The Fragments of Parmenides
tr. Cherubin © 2005, 2013
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Fragments 1-19 are numbered here according to the ordering
used for the "B" fragments in H. Diels, Die Fragment der Vorsokratiker,
ed. W. Kranz, 6th ed. (Hildesheim: Weidmann, 1951). Hence
Fragment 1 = DK B1, etc.
Fragment 1
1 The mares that carry me
as far as my (their?) spirit might reach
2 Were conducting [me];
when leading (carrying) me they put me onto a many-voiced road
3 Of a goddess (daimōn), who through
all cities bears the man of understanding.
4 On this I was carried,
for on this the much-indicating mares were carrying me
5 Pulling the chariot at
full stretch, and maidens led the way.
6 The axle in the
wheel-boxes was sending forth the sound of a surinx (panpipe), itself
7 Burning, for it was
being pressed down by its two turned
8-9 Wheels at both ends, as the Sun-maidens
(Hēliades) hastened to
convey me, leaving behind the houses of Night,
10 Into [the] light, having pushed
the veils from their heads with their hands.
11 There are the gates of the paths
of Night and Day
12 And a lintel and a threshold of
stone hold them together at both sides (top and bottom),
13 Themselves being filled by vast
doors;
14 Of these many-penaltied Dikē (Justice) holds the keys
of exchange (alternation).
15 Her indeed the maidens
blandishing with gentle words
16-17 Persuaded cleverly to push the bolted bar
swiftly from the gates for them; and they of the doors,
17-19 Spreading, made a yawning gap, turning the
much-bronzed posts in their sockets in turn
20 Closely fixed to them with
pegs and nails. Right away straight through the gates
21 Along the carriage-road the
maidens guided the chariot and mares.
22-23 And the goddess (thea) received me
willingly, and took my right hand in hers, and spoke to me and
addressed me thus:
24 "Young man in the company of
immortal charioteers
25 And mares which carry you,
arriving at our house,
26 Welcome, since in no way a
bad fate (moira) has sent
you forth to go
27 On this road - for truly it
is far from the beaten path of humans -,
28 But rather Themis (Right) and Dikē (Justice). You must
hearken to (learn) everything,
29 Both the unshaking heart of well-rounded (persuasive?) Alētheiē (Truth)
30 And the opinions of mortals,
in which there is no true assurance.
31 But nevertheless you shall
learn these things also, how the things that are believed (OR: the
things that seem)
32 Must really be altogether
[going] throughout all things (OR: Must really be accepted to be
continually (continuously) pervading everything).
Fragment 2
1 Come now, I will speak,
and do you carry this speech away with you once heard,
2 Just which are the only
roads of inquiry (seeking) to conceive [of] (OR: for thinking; noēsai):
3 The one, how it is and how it is not not to be (OR:
how it is not possible for it not to be),
4 Is the path of Peithō (Persuasion) - for Alētheiē
(Truth) attends upon her;
5 The other, how it
is not and how it is necessary [for it] not to be,
6 This indeed I indicate
to you to be an all-not-inquirable-into straight track:
7 For neither would you
know what is not (not-being) - for that is not accomplished -
8 Nor would you indicate
it.
1 ...for the same
thing is for conceiving (awareness; noein) [of] and for being
(OR:...for the same thing is to conceive (be aware) [of] and
to be)
Fragment 4
1 Nevertheless gaze
steadily with noos
on what is absent and on what is present;
(OR:...gaze on/ observe steadily what is absent to noos and on what is
present [to noos];)
2 For you will not sever
what is (being) from holding to what is (being),
3 Neither by scattering it
altogether in every way according to an order
(OR:...in every way throughout the universe)
4 Nor by bringing it
together.
Fragment 5
1 ...It is the same
(common) to me
2 From what place I should
begin, for to that place I shall come back again.
Fragment 6
1 It is fitting (OR:
necessary) to say and noein
eon
(being; what is) is; for it is (for this can be; for it is) for
being (OR: to be),
(OR:It is necessary/fitting to say and noein that eon is; for...)
(OR:...; for to be is,)
2 By no means is it not.
These things I bid you to indicate to yourself;
(OR:Nothing is not....)
3 For from this first road
of inquiry I bar you,
4 But also from the road
on which mortals understanding nothing
5-6 Wander two-headed, for
helplessness in their own breasts drives their wandering noos
straight, and they are borne lurching along
7 Deaf and blind equally,
dazed, a tribe without judgment,
8 By whom it is held that
pelein (to be; to go on)
and ouk einai (not to be)
are the same
9 And not the same, but
the path of all is back-turning.
Fragment 7
1 For never is this to be
forced, that things that are not (mē eonta) are,
2 But do keep (hold back)
your thought from this road of inquiry:
3 Neither allow
many-experienced (much-experienced) habit to force you along this
road,
4 To ply an aimless
(heedless) eye and a roaring hearing (ear)
5 And tongue, but pick out
(judge; distinguish; krinai)
for yourself by means of reason (an account; logos) a much-contesting
refutation
6 Out of what I said.
Fragment 8
1 ...One account (story; muthos) of a road yet
2 Is left: how it is. On
this signs are,
3 Very many, how it is [a]
being (eon) unborn and
indestructible,
(OR:...,how what is (being; eon)
is unborn and indestructible,)
4 Whole, unique and
unmoving and complete (or: without issue, unaccompanied);
5 Neither was it ever nor
will it be, since it is now all together (common),
(OR:There is not was or will be, since...)
6 One, continuous; for
what parentage (birth) will you seek out for it?
7-8 How and whence grown? Nor will I
allow you to say nor yet to conceive (think, take it, etc.; noein) that it was out of what
is not (out of not being; ek mē
eontos); for it is neither sayable (phaton) nor perceptible to noos (conceivable; noēton)
9 That (How) it (what is;
eon) is = it is not. And
what necessity would have started it (this; min) going
(OR:[That] it (eon) is how
(in the manner of) it is not. And...)
(OR:That (How) it (eon) is
is not. And...)
10 Later or sooner, beginning
from nothing, to spring up?
11 Thus it is necessary either
to be entirely (wholly), or not [to be].
12 Nor will strength of
assurance ever allow, out of what is not (out of not being; ek mē eontos)
13 Something to come to be
beside it; on account of (for the sake of) this neither coming to be
14 Nor perishing does Dikē (Justice) allow by
loosening the shackles,
15 But she holds; and in this is
the distinction regarding these:
16 It is or it is not; for it
has in fact been decided, just as is necessary,
17 To permit that the latter
road is unconceived [-of] (anoēton)
and unnamed (nameless) - for not a true (genuine; real)
18 Road is it, and to permit
that the former is to be and to be genuine (true).
(OR:...to grant the former to be thus: to be genuine (true).)
19 How could what is (being; to eon) perish? How could it
come to be (be born)?
20 For if it came to be, it is
(was) not, nor if it is ever about to come to be.
21 In this way coming to be has
been extinguished and destruction is not heard of.
22 Neither is it divisible,
since it is all alike (like);
(OR:..., since all is alike (like);)
23 Nor is it in any way more in
any one place, which would keep it from holding itself together;
24 Nor is it in any way less;
but all is full of what is (being; eontos).
25 Therefore all is continuous;
for what is (being; eon) comes near to what is (being; eonti).
(OR:Therefore it is all continuous; for...)
26 But unmoving in limits of
mighty bonds
27 It is without beginning and
without cease, since coming to be and destruction
28 Wandered very far off, and
(but) true assurance pushed them away.
29 Remaining the same and in the
same place (way), it lies by (according to) itself
30 And thus it stands fast on
the spot, for mighty Anankē
(Necessity)
31 Holds it in bonds of
limit, which shuts it in all around (on both sides).
32 Wherefore (Since) it is
not right (lawful, meet; themis)
for what is (being; to eon)
to be incomplete:
(OR:Wherefore (Since) it is right (etc.; themis) for what is (to eon) to be not incomplete:)
33 For it is not lacking;
if it were, it would lack everything.
34 The same thing is for
conceiving (thinking, awareness, etc; noein) [of] and is wherefore (for the sake of
which) there is that which is conceived (thought, etc.; noēma) [of]
(OR:...and is wherefore (for the sake of which) there is conceiving
(thought, awareness, etc.; noēma)
(OR:...and is wherefore (for the sake of which) it (i.e., eon) is [a] noēma)
35 For not without that
which is (being; tou eontos),
on which what is expressed depends
36 Will you find
conceiving (awareness, etc.; noein).
For nothing either is or will be
37 Besides that which is (being;
tou eontos), since Moira (Fate, Portion) bound it
38 To be whole and unmoving;
with respect to this everything has been named
(specified; reading onomastai
)
(OR:...with respect to this it has been named
(reading onomastai)
all things)
(OR:...with respect to this everything will be a
name (reading onoma estai))
39 As many as (As much
as) mortals having laid down trusting to be true
40 To come to be (Coming to
be) and to be destroyed (being destroyed), to be and not to be,
41 And to change place and
to exchange bright surface colors.
42 But since a limit is
outermost, it (i.e., what is) is completed (perfected),
43 From every side like the
bulk of a well-rounded sphere,
44-45 In all ways equally balanced from the
middle, for it is necessary that it be neither something greater
nor something smaller in one way or another (in this or that);
46 Nor does what is (being;
eon) not exist, which
would prevent it from attaining
47-48 To the same thing; nor is what is
(being; eon) such that
it could be more than (of) what is (being; eon) in some way (place)
and less in another, since it is all (since all is) inviolate.
49 For from all sides (in
all ways) equal to itself, it proves to be uniformly within
limits.
50 At this point I cease my
trustworthy speech and thought to you
51-52 About (On both sides of) truth. From
this point onward learn by hearing from me in addition the
opinions of mortals, a deceptive order;
(OR:...From this point onward learn mortal opinions by hearing
in addition from me a deceptive order;)
53 For two judgments (opinions,
marks) they laid down to name (specify) appearances (forms),
54 One of which it is
necessary not [to name? to lay down?] - in respect to this they
have wandered (are misled) -
55 They distinguished
(picked out; ekrinanto)
for themselves opposites in respect to form and laid down signs
for themselves
56 Separate from one
another; here on the one hand [they laid down the sign] ethereal
(high-up) flaming fire,
57 Being mild (A mild
thing), extremely light in weight, the same as itself in every
way,
58 And not the same as the
other [one]. But that (the latter) one in conformity with itself
59 Oppositely [is? they laid
down the sign?] obscure (unlearnable) night, a solid and weighty
form.
60 I tell you about this
whole fitting arrangement
61 In order that at no time
may any opinion of mortals overtake (surpass) you.
Fragment 9
1 But since in fact all
things have been named light and night
2 And these each according
to their own powers have been given as names to these things and to
those,
3 All is full of light and
invisible night together
4 Both equally, since
nothing has a share in neither one (OR: since neither has a share of
nothing).
Fragment 10
1-3 You will know the celestial nature
and all the constellations in the sky and the destructive (unseen?)
deeds of the clear bright sun's torch and whence it came into being,
4 And you will learn the
wandering (revolving) deeds of the round-eyed moon
5 And its nature, and also
you will know whence the sky holding (embracing) on both sides (all
around)
6 Came to be, and how Anankē (Necessity)
leading it bound it
7 To hold in bonds of
stars.
Fragment 11
1 ...how earth and sun and
moon
2 And common aether and
the Milky Way and furthest (eschatos,
line 3) Olympus
3 And the hot force of
stars were set in motion
4 To come to be.
Fragment 12
1 For the narrower [rings]
are filled with unmixed fire,
2 The ones next to these
are of night, and a portion of flame is discharged;
3 In the middle of these
is the divinity (daimōn)
who steers everything;
4 For she rules over the
painful birth and mixing (mingling) of all,
5 Sending female to male
to join together (in sexual intercourse) and then in turn
contrariwise
6 Male to female.
Fragment 13
1 First of all the gods she devised Erōs
(Love).
Fragment 14
1 A
night-shining borrowed light wandering around the earth
Fragment 15
1 Always
looking around for the rays of the sun
Fragment 15a
1 ...rooted
in water
Fragment 16
1 For as on each occasion
a blending (mingling) holds of much-wandering limbs,
2-3 So noos is present to humans; for the nature (form)
of limbs is the same thing that thinks (apprehends; phroneei) in humans
(OR:...is the same thing that is thought (apprehended) in (of, for)
humans)
4 Both for all together
and individually; for the full is conceived (thought; noēma) [of].
(OR:...is what is conceived (thought) [of].)
Fragment 17
1 Boys to
the right, girls to the left
When woman and man [together] mix the seeds of Venus (Love), the
power which forms [ bodies] (OR:the power which is formed) out of
the different blood, if it maintains proper proportion, produces
well-formed (well-constituted) bodies. For if the powers, when the
seeds are [being] mixed, fight and do not constitute (make) a unity
in the body in which the mixture has taken place, then they will
terribly (cruelly) torment the nascent (growing) sex with double
seed.
Fragment 19
1 In this way for you
these things arose according to opinion and now are
2 And from this point
onwards will be completed after they have grown up;
3 Humans having laid down
a distinguishing name for each.
1 Such, unmoving is (comes
to be; telethei) that for
which as a whole the name is 'to be'
Notes
Fragment
1, line 3: The manuscripts here are all corrupt
(i.e., they must be the results of miscopying since they
present a series of letters that do not form a sequence of
correctly-spelled words). The most common way to make sense of
them gives the sequence of words I have translated above.
Recently N.-L. Cordero has argued that the letters could yield
a different sequence of words, so that this line would read
something like (my translation): Of a goddess, who bears
there, in relation to everything, the man of understanding.
See N.-L. Cordero, By
Being, It Is (Parmenides Publishing, 2005) and Les Deux chemins de Parménide,
2d ed. (Vrin/Ousia, 1997).
Fragment
1, line 29: The manuscripts differ here. Some offer eupeitheos,
well-persuasive; others have eukukleos, well-rounded.
Fragment
2, line 3: The Greek here is very difficult. The
Greek phrase is hōs estin.
Hōs means 'how' or
possibly 'that,' and estin
is the third-person singular form of the verb 'to be.' Like
some modern languages such as Spanish, Greek often omits the
noun or pronoun preceding a verb if the subject of the verb is
clear from the context. Thus hōs estin would mean
how/that [something] is. But because we do not have the
whole text of Parmenides' poem, we do not have an absolutely
clear indication of what the subject of the verb (the
"something") is. Given the goddess's remarks about eon ("being" or "what
is") in Fragments 6 through 8, many scholars suggest that
the subject of the verb estin
in Fragment 2 line 3 is eon.
This would match well with the description of what must be
said and conceived concerning eon on the road of inquiry that is
discussed in the first 49 lines of Fragment 8. Other
commentators have suggested that in fact there is no subject
for the verb, and that the line should be read as indicating
that one road of inquiry is to conceive that "is," i.e. to
take seriously the meaning and implications of saying that
anything "is."
Fragment 2,
line 4: Many translators present this line so that Peithō (Persuasion) follows Alētheiē, but the spelling in
the manuscripts suggests that it is the other way around. This may
or may not be a result of corruption in the manuscripts. As for
what alētheiē
(also spelled alētheia)
means, it is related, but not identical, to truth. It is also not
equivalent to unconcealment, another way the word is sometimes
rendered.To present alētheiē
is to do more than to say something true, or to state the truth.
Whereas the opposite of truth is falsity or falsehood, alētheiē is opposed not only
to pseudos (lie,
falsehood) but also to lēthē
(oblivion, forgetting) and its relatives. We might start to
characterize alētheiē by
saying that it is something like the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. We would then need to add the further
specifications that telling alētheiē
cannot include lies, mistakes, errors, misapprehensions, gaps, or
other inaccuracies; and cannot (wittingly or unwittingly) distort,
conceal, omit, or ignore anything pertinent to the topic at hand.
To be able to tell alētheiē
requires an awareness of the whole of what is relevant, and
awareness of the context of one’s subject. This suggests another
contrast with truth: we can say that someone has “guessed the
truth,” or that he or she has “stated the truth” in making an
accurate surmise. There is no comparable Greek use of alētheiē. In
Pindar and in Hesiod’s account of the Muses, awareness of the
origins of things (of the cosmos, of a city, of a family) is a
requisite for presenting current events properly in one’s poem.
Awareness of these origins is necessary in order to be able to
give each thing and person its due and to present each in its
proper place (according to dikē)
in the world. There is then something explanatory in the alētheiē these poets claim to
be presenting, and that aspect will figure prominently in
Parmenides’ fragments. (Portions of this note have appeared in
print in my contribution, "Alētheia and Inquiry in
Parmenides," pp. 1-20 in Proceedings
for the Fourth Annual Independent Meeting of the Ancient
Philosophy Society, 2004.)
Fragment 3,
line 1: Noein
is the infinitive of a verb that most often means "being aware
[of]," "to be aware [of]," "to conceive [of]" (in the sense of
having a mental conception of something - not conception in the
sense of procreation), "conceiving," and so on. It can also mean
"to intend," "to plan," and the like.
Fragment
3, general note: Fragment 3 is metrically only half a
line long, and may not represent a complete sentence or even a
complete clause.
Fragment 4,
line 1: Noos
can be translated as 'mind,' 'intelligence,' 'awareness,'
'intellectual awareness.' It is etymologically related to noein.
Anaxagoras
will use the same word; it is spelled nous in his dialect.
Fragment 6,
line 1: Eon can
be translated as 'being,' 'a being,' 'that which is,' 'what is,'
or perhaps 'what is the case.' To
eon adds the definite article, so it can be translated as
'the being,' 'the thing that is,' 'what is,' 'that which is.' The
plural is eonta (beings,
things that are, etc.). Mē
eonta means "things that are not." To mē eon means "what is
not," "that which is not," or "not-being."
Fragment 8,
lines 35-36: In The
Route of Parmenides (Yale University Press, 1970), A.P.D.
Mourelatos proposes that this line be translated, "For not without
what-is, to which it stands committed, will you find thinking"
(pp.170-172). The Greek word does indeed connote commitment, so
this is a very important translation alternative. I would
translate noein as
'conceiving' or 'awareness' instead of 'thinking,' for reasons
detailed in my article, "Legein,
Noein, and To Eon
in Parmenides" (Ancient
Philosophy 21 [2001]: 277-303).
Fragment 8,
line 38: Some manuscripts have onomastai, 'it has been named,' while others
have onoma estai, 'it
will be a name.'
Fragment 13,
line 1: It is not clear just who is supposed to have
devised Erōs (god of
love and desire). Quite possibly the unnamed female divinity of
Fragment 12 is meant; that seems to have been the impression of
some ancient commentators. We do not know whether this divinity is
the same as any of the other female divinities in Parmenides'
fragments.
Fragments 14
and 15: These fragments are supposed to describe the
Moon.
Fragment 15a:
This fragment is supposed to describe the Earth.
Fragment 17:
This fragment is supposed to describe the placement of embryos in
the womb.
Fragment 18:
This fragment has come down to us only in Latin prose translation,
so I have rendered it in prose instead of verse. It is apparently
supposed to explain why some individuals are attracted only to
their own sex (as opposed to being attracted to the opposite sex -
or to both sexes?).
"Cornford's
Fragment": This fragment was identified by F.M. Cornford
and is widely but not universally accepted as genuinely a fragment
of Parmenides' poem. It presents a number of difficulties. We do
not know where in the poem the fragment originated if it is
genuine: Is it part of the goddess's account of roads of inquiry?
Is it part of her account of the opinions of mortals? Is it
something else? Further, it is not clear whether this fragment
represents a full sentence or only part of one. Another problem is
the wording. The first word may be either hoion, 'such,' or oion, 'alone.'
The
Fragments of Parmenides (translation) by Parmenides
(author), Rose Cherubin (translator) is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.