed and the whole heavens were dried, and this produced the winds and made the heavens revolve.! Metaph. xii. 2; 1069 b 18. So not only is it very properly admitted that all things are generated from not-being, but also that they all come from being :— potentially from being, actually from not-being ; and this is the unity of Anaxagoras (for this is better than to say that all things exist together [60d wavta}), and it is the mixture [piyywa| of Empedokles and Anaximandros.

Plut. Symp. viii. 730 x. Wherefore they (the Syrians) reverence the fish as of the same origin and the same family as man, holding a more reasonable philosophy than that of Anaximandros; for he declares, not that fishes and men were generated at the same time, but that at first men were generated in the form of fishes, and that growing up as (c) PassAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN THE DoxoGRAPHISTS. (Theophrastos, Dox. 477) Simpl. Phys. 6r; 24, 26. Among those who say that the first principle is one and movable and infinite, is Anaximandros of Miletos, ‘son of Praxiades, pupil and successor of Thales. He said that the first principle and element of all things is infinite, and he was the first to apply this word to 12 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

the first principle ; and he says that it is neither water nor any other one of the things called elements, but the infinite is something of a different nature, from - which came all the heavens and the worlds in them ; and from what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed; for he says that they suffer punishment and give satisfaction ' to one another for injustice according to the order of time, putting it in rather poetical language. LEvidently when he sees the four elements changing into one another, he does not deem it right to make any one of these the underlying substance, but something else besides them. And he does not think that things come into being by change in the nature of the element, but by the separation of the opposites which the eternal motion causes. On this account Aristotle compares him with Anaxagoras.

Alex. in Meteor. 91 r (vol. i. 268 Id.), Dox. 494. Some of the physicists say that the sea is what is left of the first moisture ; ? for when the region about the earth was moist, the upper part of the moisture was evaporated by the sun, and from it came the winds and the revolutions of the sun and moon, since these made their revolutions by reason of the vapours and exhalations, and revolved in those regions where they found an abundance of them. What is left of this moisture in the hollow places is the sea; so it diminishes in quantity, being evaporated gradually by the sun, and finally it will be completely dried up. Theophrastos says that Anaximandros and Diogenes were of this opinion.

Hipp. Phil. 6; Dox. 559. Anaximandros was a pupil of Thales. He was a Milesian, son of Praxiades. He - gaid that the first principle of things is of the nature of the infinite, and from this the heavens and the worlds in them arise. And this (first principle) is eternal and does not grow old, and it surrounds all the worlds. He says of time that in it generation and being and destruction are determined. He said that the first principle and the - element of beings is the infinite, a word which he was the earliest to apply to the first principle. Besides this, motion is eternal, and as a result of it the heavens arise. The earth is a heavenly body, controlled by no other power, and keeping its position because it is the same distance from all things; the form of it is curved, cylindrical like a stone column ;' it has two faces, one of these is the ground beneath our feet, and the other is opposite to it. The stars are a circle” of fire, separated from the fire about the world, and surrounded by air. There are certain breathing-holes like the holes of a flute through which we see the stars; so that when the holes are stopped up, there are eclipses. The moon is sometimes full and sometimes in other phases as these holes are stopped up or open. The circle of the sun is twenty-seven times that of the moon, and the sun is higher than the moon, but the circles of the fixed stars are lower.* Animals come into being through vapours raised by thesun. Man, however, came into being from another animal, namely the fish, for at first he was like a fish. Winds are due to a separation of the lightest vapours and the motion of the masses of these vapours ; and moisture comes from

2 «dbkdos, the circle or wheel in which the stars are set, and in which they revolve. The circle of the moon is farther from the earth, and last comes the circle of the sun. 14 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE the vapour raised by the sun! from them;? and lightning occurs when a wind falls upon clouds and separates them. Anaximandros was born in the third year of the forty-second Olympiad.

Plut. Strom. 2; Dox. 579. Anaximandros, the companion of Thales, says that the infinite is the sole cause of all generation and destruction, and from it the - heavens were separated, and similarly all the worlds, which are infinite in number. And he declared that destruction and, far earlier, generation have taken place since an indefinite time, since all things are involved in a cycle. He says that the earth is a cylinder in form, and that its depth is one-third of its breadth. And he says that at the beginning of this world something [rz Diels] productive of heat and cold from the eternal being was separated therefrom, and a sort of sphere of this flame surrounded the air about the earth, as bark surrounds a tree; then this sphere was broken into parts and defined into distinct circles, and thus arose the sun and the moon and the stars. Farther he says that at the beginning man was generated from all sorts of animals, since all the rest can quickly get food for themselves, but man alone requires careful feeding for a long time; such a being at the beginning could not have preserved his existence. Such is the teaching of Anaximandros.

Herm. I. G. P.10; Dox. 653. His compatriot Anaximandros says that the first principle is older than _ water and is eternal motion; in this all things come into being, and all things perish. Aet. Plac. i. 3; Dox. 277. Anaximandros of Miletos, son of Praxiades, says that the first principle of things is the infinite; for from this all things come, and all

things perish and return to this.' Accordingly, an infinite number of worlds have been generated and have perished again and returned to their source. So he calls it infinite, in order that the generation which takes place may not lessen it. But he fails to say what the infinite is, whether it is air or water or earth or some other thing. He fails to show what matter is, and simply calls it the active cause. For the infinite is nothing else but matter ; and matter cannot be energy, unless an active agent is its substance. 7; 302. Anaximandros declared that the infinite heavens are gods. Aet. ii. 1; Dox. 327. Anaximandros (et al.): Infinite worlds exist in the infinite in every cycle; Dox. 329, and these worlds are equally distant from each other. 4; 331. The world is perishable. 11; . 340. Anaximandros: The heavens arise from a mixture of heat and cold. 13; 342. The stars are wheel-shaped masses of air, full of fire, breathing out flames from pores in different parts. 15; 345. Anaximandros et al.: The sun has the highest position of all, the moon is next in order, and beneath it are the fixed stars and the planets. 16; 345. The stars are carried on by the circles and the spheres in which each one moves. 20; 348. Thecircle of the sun is twenty-eight times as large as the earth, like a chariot wheel, having a hollow centre and this full of fire, shining in every part, and sending out fire through a narrow opening like the air from a flute.

21; 351. The sun is equal in size to the earth, but the circle from which it sends forth its exhalations, and by which it is borne through the heavens, is twenty-seven times as large as the earth. 24; 354. An eclipse takes place when the outlet for the fiery exhalations is closed. 25; 355. The circle of the moon is nineteen times as large ? Epiphan. iii. 2; Doz. 589.

16 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE as the earth, and like the circle of the sun is full of fire ; and eclipses are due to the revolutions of the wheel ; for it is like a chariot wheel, hollow inside, and the centre of it is full of fire, but there is only one exit for the fire. 28; 358. The moon shines by its own light. 29; 359. The moon is eclipsed when the hole in the wheel is stopped. Aet. iii. 8; Dox. 867. Anaximandros said that lightning is due to wind; for when it is surrounded and pressed together by a thick cloud and so driven out by reason of its lightness and rarefaction, then the breaking makes a noise, while the separation makes a rift of brightness in the darkness of the cloud. Aet. iv. 8; Dox. 387. Anaximandros et al.: The soul is like air in its nature. Aet. v. 19; Dox. 480. Anaximandros said that the first animals were generated in the moisture, and were covered with a prickly skin; and as they grew older, they became drier, and after the skin broke off from them, they lived for a little while.

Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 10; Dox. 581. It was the opinion of Anaximandros that gods have a beginning, at long intervals rising and setting, and that they are the innumerable worlds. But who of us can think of god except as immortal ?

AnaxImMENEs of Miletos, son of Eurystratos, was the pupil or companion of Anaximandros. According to Apollodoros, quoted by Diogenes, he was born in the sixty-third Olympiad (528-524 s.c.). Diels! has, however, made it seem probable that this date refers to his prime of life, rather than to his birth. Of his life Translation—Anaximenes arrived at the conclusion that air is the one, movable, infinite, first principle of all things. For he speaks as follows: Air is the nearest to an immaterial thing; for since we are generated in 18 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE the flow of air, it is necessary that it should be infinite and abundant, because it is never exhausted.! (b) PassAGHS RELATING TO ANAXIMENES IN ARISTOTLE, &c. Arist. Meteor. ii. 1; 854 a28. Most of the earlier students of the heavenly bodies believed that the sun did not go underneath the earth, but rather around the earth and this region, and that it disappeared from view and produced night, because the earth was so high toward the north. Simpl. de Coelo 278 b 45; Schol. Arist. 514a 83. He regarded the first principle as unlimited, but not as undefined, for he called it air, thinking that air had a sufficient adaptability to change.

Simpl. Phys. 32 r 149, 832. Of this one writer alone, Theophrastos, in his account of the Physicists, uses the words pavwors and zikvwors of texture. The rest, of course, spoke of wavorns and wuxvorns. Simpl. Phys. 257v. Some say that the universe always existed, not that it has always been the same, but rather that it successively changes its character _ in certain periods of time; as, for instance, Anaximenes and Herakleitos and Diogenes. Arist. de Coelo ii. 18; 294 b 18. Anaximenes and Anaxagoras and Demokritos say that the breadth of the earth is the reason why it remains where it is. Arist. Meteor. ii. 7; 365 (a 17),b 6. Anaximenes says that the earth was wet, and when it dried it broke apart, and that earthquakes are due to the breaking and falling of hills; accordingly earthquakes occur in droughts, and in rainy seasons also; they occur in drought, as has been said, because the earth dries and breaks apart, and it also crumbles when it is wet through with waters. Arist. Metaph. i.38; 984a 5. Anaximenes regarded air as the first principle. ' For a discussion of the above fragment, v. Archiv f. d. Geschichte d. Phil. i. 315.

Plut. Prim. Fri. vii. 3, p. 947. According to Anaximenes, the early philosopher, we should not neglect either cold or heat in bemg but should regard them as common experiences of matter which are incident to its changes. He says that the compressed and the condensed state of matter is cold, while the rarefied and relaxed (a word he himself uses) state of it is heat. Whence he says it is not strange that men breathe hot and cold out of the mouth ; for the breath is cooled as it is compressed and condensed by the lips, but when the mouth is relaxed, it comes out warm by reason of its rarefaction. (c) PasSAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMENES IN THE DoxoGRAPHISTs.

Theophrastos; Simpl. Phys. 6r 24, 26; Dox. 476. Anaximenes of Miletos, son of Eurystratos, a companion of Anaximandros, agrees with him that the essential nature of things is one and infinite, but he regards it as not indeterminate but rather determinate, and calls it air; the air differs in rarity and in density as the nature of things is different; when very attenuated it becomes fire, when more condensed wind, and then cloud, and when still more condensed water and earth and stone, and all other things are composed of these; and he regards motion as eternal, and by this changes are produced.' Hipp. Philos. 7; Dox. 560. Anaximenes, himself a Milesian, son of Eurystratos, said that infinite air is the first principle,” from which arise the things that have come and are coming into existence, and the things that will be, and gods and divine beings, while other things are produced from these. And the form of air is as follows :— When it is of a very even consistency, it is imperceptible to vision, but it becomes evident as the result of cold or 20 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

heat or moisture, or when it is moved. It is always in motion; for things would not change as they do unless it were in motion. It has a different appearance when it is made more dense or thinner ; when it is expanded into a thinner state it becomes fire, and again winds are condensed air, and air becomes cloud by compression, and water when it is compressed farther, and earth and finally stones as it is more condensed. So that generation is controlled by the opposites, heat and cold. And the broad earth is supported on air;! similarly the sun and the moon and all the rest of the stars, being fiery bodies,” are supported on the air by their breadth. And stars are made of earth, since exhalations arise from this, and these being attenuated become fire, and of this fire when it is raised to the heaven the stars are constituted. There are also bodies of an earthy nature ‘ in the place occupied by the stars, and carried along with them in their motion. He says that the stars do not move under the earth, as others have supposed, but around the earth,® just as a cap is moved about the head. And the sun is hidden not by going underneath the earth, but because it is covered by some of the higher parts of the earth, and because of its greater distance from us. The stars do not give forth heat because they are so far away. Winds are produced when the air that -has been attenuated is set in motion; and when it comes together and is yet farther condensed, clouds are produced, and so it changes into water. And hail is formed when the water descending from the clouds is frozen; and snow, when these being yet more filled with moisture become frozen ; ® and lightning, when clouds are separated by violence of the winds ; for when they are separated,

the flash is bright and like fire.’ And a rainbow is produced when the sun’s rays fall on compressed air ;? and earthquakes are produced when the earth is changed yet: more by heating and cooling.*? Such are the opinions of Anaximenes. And he flourished about the first year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad. Plut. Strom. 3; Dox. 579. Anaximenes says that air is the first principle of all things, and that it is infinite in quantity but is defined by its qualities; and all things are generated by a certain condensation or rarefaction of it. Motion also exists from eternity. And by compression of the air the earth was formed, and it is very broad ; accordingly he says that this rests on air; and the sun and the moon and the rest of the stars were formed from earth. He declared that the sun is earth because of its swift motion, and it has the proper amount of heat.

Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 10; Dox. 581. Afterwards Anaximenes said that air is god,‘ [and that it arose] and that it is boundless and infinite and always in motion; just as though air without any form could be god, when it is very necessary that god should be not only of some form, but of the most beautiful form ; ox as though everything which comes into being were not thereby subject to death. Aet.i. 3; Dox. 278. Anaximenes of Miletos, son of Kurystratos, declared that air is the first principle of things, for from this all things arise and into this they are all resolved again. As our soul which is air, he says, holds us together, so wind [i.e. breath, wvedwa] and air encompass the whole world. He uses these words ‘air’ and ‘wind’ synonymously. He is mistaken in thinking that animals are composed of simple homo- 22 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE geneous air and wind; for it is impossible that one first principle should constitute the substance of things, but an active cause is also necessary ; just as silver alone is not enough to become coin, but there is need of an active cause, z.e. a coin-maker ; [so there is need of copper and wood and other substances].

Aet. ii. 1; 827. Anaximenes et al.: Infinite worlds exist in the infinite in every cycle. 4; 831. The world is perishable. 11; 339. The sky is the revolving vault most distant from the earth. 14; 344. The stars are fixed like nailheads in the crystalline (vault). 19; 347. The stars shine for none of these reasons, but solely by the light of the sun. 22; 852. The sun is broad [like a leaf]. 23; 352. ‘he stars revolve, being pushed by condensed resisting air. Aet. iii. 10; 377. The form of the earth is like a table. 15; 379. The dryness of the air, due to drought, and its wetness, due to rainstorms, are the causes of earthquakes. Aet. iv. 3; 887. Anaximenes et al.: The soul is like air in its nature.

Accorpine to Apollodoros, Herakleitos son of Blyson flourished in the sixty-ninth Olympiad (504-501 B.c.).—_ An attempt to fix the date from his reference to the expulsion from Ephesos of his friend Hermodoros (Frag. 114) has resulted in a somewhat later date, though it is by no means impossible that Hermodoros was expelled during Persian rule in the city. Beyond the fact that Herakleitos lived in Ephesos we know nothing of his life; of the many stories related about him most can be proved false, and there is no reason for crediting the remainder His philosophic position is clear, however, since he referg to Pythagoras and Xenophanes (Fr. 16-17), and Parmenides (Vss. 46 sqq.) seems to refer to him. His book is said to have been divided into three parts :— (1) Concerning the All; (2) Political; (8) Theological Even in antiquity he was surnamed the ‘dark’ or the ‘ obscure.’ 24 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 1. Not on my authority, but on that of truth, it is wise for you to accept the fact that all things are one. Hippolytos quotes this with Fragment 45, to show that Herakleitos taught the underlying unity of all and the truth the discourse contains), v. Zeller, i. 630, n. 1.

2. This truth, though it always exists, men do not understand, as well before they hear it as when they hear it for the first time. For although all things happen in accordance with this truth, men seem unskilled indeed when they make trial of words and matters such as I am setting forth, in my effort to discriminate each thing according to its nature, and to tell what its state is. But other men fail to notice what they do when awake, in the same manner that they forget what they do when asleep. Hippolytos quotes this passage with reference to a universal all-pervading reason. 3. Those who hear without the power to understand are like deaf men ; the proverb holds true of them—‘ Present, they are absent.’ Quoted by Clement in illustration of Ey. Lue. xiv. 35. 4. Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for men, since ‘their souls lack understanding. ' Sextus Emp. interprets this as meaning ‘rude souls trust the irrational senses.’ Cf. Zeller, i. 716, n. 5. 5. Most men do not understand such things as they are wont to meet with; nor by learning do they come to know them, though they think they do. 6. They know not how to listen, nor how to speak. Clement compares this with Eccles. vi. 35.

26 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 7. If you do not hope, you will not find that which is not hoped for; since it is difficult to discover and impossible to attain. Clement compares this with Isaias vii. 9. With Gom- 8. Seekers for gold dig much earth, and find little gold. ‘So we worship the creator of nature, because the knowledge of him is difficult.’ 11. The Lord [whose is the oracle] at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign. 12. And the Sibyl with raving mouth, uttering words solemn, unadorned, and unsweetened, reaches with her voice a thousand years because of the god in her. Quoted by Plutarch to show that allurements of sense are out of place in the holy responses of the god. Both this fragment and the preceding seem originally to have referred to the nature of Herakleitos’s teaching ; it is obscure, and yet divine. 18. What can be seen, heard, and learned, this I prize. Hippolytos contrasts this with Fr. 47, and in this connection the translation of Schuster, ‘Am I to prize these (invisible) things above what can be seen, heard, learned ?’ seems the more natural.

14. (For this is characteristic of the present age, when, inasmuch as all lands and seas may be crossed by man, it would no longer be fitting to depend on the witness of poets and mythographers, as our ancestors generally did), ‘bringing forth untrustworthy witnesses to confirm disputed points,’ in the words of Herakleitos. 28 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 16. Much learning does not teach one to have. understanding ; else it would have taught Hesiod, and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes, and Hekataios. 18. No one of all whose discourses I have heard has arrived at this result: the recognition that wisdom is apart from all ether things. V. Teichmiiller, i. 109 ff. on the idea of katharsis in Herakleitos. 19. Wisdom is one thing: [to understand the intelligence by which all things are steered through all things]; it is willing and it is unwilling to be called by the name Zeus. The first two clauses follow Fr. 16 in Diog. Laer. ; the idea in parenthesis often appears in Stoic writers. 20. This order, the same for all things, no one of gods or men has made, but it always was, and is, and ever shall be, an ever-living fire, kindling according to fixed measure, and extinguished according to fixed measure.

Zeller, i. 645 n. 1, discusses the various interpretations, and prefers to translate the first phrase ‘ This world, the same for all,’ 7.e. including gods and men. 30 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE Probably only the word aueiBoua: comes from Herakleitos; cf. the two forms of Fr. 31 in Plutarch. 21. The transformations of fire are, first of all, sea ; and of the sea one half is earth, and the other half is lightning flash. Zeller, i. 647 n. 1, regards zpyorjp as identical with 22. All things are exchanged for fire, and fire for all things ; as wares are exchanged for gold, and gold for wares. 23. (The earth) is poured out as sea, and measures the same amount as existed before it became earth. Context: Fire is intelligent and the governing cause ofallthings. Herakleitos calls it want and satiety. In his opinion want is the process of arrangement, and satiety the process of conflagration. 25. Fire lives in the death of earth, and air lives in the death of fire; water lives in the death of air, and earth in that of water. Not accepted by Zeller, i. 676, who regards it as a Stoic version of Fr. 68. Burnett suggests that the reference to a judgment

(xpuvéer) was inserted by Hippolytos to obtain the Christian idea of a judgment. 27. How could one escape the notice of that which never sets ? 28. The thunderbolt directs the course of all things. Cf. Fr. 19. 32 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE * I keep Bywater’s numbers, though I omit some of his fragments. Such omissions are referred to in the critical notes. 29. The sun will not overstep his bounds ; if he does, the Erinnyes, allies of justice, will find him out. 30. The limit of the evening and the morning is the Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright Zeus. Strabo regards this as a Homeric expression for the fact that the northern circle is the boundary of rising and setting. Zeus aithrios means the clear heavens. 31. If there were no sun, it would be night. 32. The sun is new every day. 33. (Herakleitos and Demokritos bear witness that Thales was an astronomer, and predicted eclipses, etc.) 34. The seasons bring all things. ‘ Time is not motion of a simple sort, but, so to speak, motion in an order which has measure and limits and periods. The sun, guardian of these,.... appoints and announces the seasons, which, according to Herakleitos, bring all things.’

35. Hesiod is the teacher of most men ; they suppose that his knowledge was very extensive, when in fact he did not know night and day, for they are one. and peace, satiety and hunger ; but he assumes different forms, just as when incense is mingled with incense; every one gives him the name he pleases. 36. God is day and night, winter and summer, war | 34 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 38. Plut. de fac. in orbe lun. 28, p. 943 8. Patin, Hinheitslehre, p. 23, points out that this so-called fragment is probably due to a misunderstanding of the passage in Aristotle (Fr. 37). 37. If all things should become smoke, then perception would be by the nostrils. Arist. ‘Some think that odour is a smoky exhalation, . and that every one is brought in contact with this in smelling. So Herakleitos says that if all things,’ etc. The reference is originally to the conflagration of the universe [éxzvpwois]. Plutarch adds the reason: Because they retain a perception of what is fiery. 39. Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool ; the wet dries, the parched becomes wet. 40. It scatters and brings together; it approaches and departs. This follows the next fragment, as illustrating change.

41-42. You could not step twice in the same rivers ; for other and yet other waters are ever flowing on. 43. Herakleitos blamed Homer for saying: Would that strife might perish from among gods and men! For then, said he, all things would pass away. Aristotle assigns a different reason: For there could be no harmony without sharps and flats, nor living beings without male and female, which are contraries. 44. War is father of all and king of all; and some he made gods and some men, some slaves and some free. 36 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 50. Hipp. Ref. haer. ix. 10. MSS. ypapéwv, corr. Duncker. The MSS. reading may be a participle introducing the quotation, and wrongly included in the excerpt, as Tannery suggests (Science hellén. pp. 198 ff.). 45. Men do not understand how that which draws apart agrees with itself; harmony lies in the bending back, as for instance of the bow and of the lyre. Quoted by Aristotle as an illustration of the search for a deeper principle, more in accordance with nature. 48. Let us not make rash conjectures about the greatest things. 49. Men who desire wisdom must be learners of very many things. 50. For woolcarders the straight and the crooked path is one and the same.

52. The sea is the purest and the foulest water ; it is drinkable and healthful for fishes; but for men it is unfit to drink and hurtful. Quoted by Hippolytos as an example of Herakleitos’ identification of opposites. 538-54. Swine like to wash in the mire; hereyerd fowls in the dust. 38 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE Vulg. wndéy, Sauppe xndéva: vulg. uicddy, Wordsworth picddv. Bywater objects to Bacavifovres and omits the phrases rots appworodyras and mapa rév appworotyTwy. 57. Good and bad are the same. 58. (Good and bad are one; at any rate, as Hera- ‘kleitos says) physicians, who cut and burn and in every way torment the sick, complain that they do not receive any adequate recompense from them. 59. Thou shouldst unite things whole and things not whole, that which tends to unite and that which tends to separate, the harmonious and the discordant ; from all things arises the one, and from the one all things. 60. They would not have known the name of justice, were it not for these things. According to the context in Clement ‘these things’ refers to injustice. 61. (God, ordering things as they ought to be, perfects all things in the harmony of the whole, as Herakleitos says that) for god all things are fair and good and

_just, but men suppose that some are unjust and others just. both those which are right and those which are not right; so great is the difference between them. 62. Men should know that war is general and that justice is strife ; all things arise and [pass away] through ’ strife. | 40 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 64. All the things we see when awake are death,. and all the things we see when asleep are sleep. 66. The name of the bow is life, but its work isdeath. A similar play on words is found in Fr. 101. 67. Gods are mortals, men are immortals, each living in the others’ death and dying in the others’ life. 68. For to souls it is death to become water, and for water it is death to become earth; but water is formed from earth, and from water, soul. Clement quotes this as borrowed from Orpheus; and Hippolytos also found it in the poets. 69 Upward, downward, the way is one and the same. 70. Beginning and end are common (to both ways). 71. The limits of the soul you could not discover, though traversing every path. 42 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 72. It is a delight to souls to become wet.

78. Whenever a man gets drunk, he is led about by a beardless boy, stumbling, not knowing whither he goes, for his soul is wet. 74. The dry soul is wisest and best. Byw. 75. A dry beam is the wisest and best soul; Fr. 76. Where the earth is dry, the soul is wisest and best. If Fr. 74 is the genuine form, the corruptions are very early. We cannot, however, regard all three forms as genuine, and it is at least doubtful whether Fr. 75 expresses a Herakleitean idea. Zeller and others add to Fr. 74 the rest of the phrase in Plutarch, ‘ flashing through the body as lightning through the cloud.’ . 77. Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. 78. Life and death, and waking and sleeping, and youth and old age, are the same; for the latter change and are the former, and the former change back to the latter. 79. Lifetime is a child playing draughts; the kingdom is a child’s. Clement understood aisy to be Zeus ; Hippolytos made it equivalent to aisvis, the eternal (king). 44 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE MSS. Alexander, «xvxAcdwv and torara:: Theophrast. begins the sentence with uy, corr. Bernays.

The translation follows the sense in Diogenes; in Plutarch it is parallel with the Delphic oracle, ‘I have sought to know myself.’ 81. In the same rivers we step and we do not step; we are and we are not. 82. It is weariness to toil at the same things, and to be subject to them. 84. Even a potion separates into its ingredients when it is not stirred. 85. Corpses are more fit to be thrown away than dung. 86. Being born they wish to live and to meet death, [or rather to find rest,] and they leave behind children . to die. 90. The sleeping are workmen (and fellow-workers) in what happens in the world. 46 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 91. Understanding is common to all. It is necessary for those who speak with intelligence to hold fast to the common element of all, as a city holds fast to law, and much more strongly. For all human laws are nourished by one which is divine, and it has power so much as it will; and it suffices for all things and more than suffices. 92. And though reason is common, most people live: as though they had an understanding peculiar to themselves. 93. With what they most constantly associate, with this they are at variance.

94. It is not meet to act and speak like men asleep. 95. They that are awake have one world in common, but of the sleeping each turns aside into a world of his own. 96. For human nature has not wisdom, but divine nature has. 97. Man is called . baby by god, even as a child is. by man. The translation is Burnett’s, following the suggestion of Petersen in Hermes xiv. 1879, p. 304. Fr. 98. And does not Herakleitos, whom you bring forward, say this very thing, that the wisest of men will appear as an ape before God, both in wisdom and in beauty and in all other respects? Fr. 99. You are ignorant, sir, of that fine saying of Herakleitos, that the most beautiful of apes is ugly in comparison with beings of another kind, and the most beautiful of earthen pots is ugly in comparison with maidenkind, as Hippias the wise man says. 100. The people ought to fight for their law as for a wall. .106. Stob. Flor. v. 119. Neither this nor the following fragment can be regarded as genuine. 104. Jt is not good for men to have whatever they want. Disease makes health sweet and good; hunger, satiety ; toil, rest.

105. It is hard to contend with passion ; for whatever it desires to get it buys at the cost of soul. 106. It is the part of all men to know themselves and to be temperate. 107. To be temperate is the greatest virtue; and it is wisdom to speak the truth and to act according to nature with understanding. : 108. It is better to conceal stupidity, but it is an effort in time of relaxation and over the wine. 109. It is better to conceal ignorance than to put it forth into the midst. 110.. It is law to obey the counsel of one. 50 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 111. For what sense or understanding have they ? They follow the bards and employ the crowd as their teacher, not knowing that many are bad and few good. For the very best choose one thing before all others, immortal glory among mortals, while the masses eat their fill like cattle. 112. In Priene was born Bias son of Teutamas, who is of more account than the rest. 113. To me one man is ten thousand if he be the best.

114. The Ephesians deserve to be hanged, every one that is a man grown, and the youth to abandon the city, for they cast out Hermodoros the best man among them, saying :—Let no one among us be best, and if one be best, let him be so elsewhere and among others. 116. As the result of incredulity (divine things) miss being known. 117. The fool is wont to be in a flutter at every word. 118. The most esteemed of those in estimation knows how to be on his guard; yet truly justice shall overtake forgers of lies and witnesses to them. If the reference is to Homer, read wAdsvew, ‘ knows how to create myths.’ 52 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 123. Hippolyt. Ref. haer. ix. 10; the fragment is quoted to show that Herakleitos believes in the resurrection of the flesh, and recognises that god is the cause of this resurrection. Cf. Clem. Al. Strom. v. 1, p. 649. 128. Iamblich. de Myst. v.15. The Greek text cannot be restored. 119. (He used to say that) Homer deserved to be cast out of the lists and flogged, and Archilochos likewise. 120. One day is equal to every other.

123. Then [it is necessary] that God raise them up, and that they become guardians of the livirg and the dead. 124. Night-walkers, wizards, bacchanals, revellers, sharers in the mysteries. 127. For if it were not to Dionysos that they made the procession and sang the song with phallic symbols, their deeds would indeed be most shameful ; but Hades and Dionysos are the same, to whomever they go mad and share the revel. 128. I distinguish two kinds of sacrifices; those of men altogether purified, which would occur rarely, as Herakleitos says, in the case of a single individual, or of some very few men easily counted; secondly, those that are material and corporeal and composite through change, such as are in harmony with those who are still restrained by the body. 54 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE This same MS. gives the following fragment, the last clauses of which Neumann joins to the passage as given in the text: damdver aydApacw etxovtat obk akotvovow, Somep akovorev, ovK arodiSovow, Somwep ovK Gmattotey. 130a. Given by Neumann from the Strassburg. MS. just referred toThe saying is attributed to Xenophanes by Aristotle, Rhet. 23; 1400 b 5 and Plutarch, v. wfra, p. 78. 129. (Herakleitos fittingly called religious rites) cwres (for the soul).

130. They purify themselves by defiling themselves with blood, as if one who had stepped into the mud were to wash it off with mud. If any one of men should observe him doing so, he would think he was insane. And to these images they pray, just as if one were to converse with men’s houses, for they know not what gods and heroes are. The fragment in the critical notes reads: ‘ To images of gods they pray, to those who do not hear, as though they might hear; to those who do not answer, as though they might not make request.’ 131. All things are full of souls and of divine spirits. 132. He was wont to say that false opinion is a sacred disease, and that vision is deceitful. 133. Each one who has come to be esteemed without due grounds, ought to hide his face. 56 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 184. False opinion of progress is the stoppage of progress. 135. Their education is a second sun to those that have been educated. 136. As food is timely in famine, so opportune favour heals the need of the soul. 187. The same one was wont to say that the shortest way to glory was to become good. ;

1388 Timaios wrote thus: So Pythagoras does not appear to have discovered the true art of words, nor yet ‘the one accused by Herakleitos, but Herakleitos himself is the one who is the pretender. PassaGEs IN Puato AND ARISTOTLE REFERRING TO HERAKLEITOS. Plato, Theeet. 160 p. Homer, and Herakleitos, and the whole company which say that all things are in motion and in a state of flux. Cf. 152 pu. Kratylos, 401p. According to Herakleitos all things are in motion and nothing abides. Cf. 4024, and frag. 41; also 412 pn, 440c. Top. vill. 5; 155 £30. Wherefore those that hold different opinions, as that good and bad are the same thing, as Herakleitos says, do not grant that the opposite cannot coexist with itself; not as though they did not think this to be the case, but because as followers of Herakleitos they are obliged to speak as they do.

Phys.i.2; 185b19. But still, if in the argument all things that exist are one, as a cloak or a himation, it turns out that they are stating the position of Herakleitos ; for the same thing will apply to good and bad, and to good and not-good, so that good and not-good, and man and horse, will be the same; and they will not be arguing that all things are one, but that they are nothing, and that the same thing applies to such and to so much. Phys. iii. 5; 205438. As Herakleitos says that all things sometime become fire. De celo i. 10; 279b16. And others in their turn say that sometimes combination is taking place, and at other times destruction, and that this will always continue, as Empedokles of Agrigentum, and Herakleitos of Ephesos. De anima i. 2; 405a25. And Herakleitos also says that the first principle is soul, as it were a 58 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE fiery exhalation, of which all other things consist ; for it is the least corporeal and always in a state of flux, and the moving is known by the moving; and he agreed with most thinkers in holding that things are in motion.

De part anim. i. 5; 645a17. And as Herakleitos is reported to have said to strangers who wanted to meet him, who stopped when they entered and saw him getting warm by an oven—for he bade them enter boldly, since, said he, gods are here—so should one enter upon the investigation of each of the animals without timidity, as there is in them all something natural and beautiful. Met. i. 3; 984a7. Hippasos of Metapontum’ and Herakleitos of Ephesos call fire the first cause. Cf. 996 a9, 1001 a 15. Met. iii. 3; 1005b 24. For it is impossible for any ‘sone to postulate that the same thing is and is not, as .~ some think Herakleitos says. Met. iii. 7; 1012a 24. For the word of Herakleitos, that all things are and are not, séems to make all things true. Met. x.5; 1062a32. For one might ask Herakleitos himself after this manner and speedily compel him to agree that it is never possible for opposite statements to be true about the same things. Cf. 1063 b 24.

Met. xii. 4; 1078 b 12. For the doctrine of ideas is held by its supporters because they are convinced by Herakleitos’s words in regard to the truth, viz., that all things perceived by the senses are always in a state of flux; so that if there is to be a science and a knowledge of anything, it is necessary to assume the existence of other objects in nature besides those that are perceived by sense, for there can be no science of things in a state of flux. é: Eth. iti. 3; 1105a8. It is harder to fight against pleasure than against anger, as Herakleitos says. Eth. vii. 3; 1146 b 30. For some believe their opinions no lessstrongly than what they know by 8cientific procedure ; and Herakleitos is an example of this. Eth. viii. 2; 1155b4. And Herakleitos says that opposition unites, and that the most beautiful harmony results from opposites, and that all things come into being through strife. Eth. x. 5; 1176a6. As Herakleitos says, an ass would prefer refuse to gold, for natural food is sweeter to asses than gold.

Sext. Emp. adv. Math. vii.129. According to Herakleitos we become intelligent when we get this divine reason by breathing it in, and in sleep we are forgetful, but on waking we gain our senses again. For in sleep since the pores of the senses are closed, the mind in us is separated from what is akin to it in what surrounds us, and its connection through pores is only preserved like a sort of root ; and being cut off it loses its former power of memory; but when we wake it peeps out through the pores of sense as through little doors, and entering into connection with what surrounds us it regains the power of reason. PASSAGES REFERRING TO HERAKLEITOS IN THE * DoxoGRAPHISTSs.’ Ar. Did. Epit. 39, 2; Dox. 471. Zeno as well as Herakleitos says that the soul is a perceptive exhalation. The latter desiring to make it clear that souls always gain mental faculties by giving forth exhalations, likened them to rivers; and these are his words: (Fr. 42) ‘ Other and yet other waters are flowing on upon those who step in the same rivers.’ 60 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

Hippasos of Metapontum and Herakleitos of Ephesos teach that the one is moved and limited, but they make fire the first principle and derive all things from fire by condensation and rarefaction, and again they resolve them into fire since this one thing is the essential nature underlying their appearance; for Herakleitos says that all things are transformations of fire [7rupos apor8nv|, and he finds a certain order and definite time in the changes of the universe according to a fated [ e(wappevnv | necessity. Theoph. de Sens. 1; Dox. 499. The followers of Anaxagoras and Herakleitos say that men perceive by the presence in themselves of the opposite quality. Phil. de Piet. 14, 25; Dox. 548. (Chrysippos) in his third book says that the universe is one of the beings endowed with sense, fellow-citizen with men and gods, and that strife and Zeus are the same thing, as Hera_ kleitos says.

Hipp. Phil. 44; Dox. 558. Herakleitos the Ephesian, a philosopher of the physical school, was always lamenting, charging all men with ignorance of the whole of life, but still he pitied the life of mortals. For he would say that he himself knew all things, but that other men knew nothing. His language agrees quite well with that of Empedokles when he says that strife and love are the first principles of all things, and that god is intelligent fire, and that all things enter into a common motion and do not stand still. And as Empedokles said that the whole region occupied by man is full of evils, and that the evils extend from the region about the earth as far as the moon but do not go farther, inasmuch as all the region beyond the moon is purer, so also it seemed to Herakleitos. Kpi. adv. Haer. iti. 20; Dox. 591. Herakleitos the Ephesian, son of Bleson, said that fire is the source of all things, and that all things are resolved into fire again. : Galen, His. Phil. 62; Dox. 626. Herakleitos says. that the sun is a burning mass, kindled at its rising, and quenched at its setting.

Herm. I.G.P. 18; Dox. 654. Perhaps I might yield to the arguments of noble Demokritos and want to laugh with him, unless Herakleitos led me to the opposite view as he said weeping: Fire is the first principle of all things, and it is subject to rarefaction and condensation, the one active, the other passive, the one synthetic, the other analytic. Enough for me, for I am already steeped in such first principles. Aet. i.3; Dox. 283. Herakleitos and Hippasos say that the first principle of all things is fire; for they say that all things arise from fire and they all end by becoming fire. As this is quenched all things come into the order of the universe; for first the dense part of it contracting into itself becomes earth, then the earth becoming relaxed by fire is rendered water in its nature, then it is sublimated and becomes air ; and again the universe and all bodies are consumed by fire in the conflagration. [Fire then is the first principle because all things arise from this, and the final principle because all things are resolved into this. | Aet. i. 5 ;. Dox. 292. Hippasos of Metapontum and Herakleitos the Ephesian say that the all is one, ever moving and limited, and that fire is its first principle.

Aet. i. 7; Dox. 303. MHerakleitos says that the periodic fire is eternal, and that destined reason working through opposition is the creator [dnysoupyor] of things. Aet. i. 9; Dox. 307. H. et al. declare that matter is subject to change, variation, and transformation, and that it flows the whole through the whole. G 62 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE small and indivisible particles (or H. seems to some to leave particles, instead of the unity). Aet. i. 23; Dox. 320. H. denies rest and fixed position to the whole; for this is the attribute of dead bodies; but he assigns eternal motion to what is eternal, perishable motion to what is perishable. Aet.i. 27; Dow. 322. H.says that all things happen according to fate and that fate itself is necessity. Indeed he writes ‘ For it is absolutely destined.’ (Frag. 63.) 3 Aet.i. 23; Dow. 323. H. declares that reason, pervading the essence of the all, is the essence of fate. And it is itself ethereal matter, seed of the generation of the all, and measure of the allotted period.

Aet. ii. 1; Dox. 827, Herakleitos etal. The universe isone. 4; Dox. 331. The universe is generated not according to time, but according to thought. 11; Doz. 340; H. et al. The heaven is of a fiery nature. 18; Dox. 342. H. and Parmenides. The stars are compressed bits of fire. 17; Dox.346. H. and Parm. The stars are nurtured by an exhalation from the earth. 20; Dox. 351. H. and Hekataios. The sun is an intelligent burning mass rising out of the sea. (The same words are assigned to Stoics, Plut. 2, 890 a; Doz. 349.) 21; Dox. 851. It is as great ‘as the width of a human foot.’ 22; Dox. 352. It is bowl-shaped, rather gibbous. 24; Dox.354. An eclipse takes place by the turning of the bowl-shaped body so that the concave side is upward,and the convex side downward toward our vision. [25 ; Dox. 356. The earth is surrounded with mist.] 27 ; Dox. 358. (The moon) is bowl-shaped.! 28; Doz. 859. Sun and moon are subject to the same influences. For these heavenly bodies being bowl-shaped, receive bright rays from the moist exhalation, and give light in appearance [mpdos thnv davtaciav|; the sun more

brightly, for it moves in purer ether [ap], and the moon moves in thicker «ther and so it shines more dimly. 29; Dow. 859. Eclipses of the moon are occasioned by the turning of the bowl-shaped body. 82; Dox. 364. The great year consists of eighteen thousand sun-years. According to Diogenes and Herakleitos the year consists of three hundred and sixty-five days. Aet. iii. 3; Dox. 369. Thunder is occasioned by a gathering of winds and clouds, and the impact of gusts of wind on the clouds; and lightning by a kindling of the exhalations; and fiery whirlwinds [wpnothpas| by a burning and a quenching of the clouds. Aet. iv. 8; Dox. 338. Parmenides and Hippasos and Herakleitos call the soul a fiery substance. 7; Doz. 392. H. says that souls set free from the body go into the soul of the all, inasmuch as it is akin to them in nature and essence. Aet. v.23; Dox. 484. Herakleitos and the Stoics say that men come to maturity at about fourteen years, with the beginning of sexual life ; for trees come to maturity when they begin to bear fruit. . . And at about the age of fourteen men gain understanding of good and evil, and of instruction as to these matters.

XenopHanes of Kolophon, son of Dexias (Apollodoros says of Orthomenes), was the founder of the Eleatic School. After a careful review of the evidence, Zeller (Vorsokr. Phil. pp. 521-522) concludes that he was born about 580 B.c. ; it is agreed by all writers that he lived toa great age. The stories of his travels and adventures are very numerous. He speaks of the war between the Ionic colonies and the Persians as beginning in his youth. According to Diogenes he sang the founding of Elea in 2,000 hexameter verses. The reference to him by Herakleitos (Fr. 16) indicates the general respect for his philosophy. He composed poetry of all varieties, and is said to have recited his own poems. His philosophic views were embodied in a poem which was early lost, and to which later ages gave the name ‘ rept dicews.’ 66 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 6. Clem. Euseb. and Theod. after preceding fragment. Line 5 stands third in MSS. and earlier texts; Karsten places it fifth. * The text follows in the main the edition of Bergk-Hiller, Poet. Lyr. Graec., Leipzig, 1890. 1. God is one, supreme among gods and men, and not like mortals in body or in mind.! 2. The whole [of god] sees, the whole perceives, the whole hears.”

3. But without effort he sets in motion all things by mind and thought. 4. It [%.e. being] always abides in the same place, not moved at all, nor is it fitting that it should move from one place to another. 5. But mortals suppose that the gods are born (as they themselves are), and that they wear man’s clothing and have human voice and body.* 6. But if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies in form like their own—horses like horses, cattle like cattle.‘ 68 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE THE ELEATIC SCHOOL: XENOPHANES 69 - 7. Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods all things which are disreputable and worthy of blame when done by men; and they told of them many lawless deeds, stealing, adultery, and deception of each other.! 8. For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.’ 9. For we are all sprung from earth and water.’ 10. All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.

11. The sea is the source of water and the source of wind ; for neither would blasts of wind arise in the clouds and blow out from within them, except for the great sea, nor would the streams of rivers nor the rain-water in the sky exist but for the sea; but the great sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers. 12. This upper limit of earth at our feet is visible and ttouches the air,f but below it reaches to infinity.‘ 13. She whom men call Iris (rainbow), this also is by nature cloud, violet and red and pale green to behold. 14. Accordingly there has not been a man, nor will there be, who knows distinctly what I say about the gods or in regard to all things, for even if one chances for the most part to say what is true, still he would not know; but every one thinks he knows.! 15. These things have seemed to me to resemble the truth. 16. In the beginning the gods did not at all reveal all things clearly to mortals, but by searching men in the course of time find them out better.

17. The following are fit topics for conversation for men reclining on a soft couch by the fire in the winter season, when after a meal they are drinking sweet wine and eating a little pulse: Who are you, and what is your family? What is your age, my friend? How: old were you when the Medes invaded this land ? 18. Now, however, I come to another topic, and I will show the way.... They say that once ona time whena hound was badly treated a passer-by pitied him and said, ‘Stop beating him, for it is the soul of a dear friend; I recognised him on hearing his voice.’ 72 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

19. But if one wins a victory by swiftness of foot, or in the pentathlon, where the grove of Zeus lies by Pisas’ stream at Olympia, or as a wrestler, or in painful boxing, or in that severe contest called the pancration, he would be more glorious in the eyes of the citizens, he would win a front seat at assemblies, and would be entertained by the city at the public table, and he would receive a gift which would be a keepsake for him. If he won by means of horses he would get all these things although he did not deserve them, as I deserve them, for our wisdom is better than the strength of men or of horses. This is indeed a very wrong custom, nor is it right to prefer strength to excellent wisdom. For if there should be in the city a man good at boxing, or in the pentathlon, or in wrestling, or in swiftness of foot, which is honoured more than strength (among the contests men enter into at the games), the city would not on that account be any better governed. Small joy would it be to any city in this case if a citizen conquers at the games on the banks of the Pisas, for this does not fill with

20. Having learned profitless luxuries from the Lydians, while as yet they had no experience of hateful tyranny, they proceeded into the market-place, no less than a thousand in number all told, with purple garments completely covering them, boastful, proud of their comely locks, anointed with unguents Of rich perfume. 74 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

21. For now the floor is clean, the hands of all and the cups are clean; one puts on the woven garlands, another passes around the fragrant ointment in a vase ; the mixing bow] stands full of good cheer, and more wine, mild and of delicate bouquet, is at hand in jars, which says it will never fail. In the midst frankincense sends forth its sacred fragrance, and there is water, cold, and sweet, and pure; the yellow loaves are near at hand, and the table of honour is loaded with cheese and rich honey. The altar in the midst is thickly covered with flowers on every side; singing and mirth fill the house. Men making merry should first hymn the god with propitious stanzas and pure words; and when they have poured out libations and prayed for power to do the right (since this lies nearest at hand), then it is no unfitting thing to drink as much as will not prevent your walking home without a slave, if you are not very old. And one ought to praise that man who, when he has drunk, unfolds noble things as his memory and his toil for virtue suggest ; but there is nothing praiseworthy in discussing battles of Titans or of Giants or Centaurs, fictions of former ages, nor in plotting violent revolutions.

But it is good always to pay careful respect to the gods. 22. For sending the thigh-bone of a goat, thou didst receive the rich leg of a fatted bull, an honourable present to a man, the fame whereof shall come to all Greece, and shall not cease so long as there is a race of Greek bards. ; 23. Nor would any one first pour the wine into the cup to mix it, but water first and the wine above it. 25. Nor is this (an oath) an equal demand to make of an impious man as compared with a pious man. 27. Bacchic wands of fir stand about the firmly built house. 28. From the beginning, according to Homer, since all have learned them.’ 29. If the god had not made light-coloured honey, I should have said that a fig was far sweeter. 31. As many things as they have made plain for mortals to see! 1 Bergk‘ interprets ppovrida by carmen. 78 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE Arist. Rhet. ii. 28; 1899b6 (Karsten, Fr. 34). Xenophanes asserts that those who say the gods are born are as impious as those who say that they die; for in both cases it amounts to this, that the gods do not exist at all.

Ibid. 1400 b 5 (K. 85). When the inhabitants of Elea asked Xenophanes whether they should sacrifice to Leukothea and sing a dirge or not, he advised them not to sing a dirge if they thought her divine, and if they thought her human not to sacrifice to her.! Plutarch, de vit. pud. p. 580 F (K. 386).. When Lasos, son of Hermiones, called that man a coward who was unwilling to play at dice with him, Xenophanes answered that he was very cowardly and without daring in regard to dishonourable things. Diog. Laer. ix. 20 (K.37). When Empedokles said to him (Xenophanes) that the wise man was not to be found, he answered : Naturally, for it would take a wise man to recognise a wise man. Diog. Laer. ix. 19 (K. 89). ‘ Have intercourse with tyrants either as little as possible, or as agreeably as possible.’ Clem. Al. Strom. vii. p. 841. And Greeks suppose the gods to be like men in their passions as well as in their forms; and accordingly they represent them, each race in forms like their own, in the words of Xenophanes : Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed, Thracians red-haired and with blue eyes; so also they conceive the spirits of the gods to be like themselves.2

(b) PassaGES RELATING TO XENOPHANES IN PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. Plato, Soph.242p. And the Eleatic group of thinkers among us, beginning with Xenophanes and even earlier, set forth in tales how what men call all things is really one. De Coelo, ii. 18; 294a 21. On this account some assert that there is no limit to the earth underneath us, saying that it is rooted in infinity, as, for instance, Xenophanes of Kolophon; in order that they may not have the trouble of seeking the cause.! De mirac. oscult. 88; 833 a 16. The fire at Lipara, Xenophanes says, ceased once for sixteen years, and came back in the seventeenth. And he says that the lavastream from Aetna is neither of the nature of fire, nor is it continuous, but it appears at intervals of many years.

Metaph. i. 5; 986b10. There are some who have expressed the opinion about the All that it is one in its essential nature, but they have not expressed this opinion after the same manner nor in an orderly or natural way. 986b 238. Xenophanes first taught the unity of these things (Parmenides is said to have been his pupil), but he did not make. anything clear, nor did he seem to get at the nature of either of these things, but looking up into the broad heavens he said: The unity is god. 1 Two passages from the Rhet. ii. 23 are translated above, p. 78. Extracts from the book ordinarily called De Xenophane, Zenone, Gorgia, and ascribed to Aristotle, are in part translated below, p. 80, n. 2 fi., .in connection with the fragment of Theophrastos which covers exactly the same ground. 80 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE 3 These, as we have said, are to be dismissed from the present investigation, two of them entirely as being rather more crude, Xenophanes and Melissos; but Parmenides seems to speak in some places with greater care.'

Theophrastos, Fr. 5 ; Simpl. Phys. 5v: 22,36; Doz. 480. Theophrastos says that Xenophanes of Kolophon, teacher of Parmenides, asserted that the first principle is one, and that being is one and all-embracing, and is neither limited nor infinite, neither moving nor at rest. Theophrastos admits, however, that the record of his opinion is derived from some other source than the investigation of nature. This all-embracing unity Xenophanes called god; he shows that god is one because god is the most powerful of all things; for, he says, if there be a multiplicity of things, it is necessary that power should exist in them all alike; but the most powerful and most excellent of all things is god.2 And he shows that god must have been without beginning, since whatever comes into being must come either from what is like it or from what is unlike it; but, he says, it is no more natural that like should give birth to like, than that like should be born from like; but if it had sprung from what is unlike it, then being would have

* Cf. Arist. Xen. Zen. Gorg. 977.223. It is natural that god should be one; for if there were two or more, he would not be the most powerful and most excellent of all.... If, then, there were several beings, some stronger, some weaker, they would not be gods; for itis not the nature of god to be ruled. Nor would they have the nature of god if they were equal, for god ought to be the most powerful; but that which is equal is neither better nor worse than its equal.

sprung from not-being.' So he showed that god is without beginning and eternal. Nor is it either infinite or subject to limits; for not-being is infinite, as having neither beginning nor middle nor end; moreover limits arise through the relation of a multiplicity of things to each other.? Similarly he denies to it both motion and rest; for not-being is immovable, since neither could anything else come into it nor could it itself come into anything else; motion, on the one hand, arises among the several parts of the one, for one thing changes its position with reference to another, so that when he says that it abides in the same state and is not moved (Frag. 4.), ‘And it always abides in the same place, not moved at all, nor is it fitting that it should move from one place to another,’ he does not mean that it abides in arest that is the antithesis of motion, but rather in a stillness that is out of the sphere of both motion and rest. Nikolaos of Damascus in his book On the Gods mentions him as saying that the first principle of things is infinite and immovable.* According to Alexander he regards this principle as limited and spherical. But that Xenophanes shows it to be neither limited nor infinite is clear from the very words

' Of. Arist. X.Z7.G. 977a19. Headds: For even if the stronger were to come from the weaker, the greater from the less, or the better from the worse, or on the other hand the worse from the better, still being could not come from not-being, since this is impossible. Accordingly god is eternal. 2 Of. Arist. X.7.G.977 b 6. The second part reads: But if there were several parts, these would limit each other. The one is not like not-being nor like a multiplicity of parts, since the one has nothing by which it may be limited. 3 Arist. X.Z.G.977b13. He adds: Nothing, however, can be moved into not-being, for not-being does not exist anywhere. But if there is change of place among several parts, there would be parts of the one. Therefore the two or more parts of the one may be moved ; but to remain immovable and fixed is a characteristic of not-being. The one is neither movable nor is it fixed ; forit is neither like not-being, nor like a multiplicity of being. 82 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

quoted,—Alexander says that he regarded it as limited and spherical because it is homogeneous throughout ; and he holds that it perceives all things, saying (Frag. 3) ‘But without effort he sets in motion all things by mind and thought.’ ! Theophrast. Fr. 5a ; Galen, in Hipp. d. n. h. xv. 35K. ; Dox. 481. Several of the commentators have made false statements about Xenophanes, as for instance Sabinos, who uses almost these very words: ‘I say that man is not air, as Anaximenes taught, nor water, as Thales taught, nor earth, as Xenophanes says in some book;’ but no such opinion is found to be expressed by Xenophanes anywhere. And it is clear from Sabinos’s own words that he made a false statement intentionally and did not fall into error through ignorance. Else he would certainly have mentioned by name the book in which Xenophanes expressed this opinion. On the contrary he wrote ‘as Xenophanes says in some book.’ Theophrastos would have recorded this opinion of Xenophanes in his abridgment of the opinions of the physicists, if it were really true. And if you are interested in the investigation of these things, you can read the books of Theophrastos in which he made this abridgment of the opinions of the physicists.

Hipp. Philos. i. 14; Dox. 565. Xenophanes of Kolophon, son of Orthomenes, lived to the time of Cyrus. He was the first to say that all things are incomprehensible, in the following verses : (Frag. 14) ‘ For even if one chances for the most part to say what is true, still he would not know; but every one thinks he ' Arist. X.Z7.G. 977. Since god is a unity, he is homogeneous in all his parts, and sees and hears and has other sensations in all his parts. Except for this some parts of god might rule and be ruled by one another, a thing which is impossible. Being homogeneous throughout he is a sphere in form; for it could not be spheroidal in places but rather throughout.

knows.’' And he says that nothing comes into being, nor is anything destroyed, nor moved; and that the universe is one and is not subject to change. And he says that god is eternal and one, homogeneous throughout, limited, spherical, with power of senseperception in all parts. The sun is formed each day from small fiery particles which are gathered together ; the earth is infinite, and is not surrounded by air or by sky ; an infinite number of suns and moons exist, and all things come from earth. The sea, he said, is salt because so many things flow together and become mixed in it; but Metrodoros assigns as the reason for its saltness that it has filtered through the earth.? And Xenophanes believes that once the earth was mingled with the sea, but in the course of time it became freed from moisture ; and his proofs are such as these: that shells are found in the midst of the land and among the mountains, that in the quarries of Syracuse the imprints of a fish and of seals had been found, and in Paros the imprint of an anchovy at some depth in the stone, and in Melite shallow impressions of all sorts of sea, products. He says that these imprints were made when everything long ago was covered with mud, and then the imprint dried in themud. Farther he says that all men will be destroyed when the earth sinks into the sea and becomes mud, and that the race will begin anew from the beginning ; andthis transformation takes place for all worlds.

Plut. Strom. 4; Dox. 580. Xenophanes of Kolophon, going his own way and differing from all those that had gone before, did not admit either genesis or destruction, but says that the all is always the same. For if it came into being, it could not have existed before this ; and not-being could not come into existence 84 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE nor could it accomplish anything, nor could anything come from not-being. And he declares that sensations are deceptive, and together with them he does away with the authority of reason itself. And he declares that the earth is constantly sinking little by little into the sea. He says that the sun is composed of numerous fiery particles massed together. And with regard to the gods he declares that there is no rule of one god over another, for it is impious that any of the gods should be ruled ; and none of the gods have need of anything at all, for a god hears and sees in all his parts and not in some particular organs.' He declares that the earth is infinite and is not surrounded on every side by air; and all things arise from earth; and he says that the sun and the stars arise from clouds.

Galen, Hist. Phil. 3; Dox. 601. Xenophanes of Kolophon is said to be the chief of this school, which is ordinarily considered aporetic (skeptical) rather than dogmatic. 7; Dox. 604. To the class holding eclectic views belongs Xenophanes, who has his doubts as to all things, except that he holds this one dogma: that all things are one, and that this is god, who is limited, endowed with reason, and immovable. Aet. Plac. i. 3; Dox. 284. Xenophanes held that the first principle of all things is earth, for he wrote in his book on nature: ‘All things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.”?

really kindlings and extinguishings. 18; 847. The objects which appear to those on vessels like stars, and which some call Dioscuri, are little clouds which have become luminous by a certain kind of motion. 20; 548. The sun is composed of fiery particles collected from the moist exhalation and massed together, or of burning clouds. 24; 354. Kclipses occur by extinction of the sun; and the sun is born anew at its risings. Xenophanes recorded an eclipse of the sun for a whole month, and another eclipse so complete that the day seemed as night. 24; 855. Xenophanes held that there are many suns and moons according to the different regions and sections and zones of the earth ; and that at some fitting time the disk of the sun comes into a region of the earth not inhabited by us, and so it suffers eclipse as though it had gone into a hole; he adds that the sun goes on for an infinite distance, but it seems to turn around by reason of the great distance. 25; 356. The moon is a compressed cloud. 28; 358. It shines by its own light. 29 ; 360. The moon disappears each month because it is extinguished. 30; 362. The sun serves a purpose in the generation of the world and of the animals on it, as well as in sustaining them, and it drags the moon after it.

Aet. ili. 2; 867. Comets are groups or motions of burning clouds. 3; 368. Lightnings take place when clouds shine in motion. 4; 871. The phenomena of the heavens come from the warmth of the sun as the principal cause. For when the moisture is drawn up from the sea, the sweet water separated by reason of its lightness becomes mist and passes into clouds, and falls as rain when compressed, and the winds scatter it; for he writes expressly (Frag. 11): ‘ The sea is the source of water.’ Aet. v. 1; 415. Xenophanes and Epikouros abolished the prophetic art. 86 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

Parmenipges, the son of Pyres (or Pyrrhes), of Elea, was born about 515 z.c.; his family was of noble rank and rich, but Parmenides devoted himself to philosophy. He was associated with members of the Pythagorean society, and is himself called a Pythagorean by later writers. In the formation of his philosophic system however he was most influenced by his aged fellow-townsman, Xenophanes ; the doctrines of Xenophanes he developed into a system which was embodied in a poetic work ‘ On Nature.’ The statement that he made laws for the citizens may have reference to some connection with the Pythagorean society. Vv. 6-8 Karsten transfers toa position after v. 10 (order: 5, 9, 10, 6, 7,8, 11),comma at end of v. 5 and period at end of v.8. Stein transfers vv. 4-8 to a position after v. 21, and changes daiuovos of v. 3 to da/woves in apposition with ‘HAiddes xovpa. Order: 3,9,10...20, 21,4,5... 7, 8, where a break occurs, and v. 22 begins a new section. (Prooemium) The horses which bear me conducted me as far as desire may go, when they had brought me speeding along to the far-famed road of a divinity who herself bears onward through all

5 things the man of understanding. Along this road I was borne, along this the horses, wise indeed, bore me hastening the chariot on, and maidens guided my course. The axle in its box, enkindled by the heat, uttered the sound of a pipe (for it was driven on by the rolling wheels on either side), when the maiden daughters of Helios hastened to conduct me 10 to the light, leaving the realms of night, pushing

aside with the hand the veils from their heads. There is the gate between the ways of day and night ; lintel above it, and stone threshold beneath, hold it in place, and high in air it is fitted with great doors ; retributive Justice holds the keys that open and shut them.' However, the maidens addressed her with mild words, and found means to persuade her to thrust back speedily for them the fastened bolt from the doors; and the gate swinging free made the opening wide, turning in their sockets the bronze hinges, well fastened with bolts and nails; then through this the maidens kept horses and chariot straight on the high-road. The goddess received me with kindness, and, taking my right hand in hers, she addressed me with these words :—Youth joined with drivers immortal, who hast come with the horses that bear thee, to our dwelling, hail! since no evil fate has bid thee come on this road (for it lies far outside the beaten track of men), but right and justice. ’Tis necessary for thee to learn all things, both the abiding essence of persuasive truth, and men’s opinions in which rests no true belief. But nevertheless these things also thou shalt learn, since it is necessary to judge

~ accurately the things that rest on opinion, passing Come now I will tell thee—and do thou hear my word and heed it—what are the only ways of enquiry that lead to knowledge. The one way, 90 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE ngs v. 53, and transfers 54-57a to the prooemium following assuming that being is and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the trustworthy path, for truth attends it. The other, that not-being is and that it necessarily is, I call a wholly incredible course, since thou canst not recognise not-being (for this is impossible), nor couldst thou speak of it, for thought and being are the same thing. It makes no difference to me at what point I begin, for I shall always come back again to this.

It is necessary both to say and to think that being is ; for it is possible that being is, and it is impossible that not-being is; this is what I bid thee ponder. I restrain thee from this first course of investigation; and from that course also along which mortals knowing nothing wander aimlessly, since helplessness directs the roaming thought in their bosoms, and they are borne on deaf and likewise blind, amazed, headstrong races, they who consider being and not-being as the same and not the same; and that all things follow a back-turning course. ' That things which are not are, shall never prevail, she said, but do thou restrain thy mind from this course of investigation. 92 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE And let not long-practised habit compel thee along this path, thine eye careless, thine ear and thy tongue overpowered by noise; but do thou weigh the much contested refutation of their words, which

There is left but this single path to tell thee of : namely, that being is. And on this path there are many proofs that being is without beginning and indestructible ; it is universal, existing alone, immovable and without end; nor ever was it nor will it be, since it now is, all together, one, and continuous. For what generating of it wilt thou seek out ? From what did it grow, and how? I will not permit thee to say or to think that it came from not-being ; for it is impossible to think or to say that not-being is. What thing would then have stirred it into activity that it should arise from not-being later rather than earlier? So it is necessary that being either is absolutely or is not. Nor will the force of the argument permit that anything spring from being except being itself. Therefore justice does not slacken her fetters to permit generation or de- (The decision as to these things comes in at

. Hither being exists or it does not exist. It has been decided in accordance with necessity to leave the unthinkable, unspeakable path, as this is not the true path, but that the other path exists and is true. How then should being suffer destruction? How come into existence? If it came into existence, it is not being, nor will it be if it ever is to come into existence. . . . So its generation is extinguished, and its destruction is proved incredible. Nor is it subject to division, for it is all alike ; nor is anything more in it, so as to prevent its cohesion, nor anything less, but all is full of being; therefore the all is continuous, for being is contiguous to being. Farther it is unmoved, in the hold of great chains, without beginning or end, since generation and destruction have completely disappeared and true belief has rejected them. It lies the same, abiding in the same state and by itself; accordingly it abides fixed in the same spot. For powerful necessity holds it in confining bonds, which restrain it on all sides. Therefore divine right does not permit being to have any end ; but it is lacking in nothing, for if it lacked anything it would lack everything.'

Nevertheless, behold steadfastly all absent things as present to thy mind ; for thou canst not separate ! Following Karsten and Preller ; Stein rejects the interpretation. being in one place from contact with being in another place; it is not scattered here and there through the universe, nor is it compounded of parts. Therefore thinking and that by reason of which thought exists are one and the same thing, for thou wilt not find thinking without the being from which it receives its name. Nor is there nor will there be anything apart from being; for fate has linked it together, so that it is a whole and immovable. Wherefore all these things will be but a name, all these things which mortals determined in the belief that they were true, viz. that things arise and perish, that they are and are not, that they change their position and vary in colour.

But since there is a final limit, it is perfected on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally distant from the centre at every point. For it is necessary that it should neither be greater at all nor less anywhere, since there is no not-being which can prevent it from arriving at equality, nor is being such that there may ever be more than what is in one part and less in another, since the whole is inviolate. For if it is equal on all sides, it abides in equality within its limits. At this point I cease trustworthy discourse and the thought about truth; from here on, learn the opinions of mortals, hearing of the illusive order of my verses. 98 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

Men have determined in their minds to name two principles [lit. forms]; but one of these they ought not to name, and in so doing they have erred. They distinguish them as antithetic in character, and give them each character and attributes distinct from those of the other. On the one hand there is the aethereal flame of fire, fine, rarefied, everywhere identical with itself and not identical with its opposite; and on the other hand, opposed to the first, is the second principle, flameless darkness, dense and heavy in character. Of these two principles I declare to thee every arrangement as it appears to men, so But since all things are called light and darkness, and the peculiar properties of these are predicated of one thing and another, everything is at the same time full of light and of obscure darkness, of both equally, since neither has anything in common with And the smaller circles are filled with unmixed fire, and those next them with darkness into which their portion of light penetrates; in the midst of these is the divinity who directs the course of all. For she controls dreaded birth and coition in every part of the universe, sending female to join with male, and again male to female. First of all the gods she devised love.

Thou shalt know the nature of the heavens and all signs that are in the sky, the destructive deeds of the pure bright torch of the sun and whence they arose, and thou shalt learn the wandering deeds of the round-eyed moon and its nature. Thou shalt know’ also the sky surrounding all, whence it arose, and how necessity took it and chained it so as to serve as a limit.to the courses of the stars. How earth and sun and moon and common sky and the milky way of the heavens and highest Olympos and the burning (might of the) stars began to be. It (the moon) wanders about the earth, shining at night with borrowed light. She is always gazing earnestly toward the rays of the sun. For as at any time is the blending of very complex members in a man, so is the mind in men constituted; for that which thinks is the same in all men and in every man, viz. the essence of the members of the body; and the element that is in excess is thought. On the right hand boys, on the left hand girls.

So, according to men’s opinions, did things arise, and so they are now, and from this state when they shall have reached maturity shall they perish. For each of these men has determined a name as a distinguishing mark. When male and female mingle seed of Venus in the form [the body] of one, the excellence from the two different bloods, if it preserves harmony, fashions a well-formed body ; but if when the seed is mingled the excellencies fight against each other 102 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE and do not unite into one, they will distress the sex that is coming into existence, as the twofold seed is mingled in the body of the unfortunate woman. With this there are fineness and heat and light and softness and brightness; and with the dense are classed cold and darkness and hardness and weight, for these are separated the ones on one side, the others on the other. b) PassaGES RELATING TO PARMENIDES IN PLATO AND ARISTOTLE.

Plato, Theaet. 180p. I almost forgot, Theodoros, that there were others who asserted opinions the very opposite of these: ‘ the all is alone, unmoved ; to this all names apply,’ and the other emphatic statements in opposition to those referred to, which the school of Melissos and Parmenides make, to the effect that all things are one, and that the all stands itself in itself, not having space in which it is moved. Ibid. 183 8. Feeling ashamed before Melissos and the rest who assert that the all is one being, for fear we should examine the matter somewhat crudely, 1am even more ashamed in view of the fact that Parmenides is one of them. Parmenides seems to me, in the words of Homer, a man to be reverenced and at the same time feared. For when I was a mere youth and he a very old man, I conversed with him, and he seemed to me to have an exceedingly wonderful depth of mind. I fear lest we may not understand what he said, and that we may fail still more to understand his thoughts in saying it; and, what is most important, I fear lest the question before us should fail to receive due consideration. . . . '

Soph. 238 c (concluding a discussion of Parmenides). You understand then that it is really impossible to speak of not-being or to say anything about it or to conceive it by itself, but it is inconceivable, not to be spoken of or mentioned, and irrational. -Parm. 1508. Accordingly the unity itself in relation to itself is as follows: Having in itself neither greatness nor littleness, it could not be exceeded by itself nor -could it exceed itself, but being equal it would be equal to itself. 104 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE lbid. 163 c. This statement: It does not exist, means. absolutely that it does not exist anywhere in any way, nor does not-being have any share at all in being. Accordingly not-being could not exist, nor in any other way could it have a share in being. (Symp. 178 B, 195 c: Reference to the stories which Hesiod and Parmenides told about the gods. Line 132 is quoted.) Arist. Phys. i. 2; 184b16. The first principle must be one, unmoved, as Parmenides and Melissos say, .. .