Reading: Fragments of Empedocles

Earth and Air not Illimitable. ......... 0. cece eee e cee eens 33

viii THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

PAGE Sun and Moon. ......cce ccc eee cee sce eeweccececeereseenees 33

The Darkling Night. .......... ccc eee cece eee e cee eecceeeee 35

Wind and Rain, ..... cee cc eee cece cece cece ec eeeeeeeenee® 35 BT. 3 Se vie ee os ae cca ve icc aivie il elnioaie slau cavalernuenibieeleseieresrecise'® 35

The? Volcanos 229 se iecicsstesicase died Haynes Stes soe eae ee or eete 35 AIL IS oi sia tae eeerass boos eaidiaig Saleen Oa se Sree ated wibelate esessinisiernnieiee 35

Things Passing Strange. .......-:cceee cee eee cence eee tenes 36

Strange Creatures of Olden Times. .........-.:eeeeeeerees 36

The Process of Human Generation To-day. .....-. ghiateerere 38

On Animals and Plants. ..........cceceee eee e reser eeeeeeee 39

Oar EyeSs cists vesocscccsccreecesevecciaieess ee snes e tees 42

Similia Similibus. 0.2.0.0... ccc cee eee eee et tee eeecenes 44

The Black River Bottoms. ...........cceeeeeeeeceeeeenttes 44 FY OS 5 isis tiecita aioe ae heats ole Tee arte bee es ee aieete eels sees 45 BONS: rece Rie SSE SN aaa ra eS ae oto tise were 45

Blood and Flesh. ....0.cccseccccuccicscccceccescusseneee 45 PU es Fear soe srs sas eia dcaras dois caiotn aieta: eteiahai avs cole /ai sisi ufos e’e: lalwlovacececare eer a 46

The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra. ...........-seeee ees 46

Scentinccceta gene sss Ae wie ratte es ie Gide Mae eee athe ae ee NS 48

Onethe?Psychic: Life: :.!3 ooo igecel ici sh sa8 wnae cee eens 49 DOMINION noose Seas Seiele e eae a cae et awe eee Seeman eeses 51

THE PuRIFICATIONS.

The Healer and Prophet. ........... cc ceeeee cee cuceueeees 53

Expiation and Metempsychosis. ..........0.e.eeeeeeeeecees 54

This-Barth? of Onsite cer ceocioc siete soi a's wes oe eiseeeete es Se Os 56

This Sky-Roofed World. ......... cc cc ccc cece ee eeeeew ences 56

This Vale: Of sCearsiiss-o58.< 5.8 Sac eers oh A eae eae deserts 56

They Changing: Forms. . .c2c:0< vases ee vcs sis Ss eek eases ee 58

The Golden JA ee -ioieicheiats svarie o osee ie oye aicia elares eau ie eae erence 58 "PRG SARC wesc care ck eee Sew ietalare o's aueaveleeeracoselswieiacccc mrnigievevorwie Sie was 59 TPHOSEZDAYSs. so cba pveieeras dba eed Saree Vie ee asats Viegee leu dace melee woe ee 60 hes Divine: S25. 8 coaches o Gok Soe = we Oe ee Stine aan oe 60

Animal! Sacrifice. o6iesc6 coi vaiees's vo.8 taissied ev wee’ osaee lees 62 PADOOSi2 A Soivtes ete eccvaisuel a oraineareoeeteia eee dict otal e war cleo 63 OUT ee cial ake weal tear eae UA eerie’ bru, male Ewe ET wh reba cb abso’ 63

The Progression of Rebirth. ....--.. ccc cceece cee eeececeece 64

Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost. ........... cc ccc e ee eee 65

NOTES) 3 0 oie taletae a aeieitiece arn diateis ip, bela aiale 8 OS RISD eyed hanes 67

EMPEDOCLES: THE MAN, THE PHILOS- OPHER, THE POET.

LIFE.

HE philosopher Empedocles, according to the

common tradition of antiquity, was born at

Agrigentum in Sicily, and flourished just before the Peloponnesian. war, the contemporary of the great Athenians about Pericles. He might have heard the Prometheus in the theatre of Dionysus and have talked with Euripides in the Agora; or have seen with Phidias the bright Pallas Athene on the Acropolis; or have listened in the groves beyond the city while Anaxagoras unfolded to him those half-spiritual guesses at the nature of the universe, so different from his own. He might: but the de- tails of his life are all too imperfectly recorded. The brief references in other philosophers and the vita of Diogenes Laertius contain much that is contra- dictory or legendary. Though apparently of a wealthy and conservative family, he took the lead among his fellow citizens against the encroach- ments of the aristocracy; but, as it seems, falling at last from popular favor, he left Agrigentum and died in the Peloponnesus—his famous leap into

Mount Aetna being as mythical as his reputed

2 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

translation after a sacrificial meal.... But time restores the exiles: Florence at last set the image of Dante before the gates of Santa Croce;.and now, after two thousand years, the hardy demo- crats of Agrigentum begin to cherish (so I have read) the honest memory of Empedocles with that of Mazzini and Garibaldi.

PERSONALITY.

The personality of this old Mediterranean Greek must have been impressive. He was not only the statesman and philosopher, but the poet. And ego- tistic, melancholy, eloquent! soul that he was, he seems to have considered himself above all as the wonder-worker and the hierophant, in purple vest and golden girdle,

“Crowned both with fillets and with flowering wreaths;”

and he tells us of his triumphal passage through the

Sicilian cities, how throngs of his men and women accompanied him along the road, how from house and alley thousands of the fearful and the sick crowded upon him and besought oracles or healing words. And stories have come down to us of his wonderful deeds, as the waking of a woman from a long trance and the quite plausible cure of a mad- man by music. Some traces of this imposing figure, with elements frankly drawn from legends not here mentioned appear in Arnold’s poem.

*From Empedocles, indeed, according to Aristotle, the study of

rhetoric got its first impulse. Cf. Diels’s Gorgias und Empedocles in

Siizungsberichte d. K. P. Akademie d. Wissenschaften, 1884.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 3

WORKS.”

Of the many works, imputed to Empedocles by antiquity, presumably only two are genuine, the poems On Nature and the Purifications; and of these we possess but the fragments preserved in the citations of philosopher and doxographer from Ar- istotle to Simplicius, which, though but a small part of the whole, are much more numerous and com- prehensive than those of either Xenophanes or Par- menides. It is impossible to determine when the poems were lost: they were read doubtless by Lu- cretius and Cicero, possibly as late as the sixth century by Simplicius, who at least quotes from the

On Nature at length.’

HISTORY OF THE TEXT.

The fragments were imperfectly collected late in the Renaissance, as far as I have been able to deter- mine, first by the great German Xylander, who translated them into Latin. Stephanus published his Empedoclis Fragmenta at Paris in 1573. But not till the nineteenth century did they get the at- tention they deserve, in the editions of Sturz (1805) Karsten (1838), Stein (1852),and Mullach (1860), which show, however, confusing diversities in the readings as well as in the general arrangement.

Each except Stein’s is accompanied by Latin trans-

"The writings of Democritus are conjectured to have been lost between the third and fifth centuries.

4 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

lation® and notes. But our best text is unquestion- ably that of Hermann Diels of Berlin, first pub- lished in 1901 in his Poetarum Philosophorum

Fragmenta, and subsequently (1906), with a few slight changes and additions, in his Fragmente der

Vorsokratiker.

TRANSLATIONS.

As said above, there are several translations into

Latin ; all that I have seen being in prose, and some rather loose for the work of distinguished scholars.

The late P. Tannery gives a literal French trans- lation in his work on Hellenic Science, Diels in his

Fragmente one in German, Bodrero in his [I Prin- cipio one in Italian, and Burnet and Fairbanks in their works on early Greek philosophy literal Eng- lish translations, of which the former’s is the better.

There is one in German hexameters from the ear- lier decades of the last century; and a few brief selections in the English hexameters of W. C. Law- ton may be found in Warner’s Library of the

World’s Best Literature. The works of Frere and of Symonds contain specimen renderings, the form- er’s in verse, the latter’s in prose. Probably Diels does most justice to the meaning of Empedocles; none assuredly does any kind of justice to his poetry.

THE IDEAS OF EMPEDOCLES.

We can reconstruct something of Empedocles’s system out of the fragments themselves and out of

*T have not seen the original of Sturz’s edition; but I gather from references in my reading that it contains a translation.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 5

the allusions in the ancients; yet our knowledge is by no means precise, and even from the earliest times has there been diversity of interpretation. ‘Various problems are discussed, as they come up, in the Notes, but a brief survey of what seems to be his thought as a whole, even at the risk of some repetition, may help the general reader to get his bearings.

The philosophy of the On Nature may be con- sidered as a union of the Eleatic doctrine of Being with that of the Heraclitic Becoming, albeit the

Sicilian is more the natural scientist than the dia- lectician, more the Spencer than the Hegel of his times. With Parmenides he denies that the aught can come from or return to the naught; with Hera- clitus he affirms the principle of development. There is no real creation or annihilation in this universal round of things; but an eternal mixing and unmix- ing, due to two eternal powers, Love and Hate, of one world-stuff in its sum unalterable and eternal.

There is something in the conception suggestive of the chemistry of later times. To the water of

Thales, the air of Anaximenes, and the fire of

Heraclitus he adds earth, and declares them as all alike primeval, the promise and the potency of the universe,

“The fourfold root of all things.”

These are the celebrated “four elements” of later philosophy and magic. In the beginning, if we may so speak of a vision which seems to transcend

6 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

time, these four, held together by the uniting bond of Love, rested, each separated and unmixed, beside one another in the shape of a perfect sphere, which by the entrance of Hate was gradually broken up to develop at last into the world and the individual things,

“Knit in all forms and wonderful to see.”

But the complete mastery of Hate, means the com- plete dissipation and destruction of things as such, until Love, winning the upper hand, begins to unite and form another world of life and beauty, which ends in the still and lifeless sphere of old, again

“exultant in surrounding solitude.”

Whereupon, in the sarfie way, new world-periods arise, and in continual interchange follow one an- other forever, like the secular zons of the nebular hypothesis of to-day.

Moreover, Empedocles tells us of a mysterious vortex, the origin of which he may have explained in some lost portion of his poem, a whirling mass, like the nebula in Orion or the original of our solar system, that seems to be the first stage in the world- process after the motionless harmony of the sphere.

Out of this came the elements one by one: first, air, which, condensing or thickening, encompassed the rest in the form of, a globe or, as some maintain, of an egg; then fire, which took the upper space, and crowded air beneath her. And thus arose two hemispheres, together forming the hollow vault of the terrestrial heaven above and below us, the

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 7

bright entirely of fire, the dafk of air, sprinkled with the patches of fire we call stars. And, because in unstable equilibrium, or because bearing still something of the swift motion of the vortex, or be- cause of fire’s intrinsic push and pressure—for Em- pedocles’s physics are here particularly obscure— this vault begins to revolve: and behold the morn- ing and the evening of the first day; for this revo- lution of the vault is, he tells us, the cause of day and night.

" Out of the other elements came the earth, prob- ably something warm and slimy, without form and void. It too was involved in the whirl of things; and the same force which expels the water from a sponge, when swung round and round in a boy’s hand, worked within her, and the moist spurted ‘forth and its evaporation filled the under spaces of air, and the dry land appeared. And the everlast- ing Law made two great lights, for signs and sea- sons, and for days and years, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and it made the stars also.

The development of organic life, in which the interest of Empedocles chiefly centers, took place, as we have seen, in the period of the conflict of Love and Hate, through the unceasing mixing and sepa- tation of the four elements. Furthermore, the quantitative differences of the combinations pro- duced qualitative differences of sensible properties.

First the plants, conceived as endowed with feeling, sprang up, germinations out of earth. Then ani-

8 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

mals arose piecemeal—he tells us in one passage— heads, arms, eyes, roaming ghastly through space, the chance unions of which resulted in grotesque shapes until joined in fit number and proportion, they developed into the organisms we see about us.

In another passage we hear how first rose mere lumps of earth

“with rude impress,”

but he is probably speaking of two separate periods of creation. Empedocles was a crude evolutionist.*

His theory of the attraction of like for like, so suggestive of the chemical affinities of modern sci- ence; his theory of perception, the earliest recog- nition, with the possible exception of Alcmaon of

Croton, of the subjective element in man’s experi- ence with the outer world; and his affirmation of the consciousness of matter, in company with so many later materialists, even down to Haeckel, who puts the soul in the atom, are, perhaps, for our pur- poses sufficiently explained in the notes.

Behind all the absurdities of the system of Em- pedocles, we recognize the keen observation, in- sight, and generalizing power of a profound mind, which, in our day with our resources of knowledge, would have been in the forefront of the world’s seek- ers after that Reality which even the last and the greatest seek with a success too humble to warrant much smiling at those gone before.

“Some portions of the above paragraphs are translated and con-

densed from Zeller, some others from Vorlander, Geschichte der

Philosophie, I. Band, Leipsic, 1903.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 9

THE POETRY OF EMPEDOCLES.

Empedocles and his forerunner Parmenides were the only Greek philosophers who wrote down their systems in verse; for Heraclitus had written in crabbed prose, and Xenophanes was more poet- satirist than poet-philosopher. Lucretius, the poet- ical disciple of Empedocles (though not in the same degree that he was the philosophic disciple of Epi- curus), is in this their only successor. Contempo- rary reflective satire and the metrical forms of the

Orphics may, as Burnet conjectures, have sug- gested the innovation; but both Parmenides and

Empedocles were poets by nature, and I see no rea- son why they should not naturally and spontane- ously have chosen the poet’s splendid privilege of verse for their thought.

The Ionic dialect of Empedocles’s hexameters, and occasionally even his phrase, is Homeric; but in mood and manner, as sometimes in philosophic terminology, he recalls the Eleatic. Parmenides had written:

“And thou shalt know the Source etherial, And all the starry signs along the sky, And the resplendent works of that clear lamp

Of glowing sun, and whence they all arose.

Likewise of wandering works of round-eyed moon

Shalt thou yet learn and of her source; and then

Shalt thou know too the heavens that close us round— Both whence they sprang and how Fate leading them

Bound fast to keep the limits of the stars....

How earth and sun and moon and common sky, The Milky Way, Olympos outermost, And burning might of stars made haste to be.”

* Parmenides, fr. 10, 11, Diels, FV.

10 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

And it is as if he were addressing the Agrigen- tine and bequeathing him his spiritual heritage; and we might add thereto those verses of another poet of more familiar times:

“And thou shalt write a song like mine, and yet

Much more than mine, as thou art more than I.”

For, although Empedocles has left us no pas- sage of the gorgeous imagination of Parmenides’s proem,® the immo tai pe dépovow, his fragments as a whole seem much more worth while.

He was true poet. There is first the grandeur of his conception. Its untruth for the intellect of to-day should not blind us to its truth and power for the imagination, the same yesterday, to-day and perhaps forever. The Ptolemaic astronomy of Par- adise Lost is as real to the student of Milton as the

Copernican to the student of Laplace, and an essen- tial element in the poem. The nine circles of the subterranean Abyss lose none of their impressive- ness for us because we know more of geology than the author of the Inferno. The imagination can glory in the cross of Christ, towering over the wrecks of time, long after the intellect has settled with the dogmas of orthodoxy. And an idea may be imposing even for the intellect where the intel- lect repudiates its validity. A stupendous error like the Hegelian logic of history, even the pseudo- science of Goethe’s vertebral theory of the skull, that yet suggests the great principle of morpholog-

* Diels, FV. Arnold has borrowed from it one of the best lines

of Empedocles on Aetna: “Ye sun-born Virgins! on the road of truth.”—

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. II

ical and functional metamorphosis, argues greater things for the mind of man than any truth, however ingeniously discovered, in the world of petty facts.

And the response of the soul is a poetic response, the thrill and the enthusiasm before the large idea.

Our poet’s conception is impressive to imagination and to intellect: we stand with him amid the awful silence of the primeval Sphere that yet exults in surrounding solitude; but out of the darkness and the abyss there comes a sound: one by one do quake the limbs of God; the powers of life and death are at work; Love and Hate contend in the bosom of nature as in the bosom of man; we sweep on in fire and rain and down the

“awful heights of Air;”

amid the monstrous shapes, the arms, the heads, the glaring eyes, in space, and at last we are in the habitable world, this shaggy earth, this sky-roofed cave of the fruitful vine and olive, of the multi- tudinous tribes of hairy beasts, and of men and women,—all wonderful to see; for Empedocles is strikingly concrete. But the zons of change never end; and the revolution, as we have seen, comes full circle forever.

There is too the large poet’s feeling for the color, the movement, the mystery, the life of the world about us: for the wide glow of blue heaven, for the rain streaming down on the mountain trees, for the wind-storm riding in from ocean, for

“Night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes,”

12 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

for the lion couched on the mountain side, the diver- bird skimming the waves with its wings, and

“The songless shoals of spawning fish”

that are “nourished in deep waters” and led, it may be, by Aphrodite. ' There is the poet’s relation to his kind, the sym- pathy with “men and women, the pitied and bewailed,”

who after their little share of life with briefest fates “Like smoke are lifted up and flit away;”

the interest and the joy in the activities of man: how now one lights his lantern and sallies forth in the wintry night; how now another mixes his paints in the sunlight for a variegated picture of trees ‘and birds which is to adorn the temple; how now a little girl, down by the brook,

“Plays with a waterclock of gleaming bronze.”

There is the poet’s instinct for the effective phrase, which suggests so much, because it tells so little; an austere simplicity, which relates the author by achievement to that best period of Greek art to which he belonged by birth; and a roll of rhythm as impassioned and sonorous as was ever heard on

Italian soil, though that soil was the birth-place of

Lucretius. ..But I am the translator, not the critic, of the poet.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Boprero in his J} Principio fondamentale del sistema di Empedocle* (Rome, 1904; cited as “Bodrero”) gives a valuable bibliog- raphy, almost exhaustive for the study of our philosopher, save for the surprising omission of the work of Burnet. Bo- drero is presumably known and accessible to the special stu- dent; for the general reader the following will, perhaps, be found sufficient:

BLaKEWELL. Source Book in Greek Philosophy, New York, 1907. (Contains partial prose translation, but came to hand after the present volume was in press.)

Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London, 1892. (Keen and inde- pendent. Cited as “Burnet.”).

Fampanxs, The First Philosophers of Greece, New York, 1898. (Contains translations of the doxographers on Empedocles.)

Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, vol. J., trans. by Laurie Magnus, New

York, 1901. (Beautifully written, inspiring; but somewhat fanciful. Cited as “Gomperz.”)

Symonns, Studies of the Greek Poets, vol. I., chap. VII., London, 1893. (Good critical appreciation, with some prose transla- tions.)

Tannery, Four Phistoire de la science helléne, Paris, 1887. (Keen and independent. Cited as “Tannery.”)

WInvELzanp, History of Ancient Philosophy, trans. by H. E. Cush- man, New York, 1899.

1This book seems to me as remarkable for its scholarship and acumen as for the speciousness of its views. I wrote to Professor

Diels about it, who answered, however, that he had not as yet found time to examine it.

I4 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

ZuttER, Die Philosophie der Griechen, I. Teil, fiinfte Auflage, Leip- sic, 1892, (Cited as “Zeller.”)

And the above mentioned texts of

Drets, Poetarum Philosophorum Fragmenta, Berlin, 1901. (Contains the comments of. the doxographers in the Greek, and a few, but very useful, original notes in Latin. Cited as “Diels, PPF.”)

“ Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, zweite Auflage, erster Band,

Berlin, 1906. (Contains German translation. Cited as “Diels, FV.”)

‘

ON NATURE.

To His Friend.

Navoavin, od Sé KddO, Saippovos *Ayxirov vid,

Hear thou, Pausanias, son of wise Anchitus!

Limitations of Knowledge. 2. \ a x 4 Q a f oTevarol pev yap Takdpat Kara yula KéyuvTat

AY oe A> » 3 9 2 id

TONG, S€ Seid’ Eurata, Ta 7 dpuBdIvovort pepiuvas. aadpov dé Cwis idSiov pwépos dOpijoavres

2 a | has , 2 > akvpopo. Kamvoto Sixny dpbévres avrémray abrd povov macbévres, Gra mpooékupaey ExacTos

4 > 3 , ‘ 7 9 Aa ¥ e a mdvtoe éhavvdpevor, Td 8 Gov [was] evxerat edpetvy- 9 ¥ 3 3 3 Qo 3 , 399 3 ia ouTws our emdepKTa TAD Gvdpdaw ovd emaKovord. »¥ , , AY > > > XN @Q> 3 , ovre vow Tepiknarad, ov 8 ov, émel OD Elida Ons, mevoreat ov doy He Bporein pHtis spwpev.

For narrow through their members scattered ways

Of knowing lie. And many a vile surprise

Blunts soul and keen desire. And having viewed

Their little share of life, with briefest fates,

Like smoke they are lifted up and flit away, Believing only what each chances on,

16 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Hither and thither driven; yet they boast

The larger vision of the whole and all.

But thuswise never shall these things be seen, Never be heard by men, nor seized by mind; And thou, since hither now withdrawn apart, Shalt learn—no more than mortal ken may span.

3. oreydoa ppevds EdAaTOs civ.

Shelter these teachings in thine own mute breast.

GAG Geoi Trav pev pavinv drorpépare yidoons, éx © éciwy oropdruv kabapHy dxeredorare THI.

Q , , , 2 a“ Kai o€, mokupvyjatyn NevKddeve wapOeéve Movora, dvropat, av Oduis éoriv épqpepiovow axovev, , > > a, b) , 3 | 4 9 wépre tap EvoeBins éXdovo evyvioy appa. , , 3 > , , ¥ a pnd o€ y’ evddfo10 Bujoerat avbea tyhs mpos Ovntav dvehéobar, éf’ du F doins mhéov etsrety

Odpoei Kat rote 5% coins én’ dxporor OodLey. > >» > »¥ Ld td aA A 9 GAN ay abpe mdont tardy, wae Sov exacTov, r4 » » 4 t4 a > 3 t4 pire Tu oy exav tiore méov 7 Kar’ aKkouny

7] axonv épidovrov inép tpavapata yAdoons, BYTE Te TOV GAdwv, GrdoNL wOpos éotl vonaa, a, , » rd 3 A LA yuiav wiotw épuxe, voew & Fu Sov exacrov.

But turn their madness, Gods! from tongue of mine, And drain through holy lips the well-spring clear!

And many-wooed, O white-armed Maiden-Muse, Thee I approach: O drive and send to me

Meek Piety’s well-reined chariot of song,

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 17

So far as lawful is for men to hear,

Whose lives are but a day. Nor shall desire

To pluck the flowers of fame and wide report

Among mankind impel thee on to dare

Speech beyond holy bound and seat profane

Upon those topmost pinnacles of Truth.

But come, by every way of knowing see

How each thing is revealed. Nor, having sight, Trust sight no more than hearing will bear out, Trust echoing ear but after tasting tongue; Nor check the proof of all thy members aught: Note by all ways each thing as ’tis revealed.

> a a A a 4 rg 3 a ada, Kakots pev kapra pede Kpatéovow amorety. as Sé wap’ yuerépys Kéderat TMuoTdpata Movons, yah SiaconPevros evi omddyxvoir Aéyoto.

Yea, but the base distrust the High and Strong; Yet know the pledges that our Muse will urge, ‘When once her words be sifted through thy soul.

The Elements. 6.

, a 4 € as Sand ¥ réccapa yap rdvtwr pilduata mpa@tov drove

Leds dpyns “Hpy te hepéo Bios 4S ’Awdaveds

Nijoris 0, 7 Saxpias téyye Kpotvapa Bpdrevoy.

And first the fourfold root of all things hear !— White gleaming Zeus, life-bringing Here, Dis, And Nestis whose tears bedew mortality.

18 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

ayévyta,

The uncreated elements.

Birth and Death.

dAdo S€ Tou épéw: dicts obSerds eorw amdvTev

Ovnradv, ovd€ Tis obopevov Oavdro.o TEdEUTH, GANG pdvov pits re Sudddakis Te pryevTwv éoti, dios 8° emt rots dvopdleras dvOpdmroocw,

More will I tell thee too: there is no birth

Of all things mortal, nor end in ruinous death; But mingling only and interchange of mixed

There is, and birth is but its name with men.

of & dre pev xara dora pryévr’ eis aidép’ i[Kovrar] 7) Kara Onpav dyporépwv yévos 4 xara Odpvev

aN > > A 4 \ X ig 4

He Kar olwvav, Tére pev 76 [AEyovor] yevér Bat

a > 9 A , a 9 , ,

etre 8’ dzoxpwOdo01, 74 8 ad Svodaipova méTpov: a , > 4 fa 8° 27 ‘ t aed

H O€uis [od] kardovor, vdpor 8° exidnps cat airds.

But when in man, wild beast, or bird, or bush, These elements commingle and arrive

The realms of light, the thoughtless deem it “birth”; When they dispart, ’tis “doom of death ;” and though

Not this the Law, I too assent to use.

To.

Odvarov . . . ddoirnv.

Avenging Death.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. Ig

Ex nthilo nihil

It. vino ob yap op Sodixddpoves elon pépipvar, a on ? 6 a > aN aN ‘4 ot 0%) yiyveo Oat wdpos ovK édv édaiLovow

4 , NN 3s e , H te karabvyoKew te kat e€d\dvo Oa ardvrne.

Fools! for their thoughts are briefly brooded o’er.

Who trust that what is not can e’er become, Or aught that is can wholly die away.

12. ¥ LY a) o 2 399 > a, , > , 4) eK TE yap ovddp, éedvTos apHyavoy éott yevér Oar , > 38 > , > f4 x. ¥

Kai v doy e€atrokéo bas avyvucrov Kat drucrov: aict yap ri y éorat, Orne Ké Tus aiey épeidnu.

From what-is-not what-is can ne’er become; So that what-is should e’er be all destroyed,

No force could compass and no ear hath heard— For there ’twill be forever where ’tis set.

The Plenum. 13. ovdd 7 TOU TavTds KevEdy TédEL OvdE TEPLTTOV.

The All hath neither Void nor Overflow.

But with the All there is no Void, so whence

Could aught of more come nigh?

20 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Our Elements Immortal. 15. ovK ay dvip roadra copds dpect pavrevoaito, ws Odpa peév Te Bidar, 7d 87 Bioroy Kad€ovor, ropa ev obv eiaiv, kal ody mdpa Sada cai éoOdd, apy 8 wdyev te Bporol kai eet] AVOer, ovSev ap’ ciow.

No wise man dreams such folly in his heart, That only whilst we live what men call life

We have our being and take our good and ill, And ere as mortals we compacted be,

And when as mortals we be loosed apart, We are as nothing.

Love and Hate, the Everlasting. 16. 5 soe ¥ aa? 297 > he yap Kal wdpos éoxe, Kal éooerat, ovd zor’, ow, TOUTWY appoTépwy KEvEewoeTaL GOTETOS aidy.

For even as Love and Hate were strong of yore, They shall have their hereafter; nor I think

Shall endless Age be emptied of these Twain.

The Cosmic Process. €x twhedvav, tore 8 ad Sidhu tréov’ e& Evds elvar.

Soy Sé Ovytav yéveots, Sou F addeuhns: THY pey yap Tavtwy civodos Tikrea 7 ddéKet TE, 7 S€ wad Stadvopdven Opepbeioa Siémry.

8 aA? 2rX , 8 Q wT) Ay , Kat Tavt dd\i\docorra Siaptrepes ovdapa Arye, » 8 , , so a adore péev Dirdryte cvvepxopev’ eis Ev arravra, THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. aI

» > Gore 8° ab Six’ cxarra popedpepa. Neixeos Eyer.

RA x aA 3 , 4 4

Lovras fu per ev ex wredvav pepdOnxe pier Oar] ? , 908 Tddw Siadivros évds mréov’ exre€Bovar, lad Q THe pev yiyvovral Te Kal ov odio épredos aidv- Q the 82 StahAdooovra Siapzrepes ovSape. Arpyet, t4 3 tavrn 8 aidy daow dxivyro. kara KiKdov. > ¥ a

GAN’ aye piPov KhiOu: padbn ydp ro dpévas avée as yap Kat mply dara mupatoKxav telpara pvowr, Sian’ épéw: tore pev yap &v niéyOn pdvov elvas x mhedvav, Tore 8 ad Suédu wor’ é Evds elvas, mup Kat vdwp Kat yata Kat Hépos amerov inbos, Neixés 7” odAdpevoy Siva Tav, ardAavrov amrdvrne, 4 a lod kat Diddrns €v Toiow, ton pyKds Te WAdToS TE A x‘ , , > »¥ iA THY od vow Sépxev, pnd dppacw hoo reOyras: Hrs Kat Ovynrotor vopileras Euduros apOposs, The Te hita ppovéovor kat apOp.a épya Tedovor, TnPoodivyv xahdovtes Eravupov 49 *"Adpodirny: THY Ov TiS ETA TOLoW ELocopevyny SeddnKE x L] 4 x 37 »¥ , fd 3 3? , Oynros avyp: ov & dkove Adyou ordXov ok amarndov. tavta yap lod re TdvTa Kal HriKa yévvay Ear, riysns 8 addns ado peda, wdpa 8 FOos Exdorar, ev 5é pepe Kparéovot mepitopevoto xpovo.o. kal mpos Tots ovr’ ap ré Tu yiveras ovr’ arrohyye »¥ Q 2 2 4 > 473 K eire yap ébbeipovro Siapmepés, ovKér’ av Foray: rovro 8 éravéyoee 75 Tay ti Ke Kal woOev EOdy; aA ra 3 4, 3 \ lad > 2Qr BZ mye O€ Ke KnEaTOXOLTO, Emel TAVS’ OVSEY EpNpor; GAN ara éoriy tadra, Sv ddAjAwv Sé Odovra , ¥ » er 4 34 oe a ylyvera GddoreE GANG. Kal HvEKEs alev Opoia.

I will report a twofold truth. Now grows

The One from Many into being, now

22 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Even from the One disparting come the Many.

Twofold the birth, twofold the death of things: or, now, the meeting of the Many brings

To birth and death; and, now, whatever grew

| From out their sundering, flies apart and dies.

' And this long interchange shall never end.

Whiles into One do all through Love unite;

Whiles too the same are rent through hate of Strife.

And in so far as is the One still wont

To grow from Many, and the Many, again,

Spring from primeval scattering of the One,

So far have they a birth and mortal date;

And in so far as the long interchange

Ends not, so far forever established gods

Around the circle of the world they move.

But come! but hear my words! For knowledge

gained

Makes strong thy soul. For as before I spake,

Naming the utter goal of these my words,

I will report a twofold truth. Now grows

The One from Many into being, now

Even from the One disparting come the Many,—

Fire, Water, Earth and awful heights of Air;

And shut from them apart, the deadly Strife

In equipoise, and Love within their midst

In all her being in length and breadth the same.

Behold her now with mind, and sit not there

With eyes astonished, for ’tis she inborn

Abides established in the limbs of men.

Through her they cherish thoughts of love, through

her

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 23

Perfect the works of concord, calling her

By name Delight or Aphrodite clear.

She speeds revolving in the elements,

But this no mortal man hath ever learned— Hear thou the undelusive course of proof: Behold those elements own equal strength

And equal origin; each rules its task;

And unto each its primal mode; and each

Prevailing conquers with revolving time.

And more than these there is no birth nor end; For were they wasted ever and evermore,

They were no longer, and the great All were then

How to be plenished and from what far coast?

And how, besides, might they to ruin come, Since nothing lives that empty is of them ?—

No, these are all, and, as they course along

Through one another, now this, now that is born— And so forever down Eternity.

Love.

19. oxedivnv Birdryra.

Firm-clasping Lovingness.

Love and Hate in the Organic World. nd 5 4 , 9 229 A. adore pev Didryte cuvepxopev els Ev arava

24 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

“ yria, ra copa dédoyxe, Blou PaddBovros év dxpie adore & abre xaxhior Svatpnbevr’ *Episerct mrdlerat aveiy” eaora wepippyypive Biovo.

as 8 avrws Odpvoicr Kat ixyOiow bdpopeddOpors

Onpoi 7° dperexderow id wrepoBdpoor KipBats.

The world-wide warfare of the eternal Two.

Well in the mass of human limbs is shown: Whiles into one do they through Love unite, And mortal members take the body’s form, And life doth flower at the prime; and whiles, Again dissevered by the Hates perverse,

They wander far and wide and up and down

The surf-swept beaches and drear shores of life.

So too with thicket, tree, and gleaming fish

Housed in the crystal walls of waters wide; And so with beasts that couch on mountain slopes, And water-fowls that skim the long blue sea.

From the Elements is All We See. at.

GAN’ dye, ravd’ ddpwv wporepwy emdprupa Sépxev, » y 3 , , ¥ a“ et tu kal €v mporéporor AumdEvAov Exrero popdit, Hédvov pev Oeppov 6pav Kal apmpoyv andvrnt,

¥ 3 9 3 io a3 id 8 , t eel apBpora S doo” ise re kai dpyére Severat abyhu,

¥ 3.3 fal , , € 4 ouBpov 8 év raor Svodderra re puyadéov te

3 > »¥ , ? bY s éx 3 ains mpopéovor Oéhupvd re kal orepewmd.

év 8é Kéron Stduopda cal dvdtxa wdvra wédovrat, ov 8 &Bn év Birdrnt kat addryAowor wobetrar,

> t4 A , iM Ld b) Ld > ¥ a ¥

ek totter yap wavh boa 7 Fv doa Tt or Kat ora, Sévdped 7° €Bddorynce kai avdpes 75¢ yuvaixes,

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 25

A a > Onpés 7° oiwvol re kat bSaroOpéupoves ixO5s, kai Te Geol Sodtyaiwves Tyquos dépioror. aire yap éorw tabra, 80 dddpav Sé Oovra a 3 4 v4 a aA > s ylyverat addNowrd: técor Sid Kphors dpeiBe.

But come, and to my words foresaid look well,

If their wide witness anywhere forgot

Aught that behooves the elemental forms:

Behold the Sun, the warm, the bright-diffused ;

Behold the eternal Stars, forever steeped

In liquid heat and glowing radiance; see

Also the Rain, obscure and cold and dark,

And how irom Earth streams forth the Green and

Firm.

And all through Wrath are split to shapes diverse;

And each through Love draws near and yearns for each.

For from these elements hath budded all

That was or is or evermore shall be—

All trees, and men and women, beasts and birds,

And fishes nourished in deep waters, aye,

The long-lived gods, in honors excellent.

For these-are all, and, as they course along

Through one another, they take new faces all,

By varied mingling and enduring change.

Similia Similibus. 22. dpOa pev yap radra éavrav wdvra wéperow, bY , Mréxtwp Te xOav re kat ovpaves 75€ Odracca, y > aA > X 0 iA 3 doo giv ev Ovyrotow arotaxOévra wépuKev,

26 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES,

as 8° avrws doa Kpaow éerapKéa paddov acu, GAAHAows eorepKTas Gporwbevr’ *Adpodirne. éyOpa [8 &] mhetorov dn’ dddjdav Siéxover pduora yervn Te Kpyoe TE Kat eideow exudKro.or,

4 FA 37 x 4 Xr 4 mévryn ovyyiverOar anbea Kai para A\vypa

Neixeos evvecinuow, or. odion yevvay eopyev.

For amber Sun and Earth and Heaven and Sea

Is friendly with its every part that springs, Far driven and scattered, in the mortal world; So too those things that are most apt to mix

Are like, and love by Aphrodite’s hest.

But hostile chiefly are those things which most

From one another differ, both in birth,

And in their mixing and their molded forms— Unwont to mingle, miserable and lone,

After the counsels of their father, Hate.

An Analogy. 23. as 8 érdray ypadées dvabjpara touxihdwow

> 4 3 8 id en 4 = Lal dvépes audi réxvns bd pftios eb Sedaare,

973 > x ? r4 4 2 oir eet ody pwdpywor Tokvxpoa ddppaka xepoiv, e id id A 4 r4 ¥ 3 3 - Gppovint pei€ayte Ta pev Téw, GAda 8 eXdoow, éx Tov eidea Taw ariyKLa. Topatvouct,

SéSped re xrilovre kai dvépas 7O€e yuvaixas

Oiipds 7° oiwvods te Kai dSatoPpeupovas iyOis kat te Jeods Sodixaiwvas Tiyjuor pepicrovs:

y , 3 39 2 2 2 ¥ F ovTw py a amdrn dpéva Kavirw addobev elvar

Ountav, dooa ye Spa yeydxaow dorera, mhyjv, > x A a sy le) td wn 3 a

GANG Topas Tavr’ tof, Geod wdpa pvOov dxovoas.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 27

And even as artists—men who, know their craft

Through wits of cunning—paint with streak and hue

Bright temple-tablets, and will seize in hand

The oozy poisons pied and red and gold

(Mixing harmonious, now more, now less),

From which they fashion forms innumerable,

And like to all things, peopling a fresh world

With trees, and men and women, beasts and birds,

And fishes nourished in deep waters, aye,

And long-lived gods in honors excellent:

Just so (and let no guile deceive thy breast),

Even so the spring of mortal things, leastwise

Of all the host born visible to man.

O guard this knowledge well, for thou hast heard

In this my song the Goddess and her tale.

The Speculative Thinker. . . Kopudas érépas érépyios wpoodmrwv pvOwr pH Tedday dtpamrdy piav. ..

To join together diverse peaks of thought,

And not complete one road that has no turn.

An Aphorism. 25. ... kat Sis ydp, 8 Set, Kaddv eorw enoreiv.

What must be said, may well be said twice o’er.

28 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

The Law of the Elements. 26.

év 5€ pépe kparéovor wepuTAopevowo KvKAoLO, kat dOive eis dddnda Kai avgera ev pepe aioys. ara yap éotw Tadra, 8 adddjAwy 5é Péovra ywvovrat dvOpwnroi te Kal dddwv eOvea Onpar

GAXore ev Birdrytse ovvepxydper’ eis Eva Koo pov, adore 8’ ab Six’ &caora popovpeva Neixeos €xGe, elo oxey vy oupdivta 7d wav waevepfe yevyTas. ovrws te pev ev ex mredvav pepdOnne pierOar, Hoe wadwv Stadivros evds tréov’ exrehGover, The pev yiyvovrai re kat od odiow eumredos aidv- qe Sé rad’ GAAdooovra Siaptepes ovdape Arjyer, ravryt 8 aiey dacw adkivyto. Kata KUKXOP,

In turn they conquer as the cycles roll,

And wane the one to other still, and wax

The one to other in turn by olden Fate;

For these are all, and, as they course along

Through one another, they become both men

And multitudinous tribes of hairy beasts; Whiles in fair order through Love united all, Whiles rent asunder by the hate of Strife, Till they, when grown into the One and All

Once more, once more go under and succumb.

And in so far as is the One still wont

To grow from the Many, and the Many, again, Spring from primeval scattering of the One, So far have they a birth and mortal! date.

And in so far as this long interchange

Ends not, so far forever established gods

Around the circle of the world they move.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 29

The Sphere. » 27. &O ovr’ "Hediouo SieiSerar dxéa yvia abd per 088" ains Adovoy pévos ode Odracoa: auras ‘Appovins TuKiwar kpidar éorypuxrat

ZPatpos cveorepys ovine wepyye yaiov.

There views one not the swift limbs of the Sun, Nor there the strength of shaggy Earth, nor Sea ; But in the strong recess of Harmony,

Established firm abides the rounded Sphere, Exultant in surrounding solitude.

274. \ od ordows ovdd Te SHpis dvaiowpos év perderoww,

Nor faction nor fight unseemly in its limbs.

28, GAN’ 6 ye wévrobev ivos [env] Kat mdpray dareipar

Xdaipos kucdorepys povinu wepinye. yaiwv.

The Sphere on every side the boundless same, Exultant in surrounding solitude.

20. ob yap dd vedrowo Sto Kdddou diccovrat, ov 7d8es, ov Bod. yoova, ob pyjdea yevyferTa, GAA odhatpos env at [wdvrobev] Toros éavrar.

For from its back there swing no branching arms, It hath no feet nor knees alert, nor form

30 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Of life-producing member,—on all sides

A sphere it was, and like unto itself.

30. abrap érel péya Neixos evippeddeoo eOpéply

és Tuuds T° dvdpouce Tedevopevoto Xpsvoto,

és ow dporBatos wraréos wap’ édyjAarat Gpkov...

Yet after mighty Strife had waxen great

Within the members of the Sphere, and rose

To her own honors, as the times arrived

Which unto each in turn, to Strife, to Love, Should come by amplest oath and old decree...

31. td A e id 4 Cal a mavra yap e€eins medeuilero yuia Oeoto,

For one by one did quake the limbs of God.

Physical Analogies.

The joint binds two.

33- ds 8 Gr’ dds ydda Nevkdv eyduduwoer kal eSnoe...

But as when rennet of the fig-tree juice

Curdles the white milk, and will bind it fast...

34. aAduroy vari KohAjoas...

Cementing meal with water...

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 31

The Conquest of Love. , 35-

airap éy® tahivopaos édevcopas és 7épov Uevar,

.y 4 fa 4 td a 4

Tov mpdtepov Katéhe~a, Adyou Adyor eEoxeredav, Ketvov: eet Netkos pev évéptarov ixero BévOos

- Sivns, ev Se peone Dirdryns orpoddduyys yeryrar, éy th 8%) rade WavTa cuvépyerat Ev povoy elvat, obk aap, GAda DeAnda cumordper’ GrdoBev adda, Tov 8€ Te puoyopever xeir’ eOvea pupia Ovyrar- moda, 8 dpexr’ éornke Keparopevorow evadrd€, 9 > al B 4 4 > N 3 Ly doo’ éru Neixos epuKe peTrdpotov: ov yap dpeudews

Tav wav earner én” eoxara Téppara KUK\Ov, GANG Ta pev 7 evepysve, perewv 7a 8€ 7’ é€eBeByxer. 9 8’ BY e , , 38 td dacov 8 aicy trexmpoldor, Témov aiey emryjuer

Hriddpev Didryros dpepdéos duBporos 6pur- aiba Sé Ovijr’ ébvovto, ra wply pdbov abdvar’ elvat,

, A rd » - 4 lwpd re ra mpiv, dxpyta [kpynrd, ?] SiaddAdEavra Ke- AevOous.

a , , a>», , a

tov 8é Te purryopeve xetr Even pupia Pvyrav, - 3 id 3 - lel 3 #

ravroiats ideyiow apnpdta, Oadpa idéobar.

But hurrying back, I now will make return

To paths of festal song, laid down before,

Draining each flowing thought from flowing thought.

When down the Vortex to the last abyss

Had foundered Hate, and Lovingness had reached

The eddying center of the Mass, behold

Around her into Oneness gathered all.

Yet not a-sudden, but only as willingly

Each from its several region joined with each;

32 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

And from their mingling thence are poured abroad

The multitudinous tribes of mortal things.

Yet much unmixed among the mixed remained, As much as Hate still held in scales, aloft.

For not all blameless did Hate yield and stand

Out yonder on the circle’s utmost bounds;

But partwise yet within he stayed, partwise

Was he already from the members gone.

And ever the more skulked away and fled,

Then ever the more, and nearer, inward pressed

The gentle minded, the divine Desire

Of blameless Lovingness. Thence grew apace

Those mortal Things, erstwhile long wont to be

Immortal, and the erstwhile pure and sheer

Were mixed, exchanging highways of new life, And from their mingling thence are poured abroad

The multitudinous tribes of mortal things,

Knit in all forms and wonderful to see.

36.

a 82 ’ 1 ¥ 9 a

TOY O€ TVUVEPXOMEVOV é& €OXKGATOV LOTATO Netxos.

And as they came together, Hate began

To take his stand far on the outer verge.

Similia similibus, 37. av&er de xOav peey oérepov Séuas, aidépa 8’ ailyp.

And Earth through Earth her figure magnifies, And Air through Air.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 33

The World as It Now Is. 38. 608 dye rou heEw tpal’ Arica 7” dpyyfv, é€ dv 8H’ eyévovto 74, viv écopSpev aravta, yaid re kal mévros tohuKipav 4o bypds dxjp

Tirdy 45° ai€np odiyyor wept Kixdov aravta.

Come! I will name the like-primeval Four, Whence rose to sight all things we now behold— Earth, many-billowed Sea, and the moist Air, And Aether, the Titan. who binds the globe about.

Earth and Air Not Iilimitable. 39. elrep dreipova ys te BAOn Kal Sard aiPrjp, as Sid, ToANGy 87 yhadcons pyOerTa pataiws exxéxutat oropdrwv, ddiyov Tod Tavros idvTar.

If Earth’s black deeps were endless, and o’er-full

Were the white Ether, as forsooth’ some tongues.

Have idly prated in the babbling mouths

Of those who little of the All have seen...

Sun and Moon,

Keen-darting Helios and Selene mild.

But the sun’s fires, together gathered, move

Attendant round the mighty space of heaven,

34 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

42. i4 dmeotéyacer S€ of avyds, a cor’ dy in xabdrepbev, adreckvidwce Sé yains téccoy Goov 7 ebpos yhavkwmidos érhero wvNS.

And the sun’s beams

The moon, in passing under, covers o’er, And darkens a bleak tract of earth as large

As is the breadth of her, the silver-eyed.

43. &s aby? Thpaca cehnvains KiKdov evpy...

As sunbeam striking on the moon’s broad disk.

44. dvyravyel mpos "Odvprov arapByrovo. mporexrots.

Toward Olympos back he darts his beams, With fearless face.

45. kukdorepés rept yatay éXiooeras aAXOrpLoy Pas.

Round earth revolves a disk of alien light.

46. ¥ e s a. aN 9 >, ¥ Aapparos ws wept xvoin ehiooerar y TE Tap aKpHV.

Even as revolves a chariot’s nave, which round

The outmost...

For toward the sacred circle of her lord

She gazes face to face.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 35:

48. e 4 AQ A 4, € tA td vita dé yaa TiOnow ugirrapeévouo pderou,

But earth makes night for beams of sinking sun.

The Darkling Night.

49. \. 2 ae 3 , vuros épnpains ddadméos...

Of night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes.

Wind and Rain. 50.

"Ipis 8° dx weddyous avenov héper 7 péyay opBpor.

Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain.

Fire.

SI.

Kaptadipes 8 avdaaiov...

And fire sprang upward with a rending speed.

The Volcano,

52. moda 8 evepfe ovdeos rupa, Kalerat,

And many a fire there burns beneath the ground.

Air. 53. ovre yap cuvécupae Déwy roré, odd 8 dddws.

For sometimes so upon its course it met, And ofttimes otherwise.

36 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Things Passing Strange. rf s4 aifyip [8 ad] paxpiior cara yOdva Svero pilais.

In Earth sank Ether with deep-stretching roots.

55-

Vis iSpdra Oddacoay.

Earth’s sweat, the sea.

56.

a 2 , L4 A 3 Ld 3 4 ads érdyy pirjiow ewopévos jedioro.

The salt grew solid, smit by beams of sun.

Neg Strange Creatures of Olden Times. 57- fe woANal pev Kdporar avavyeves éBrdornoar, Yupvor oy eahdlovro Bpaxioves evvides @ ope, Oppard 7° ola emdavaro tevntetovra perder.

There budded many a head without a neck, And arms were roaming, shoulderless and bare, And eyes that wanted foreheads drifted by.

58.

ay 4a Lal 4 3 lal [...povvopehy eri Ta yuia... dvTa émravato...]

In isolation wandered every limb, Hither and thither seeing union meet.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 37.

59. 2 98 oy Sua 2 7 “+ , abrap éret xara petlov éuioyero Saipou Saipov, tadrd Te cupTinteckoy, ryt ouveKuvprey ExaoTa, dda Te mpds Tots woAAa Sinverh eLeyéevovro.

But now as God with God was mingled more, These members fell together where they met, And many a birth besides was then begot

In a long line of ever varied life.

60. eidiqrod’ aKpirdxepa,

Creatures of countless hands and trailing feet.

: 61.

TOAAG pev audirpdcwra Kat audiotepva piecOar, Bovyevy avSpemperpa, Ta 8° euradi eLavaréddew dvdpopun Bovkpava, pepevypéva THe pev am’ dvdpav

The S€ yuvatkopuy, oKvepots HoKynpéva yutots.

Many were born with twofold brow and breast,

Some with the face of man on bovine stock,

Some with man’s form beneath a bovine head,

Mixed shapes of being with shadowed secret parts,

Sometimes like men, and sometimes woman- growths.

62. viv 8 dy’, dws dvdpGv Te TokuKAarov TE yuvatKOv évvuxious dpmrnkas aviyaye Kpivdpevoy up,

a ” > N A ss 30) 9 , TaVvOE KAU’: ov yap pDOOS aToaKOTOS OVS’ dOarfpwr, ovrodvuets pev para Ture yOoves eEavéreddor,

2 , 9 , ry z5 9 ¥ dpdorépwy voaTds TE Kal Weos aicay ExovTes:

38 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Tovs pey Top dvémeume Oédov mpds spotor ixérOar, ovre Ti mw pedéwy epardy Sénas éupaivovras

ovr’ evoriy oldy 7° émixadpioy avdpacr yviov.

But come! now hear how ’twas the sundered Fire

Led into life the germs, erst whelmed in night,

Of men and women, the pitied and bewailed; For ’tis a tale that sees and knows its mark.

First rose mere lumps of earth with rude impress, That had their shares of Water and of Warm.

These then by Fire (in upward zeal to reach

Its kindred Fire in heaven) were shot aloft, Albeit not yet had they revealed a form

Of lovely limbs, nor yet a human cry,

Nor secret member, common to the male.

The Process of Human Generation To-day. } 63.

GANG Siéoracras pedéwy dicts: 7 wey ev dvdpos...

But separate is the birth of human limbs; For ’tis in part in man’s...

Love-longing comes, reminding him who sees. 65. ev 8 exvOn xafapotor Ta pev rek€Oovor yuvaixes, Wixeos dvridoavta, [ra 8 eumadw dppeva Oeppod |.

Into clean wombs the seeds are poured, and when

Therein they meet with Cold, the birth is girls; And boys, when contrariwise they meet with Warm.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES, 39

66. [eis] oxuorods Newadvas... Adpodirns.

Into the cloven meads of Aphrodite.

. 67. év yap Depporépax ToKas dppevos erdero yaorip- Kat pédaves Sia TovTO Kal dvdpwoeorepor avdpes kat Aaxvyevtes juaddov, For bellies with the warmer wombs become

Mothers of boys, and therefore men are dark, More stalwart and more shaggy.

68. pnvos ev dySodrou Sexdrnu iov emdero hevkdv.

On the tenth day, in month the eighth, the blood

Becomes white pus.

Twice bearing.

70. dpviov.

Sheepskin.

On Animals and Plants. 71.

el 8€ ri wou wept avd MuTdEvAos Errero Tics,

x 9 id 4 397 > , TOS voaTos yains Te Kat aifépos Hediov Te kipvayevwy eid Te yevoiaro xpoid Te OyyTav

, ? 9g Lal gore Ld 33 4

Toco", doa viv yeydact cvvappoabévr’ ’Appodiry...

40 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

And if belief lack pith, and thou still doubt

How from the mingling of the elements,

The Earth and Water, the Ether and the Sun, a

So many forms and hues of mortal things

Could thus have being, as have come to be,

Each framed and knit by Aphrodite’s power...

72. a s 92 \ 59 » a

TOS KQAL dévd pea pPaKkpa Kat elvd Aton KQPLAONVES ...

As the tall trees and fish in briny floods.

73. as S€ rére yOdva Kumpis, eet 7’ eSinver ev dpBpar, idea tourviovera, od: wupi Saxe Kparivar...

As Kypris, after watering Earth with Rain, Zealous to heat her, then did give Earth o’er

To speed of Fire that then she might grow firm. gvrov apougor ayovea TolvoTEpewy KapacHvev,

Leading the songless shoals of spawning fish.

75. tav 8 do” ow pev truxvd, ta 8 Exrot paved wémnye, Kimpioos év rahdpnior trddns rovjode Tuydévra...

Of beasts, inside compact with outsides loose,

Which, in the palms of Aphrodite shaped, Got this their sponginess.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 41

Touro pev ev Koyxaior Oataccovdfiav Bapuvairors, vat piv Knpikwv te \oppivav xedvov Te » ; ¥ id * ¢€ LA td wO oper xPdva ypuwrds Uréprara vareTdourar.

*Tis thus with conchs upon the heavy chines

Of ocean-dwellers, aye, of shell-fish wreathed, Or stony-hided turtles, where thou mark’st

The earthen crust outside the softer parts.

77-28. [SévSpea 8] eumeddpudda Kai ewreddxapira TEAndev kaprav apOovinuor kar Hépa mdvr’ evavtov.

Trees bore perennial fruit, perennial fronds, Laden with fruit the whole revolving year, Since fed forever by a fruitful air.

79. ourw 8 aoroKel paxpa Sévdpea mparor edaias.

Thus first tall olives lay their yellow eggs.

80.

ovverev dypiyovoi Te oidat Kal dTéppdova Mira.

Wherefore pomegranates slow in ripening be, And apples grow so plentiful in juice.

81.

olvos dard ddouod wéderan camer ev Eda Vdup,

Wine is but water fermented in the wood, And issues from the rind.

42 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

82. a o

Tavta Tpixes Kat PvAAG Kal olwyay wrepa TUKVG tal 4s kal Aemides yiyvovra: émi oT.Bapotor pederow.

From the same stuff on sturdy limbs grow hair, Leaves, scales of fish, and bird’s thick-feathered plumes.

83. auTap éxivous dfuBedets yatrat verrous émureppixaow.

Stiff hairs, keen-piercing, bristle on the chines

Of hedge-hogs.

Our Eyes. 84. as 8 Gre Tis Mpdodov voéwr aTricaato hiyvov xeipepiny Oud vixra, wupds oédas aifopévovo dipas, waytoiwy avénov LapmTipas apopyous, oT avéepov pev tvedpa SiacKivacw aévrwv,

A 2 »¥, a 9 , Ss pas 8 &w dSiafpdiocKov, ooov Tavawrepov Fev, Adprreokey Kata BydOov areipéow axtiverow: ds Se ré7’ év pyvuyEw eepypévov arybyrov mop

Aerrpioiy [7] 60dvyicr AoxdLlero KvKdoz7a Kodpyy, [at] yxodvnicr Siavra rerpyjaro Oeomecinuow:

a A xX 4 3 4 3 vA at 8 vdaros pév BévOos dwéoreyov duduwaévtos,

A > »¥, a, 9 4 mip 8 &w Siierxov, dooy ravadtepor ev.

As when a man, about to sally forth, Prepares a light and kindles him a blaze

Of flaming fire against the wintry night, In horny lantern shielding from all winds;

]

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 43

Though it protect from breatk of blowing winds, Its beam darts outward, as more fine and thin, And with untiring rays lights up the sky:

Just so the Fire primeval once lay hid

In the round pupil of the eye, enclosed

In films and gauzy veils, which through and through

Were pierced with pores divinely fashioned, And thus kept off the watery deeps around, Whilst Fire burst outward, as more fine and thin.

8s.

H Se PASE iAdeapa pivvvOadins Txe yains.

The gentle flame of eye did chance to get

Only a little of the earthen part.

86. e€ dv dppar ernéey adrapéa 80 “Adpodirn.

From which by Aphrodite, the divine, The untiring eyes were formed.

87. yophas doxjoaca katraotépyots “Appodirn.

Thus Aphrodite wrought with bolts of love. 88. pia ylyverar dpporépar op.

One vision of two eyes is born.

44 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Similia similibus. 89. yvods, Or mavrwv eloiv dwoppoai, Goo” éyévovTo...

Knowing that all things have their emanations.

90.

ds yuk ev yond pdprre, mixpov 8 ext muxpov

Gpovorer,

o& & én’ 6&0 éBn, Sacpav & éxoxeiro Sanpar.

Thus Sweet seized Sweet, Bitter on Bitter flew,

Sour sprung for Sour, and upon Hot rode Hot.

ol. ovat... paddov évdpOtov, avrap édaiwe oux eOédeu, Water to wine more nearly is allied, But will not mix with oil.

02. aA , id ‘ , TO. Karrirépen pexOevta Tov xadKdv...

As when one mixes with the copper tin. 93.

, Q A , 4 > Lal

Biooar dé yAauKns KOKKOS KaTaplo-yerat aKTNS.

With flax is mixed the silvery elder’s seed.

The Black River Bottoms. 04.

et niger in fundo fluvi color exstat ab umbra, atgue cavernosts ttzdem spectatur tn antris.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES, 45

And the black color of the river’s deeps

Comes all from shade; and one may see the same

In hollow caves.

Eyes.

As, in the palms of Kypris shaped, they first

Began to grow together...

Bones.

ug6. 1 5€ xOav exinpos ev eborépvors yodvoure

T® Sv0 Tav GkTa pepewy Adye Najoridos atyhys, téscapa 8 ‘Hdaicrow: ta 8 éarda devKad yévovro “Appovins Ko\Aniow apnpora Oeamer infer.

Kind Earth for her broad-breasted melting-pots, yn

Of the eight parts got two of Lucid Nestis, ~ “ And of Hephzstos four. Thence came white bones, Divinely joined by glue of Harmony.

97. paxw.

The back-bone.

Blood and Flesh. 98. 4 8 XOdv rovroow ion ovveupoe pddiora, ‘Hdaiorat 7 duBpor te Kat aifépr tapgdaydortt, Kimpwdos oppo Betoa. redelors ev hipeverow

40 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

cir’ dXiyov peiluv cite thedverow éhdoowr: éx Tay atud re yévto Kat ddAns Elden capKés.

And after Earth within the perfect ports

Of Aphrodite anchored lay, she met..4:4.” Almost in equal parts Hephestos red, And Rain and Ether, the all-splendorous (Although the parts of Earth were sometimes less, Sometimes a little more than theirs). From these

There came our blood and all the shapes of flesh.

The Ear.

iA , ¥ = Kddav. odpKuvos dfos.

A bell... a fleshy twig.

V The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra. 100. ade S dvanvel mdvra Kat éxmvet- maot Nidaipor oapKarv ovpuyyes TUaToy KaTa Opa TéravTaL, Kal og ert oropious tuKwais Térpyyrat drokw pwav érxara tépOpa Stapmepés, dote dovov pev : 4 297 2 3 2 4 tal

KevOew, aifépr & ebropinv Sidd8o.01 rerpjoda. ¥ 6 »¥ o £ , Dy > ¢ , e vOev eral? ordray pev dratén. répev ala, aifip taphalwy Karatooerat oidpart papyur,

» Pa > 0 cA in 3 , 4 9 a etre 3 dvabpd&iony, madi exavée, domep Gray Tats krepidpy taiLnior Svevmeréos xadxoto-

> a > X a 8 x 23 > Py A . A ebre pcv abhovd rrepOudv én” evedel xept Scion

3 whey 4 , Ps) , > 4 els Vatos Bdmrrniot Téper Séuas apyudéoto, ovd’ ér’ és dyyooS’ GuBpos éorépxerar, dra pu eipyer dépos oykos éowbe teow eri TpYypata TUK, elooK atooreydon. wuKWVoV poov- avrap éreira.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 47

, : , 2 + ¥ 9 mvedpatos €deirovtos éoépyxeras aicypoy voup. a 8 ¥ 50° wy x ¥ 4 , a] Xx a ds & avras, 67 vdwp pev Exne xara BévOea yahkod 0 A 6 id , to noe 4

mopOpov xwoPévros Bporéan ypot 7d wépoto,

id7; 8 2 x ¥ X X, a ¥ 24 aibip & éxrds €ow Nedinpevos dpBpov épixe

> XN a > aA - » a audi Todas icOpoio Svonydos, dkpa Kparivar, eiodxe xept peOqu tore 8 ad maddy, euradw 7 piv, mvevpatos eutrimrovtos vmexOe aioipov vowp.

a 8 ¥ 4 @ 4 \ id ds & avras répev aipa xhadacodpevoy Sid. yuiwv omméTe pev wadivopaov amaikeae puydvoc,

3 , 3QN cea /, ~ aif€pos evOis pedua xarépxerat oidpar. Sov,

s ed 4 , tear Ae 3 OF etre 5 dvabpcvonnt, waduy exavea ioov dticcw.

And thus does all breathe in and out. In all, Over the body’s surface, bloodless ‘tubes

Of flesh are stretched, and, at their outlets, rifts /Innumerable along the outmost rind ‘ Are bored; and so the blood remains within; | For air, however, is cut a passage free.

And when from here the thin blood backward streams, The air comes rushing in with roaring swell; But when again it forward leaps, the air

In turn breathes out; as when a little girl

Plays with a water-clock of gleaming bronze: As long as ever the opening of the pipe

Is by her pretty fingers stopped and closed, And thuswise plunged within the yielding mass

Of silvery water, can the Wet no more

Get in the vessel; but the air’s own weight, That falls inside against the countless holes, Keeps it in check, until the child at last

48 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Uncovers and sets free the thickened air,

When of a truth the water’s destined bulk

Gets in, as air gives way. Even so it is,

When in the belly of the brazen clock

The water lies, and the girl’s finger tip

Shuts pipe and tube: the air, that from without

Comes pressing inward, holds the water back

About the gateways of the gurgling neck,

As the child keeps possession of the top,

Until her hand will loosen, when amain—

Quite contrariwise to way and wise before— ~

Pours out and under the water’s destined bulk,

As air drops down and in. Even so it is

With the thin blood that through our members drives:

When hurrying back it streams to inward, then

Amain a flow of air comes rushing on;

But when again it forward leaps, the air

In turn breathes out along the selfsame way.

Scent.

IOI.

Képpara Onpeiwy pedéav pvxrnpow épevvar, [Cadov6"] dao dwédame Today aadye wept woin...

Sniffing with nostrils mites from wild beasts’ limbs, Left by their feet along the tender grass.... 102.

kd LY Bde pev obv tvoujs Te Nehdyxact Taévra. Kal dopov.

And thus got all things share of breath and smells.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 49

On the Psychic, Life.

Thus all things think their thougittby will of Chance.

104,

‘ e 9 3 s s , Kal KAU OG@OV ev apatoTaTa Evvéxupoe TECOVTA,

And in so far the lightest at their fall

Do strike together...

~! «108. aipatos év wekd-yerou TO papery avtfopdytos, The Te vonpa pddiota KuKdyoKerar dvOparoww: aipa yap dvOpdrois wepuxdpoidy éort vena.

In the blood-streams, back-leaping unto it, The heart is nourished, where prevails the power

That men call thought; for lo the blood that stirs

About the heart is man’s controlling thought.

106. mpos Tapedy yap pris aéerar avOparouoww.

For unto men their thrift of reason grows, According to the body’s thrift and state.

107.

éx Tovtav [yap] mévra TeTyyaow dppoobévra

kat rovras ppovéovar Kat yOovr’ 7O dvuavrat,

For as of these commingled all things are, Even so through these men think, rejoice, or grieve.

50 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

108. + rd éccov [8°] dddoton peréduv, rdcov ap ogurw aici

S28 a3 Ai , kal TO ppoveiy addova Tapiorara...

As far as mortals change by day, so far

By night their thinking changes...

109.

yains pev yap yatey drdraper, vdari & vdwp, > la 2 > td ~ 3 “ . lel 27

aifép. & aifépa Stov, drap wupt wip aidydor,

oropynv S€ oropynt, vetkos Sé re veiket Mvypar.

For ’tis through Earth that Earth we do behold,

Through Ether, divine Ether luminous,

Through Water, Water, through Fire, devouring

Fire,

And Love through Love, and Hate through doleful

Hate.

IIo. > el yap Kev og ddwihtow bd wpamridcoow epeioas evpevéws kabaphuow éromrevonis pehernicty, tadta Té wou pada wavra 8 aidvos mapécortas, Ga Te TAN’ dard TaVS’ exrjoea: avira yap avée, Aa > > y 9 4 > a e a taut’ eis HO0s exacrov, ory plows éotiy ExdoTut. > Se aa) ey , ’ s e .¥ 5 : ei 5€ ot y¥ Gdoiwy eropéEeat, ofa Kar’ dvdSpas

4 a 9 > 3 a a pupia Seva tédovras a 7 duBdUvovar Pepipvas, 5; oY > , , , io adap éxdehpovor wepuT\opévowo xpdvo.o lal Ss cal - ra 2 A id e - apav abrav rob€ovra pidny éxi yérvav ixérOau: wavra yap toh. dpdvynow exev Kat vedpatos aloay.

For if reliant on a spirit firm, With inclination and endeavor pure,

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 5I

Thou wilt behold them, all these things shall be

Forever thine, for service, and besides

Thereof full many another shalt thou gain; For of themselves into that core they grow

Of each man’s nature, where his essence lies.

But if for others thou wilt look and reach— Such empty treasures, myriad and vile,

As men be after, which forevermore

Blunt soul and keen desire—O then shall these

Most swiftly leave thee as the seasons roll;

For all their yearning is a quick return

Unto their own primeval stock. For know: All things have fixed intent and share of thought.

Dominion.

Iti.

, an : lal A“ N 4 ¥ pdppaka 8 doa yeyaou kakav Kal yipaos ahkap mevont, eel povvar gol éyw Kpavéw rade Tava, mavoes 8 dxapdrov dvéuev pévos ot 7 eri yatav dpripevor mvoaion KarapOwiOovow apovpas:

Kal wéduwv, hv C0ddyicba, tarivrira wrvedpara erd£es: Oyjoess 8 €€ GuBpoto Kehawod Kaiprov adxpov. dvOpdrous, Ojoess 5 Kai €€ abxpoto Oepeiov

es / 4 , > , 4

pedpara SevdpedOperra, td 7’ aifeps varjoovrat, dfeas 8 é€ ’AiSao xarapOipevov pévos dvdpds.

And thou shalt master every drug that e’er

Was made defense ’gainst sickness and old age— For thee alone all this I will fulfl—

And thou shalt calm the might of tireless winds, That burst on earth and ruin seedlands; aye,

52 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

And if thou wilt, shalt thou arouse the blasts,

And watch them take their vengeance, wild and shrill,

For that before thou cowedst them. Thou shalt change

Black rain to drought, at seasons good for men,

And the long drought of summer shalt thou change

To torrents, nourishing the mountain trees,

As down they stream from ether. And thou shalt

From Hades beckon the might of perished men.

THE PURIFICATIONS.

The Healer and Prophet. rI2,

@ giro, ot : Heya doru Kata Eavbod ’ Axpdyavros vaier’ dv’ dxpa wddeos, dyaBav Hehedrjpoves & epyav, Eeivav aidotor Aipeves KaKdTnTOS direrpot, xaiper’ eye & byiv Oeds duBporos, obkér Ovytds

ToOdEUMaL ETA TAT. TeTYLEVOS, WOTTEP EoLKa, tawviats Te wEepiotentos aTéderiv Te Oadeious: totow ap’ [edr’] dv ixwpat és dorea tydr€Odovra, avipdow 75e yuvaki, ceBiLopar: of 8 dp’ Erovrat pupion é€epéovres, dane mpds Képdos drapzés, of pev pavroouvewy Kexpnpevo, ot 8’ ext votcwr tavtoiwy érvbovto Kiev evnkéa, Baéiw

Snpov 87 xadewoton wexappevor [apdi pdoyourw]).

Ye friends, who in the mighty city dwell

Along the yellow Acragas hard by ,

The Acropolis, ye stewards of good works,

The stranger’s refuge venerable and kind,

All hail, O friends! But unto ye I walk

As god immortal now, no more as man,

On all sides honored fittingly and well,

Crowned both with fillets and with flowering wreaths.

‘When with my throngs of men and women I come

54 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

To thriving cities, I am sought by prayers, And thousands follow me that they may ask

The path to weal and vantage, craving some

For oracles, whilst others seek to hear

A healing word ’gainst many a foul disease

That all too long hath pierced with grievous pains. el Ounrav repiey, Tokuplepear avOparwv; Yet why urge more, as if forsooth I wrought

Some big affair—do I not far excel

The mortals round me, doomed to many deaths!

114. & diror, oida pev ovver’ adyOein mapa pious, ods eya eEepéw pada S dpyahén [4] ye rérucras avdpdor Kat Sialndos ert dpéva wiotios dppy.

O friends, I know indeed in these the words

Which I will speak that very truth abides; But greatly troublous unto men alway

Hath been the emulous struggle of Belief

To reach their bosoms.

Expiation and Metempsychosis. 115.

gor ’Avdynns xpipa, Gedy yydiopa tadady, aidiov, trarderou Kater ppynyiapevoy Gpkois:

- 2s 3 og id id a“ 4 evré Tis dptrrakinuct povar pira yvta punvyt, [Neixet 0] 6s ke ériopxoy duapticas éxopdaont, Saipoves oire paxpaiwvos lehdxaor Biowo,

, THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 55

Tpis piv pupias Opas dd paxdpwv addddnoba, dvopevous mravroia Sid. xpévou eidca, Ovyrav dpyaéas Bidrovo peradddocovra KehevOovs. aif€piov pev ydp ode pévos mévrovde Sidket, névtos & és xOovis oddas dmémruce, yaia 8 és adyds

Hertov dadBovtos, 6 8 aif€pos euBare Sivas: aos 8 e& dddov Sdyerar, orvydovor Sé wavtes.

TGV Kai éyd vov cir, puyds Deddev Kat adijrns, Neixel patvopévar ticvvos.

There is a word of Fate, an old decree

And everlasting of the gods, made fast

With amplest oaths, that whosoe’er of those

Far spirits, with their lot of age-long life, Do foul their limbs with slaughter in offense, Or swear forsworn, as failing of their pledge, Shall wander thrice ten thousand weary years

Far from the Blessed, and be born through time

In various shapes of mortal kind, which change

Ever and ever troublous paths of life: For now Air hunts them onward to the Sea; Now the wild Sea disgorges them on Land; Now Earth will spue toward beams of radiant Sun; Whence he will toss them back to whirling Air— Each gets from other what they all abhor.

And in that brood I too am numbered now, A fugitive and vagabond from heaven,” As oné obedient unto raving Strife.

116. oruyée. SvorAnrov ’AvayKnv.

Charis abhors intolerable Fate.

56 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Odpvos 7° oiwvds re Kal eEados EAdomos iyOus.

For I was once already boy and girl, Thicket and bird, and mute fish in the waves.

This Earth of Ours. 118, A , Qa , sQOn > t4 aA KAavo"d TE KL KWKUOA iS@v aovv7 Gea. XMpov.

I wept and wailed, beholding the strange place.

II9. e€ ons Tins TE Kal Gooou pyKEeos OABov ade [recov xara yatay] dvactpépopat pera Ovyrois.

From what large honor and what height of bliss

Am I here fallen to move with mortal kind!

This Sky-Roofed World. 120, HrvGoper 768° ba’ avtpov brdoTEyor...

And then we came unto-a rooféd cave.

This Vale of Tears.

Iai.

dreprréa xGpor, &0a Bédvos te Kédros re kal dhdwv Cvea Knpav avypnpat Te véoot Kal ores Epya Te pevord "Arns av hewpava kata oKdTos AAdoKOVOLW,.

A joyless land,

Where Slaughter and Grudge, and troops of Dooms besides,

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 57

Where shriveled Diseases and obscene Decays, And Labors, burdened with the water-jars, Do wander down the dismal meads of Bane.

122, &? oav XOovin te kat “Hudry tavaames, Anpis & aiparéeroa Kat “Appovin Oepepams, Kadota 7° Aioypy te, Odwod re Anvain Te, Nypeprys 7 épdecoa peddyxoupds 7 “Acddaa.,

There was Earth-mother, There the far-peering Virgin of the Sun, And bloody Quarrel and grave-eyed Harmony, And there was Fair and Foul and Speed and Late, Black-haired Confusion and sweet maiden Sure.

Kuo 7’ "Aoreudys te, wohvorépavds Te Meytorras kat Popin, wiry te kat “Opdain...

Growth and Decay, and Sleep and Roused-from- sleep,

Action and Rest, and Glory many-crowned,

And Filth, and Silence and prevailing Voice.

124. & root, & Sedov Ovytav yévos, & SvedvodBov, tolwy & 7 épidwy ék TE OTOVaxar éyéver be, O mortal kind! O ye poor sons of grief!

From such contentions and such sighings sprung!

58 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

The Changing Forms. 125.

ek pev yap Cwadr erie vexpa cide dpeiBov.

For from the living he the dead did make, Their forms exchanging...

126.

capkayv ddd\oyvare wepiorédNove'a XUTaVL.

All things doth Nature change, enwrapping souls

In unfamiliar tunics of the flesh.

127. év Oypeoct Néovtes Sperleyees Yaparedvas

7 4 2) es la I] , ylyvovra, Sddvat 8° evi S&vdpeowv AuKdpoow.

The worthiest dwellings for the souls of men, When ’tis.their lot-tolive in forms of brutes, Are tawnylions, those great beasts that sleep

Couched on the black earth up the mountain side; But, when in forms of beautiful plumed trees

They live, the bays are worthiest for, souls.

The Golden Age. 128, ovdd Tus Fv Keivoroww “Apnys Deds obdé Kvdoupds ovde Zeds Bacrreds obde Kpdvos obde Mocedav, GAa Kvmpis Bacideua. ‘ 4 > > , > 4, € , THY ol y evoeBéecoww ayddpaci ikdoKovTo ypamrots Te Cdoror ptpoiot te Sadadeddpors , > 9 , - 4 A opdpyns T axpyrov Ovoias MBdvov te Ovddovs, fovbav re omovdas peduray pimrovres és oddas:

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 59

tavpav 5° dxprroor pdvors ob Sefero Bayds, GNNG boos TOUT’ eoxev ev avOparoies peyioror, Oupiv dtroppaivavras évédpevar Hea yvia.

Nor unto them

Was any Ares god, nor Kydoimos, Nor Zeus, the king of gods, nor Kronos, nor

Poseidon then, but only Kypris queen...

Whom they with holy gifts were wont to appease, With painted images of living things, With costly unguents of rich fragrancy, With gentle sacrifice of taintless myrrh, With redolent fumes of frankincense, of old

Pouring libations out upon the ground

Of yellow honey; not then with unmixed blood

Of many bulls was ever an altar stained; But among men ’twas sacrilege most vile

To reave of life and eat the goodly limbs.

The Sage. qv S€ Tis ev Keivorow avnp wepidora Eeldds, 3s 5) pyKiorov wpamiowy éxricato movTov

Tavroiwy Te padiora copay emuipavos épywv: émmére yap mdonuorw dpé€ato mpamiderow, pet 6 ye TOV OvTav TavTav lebaoerKEY EkacTOY , 73> 3 , v4 3 4 . a 4 kai te S€x’ avOparev Kai 7 eikoow aidverow.

Was one among them there, a supreme man

Of vastest knowledge, gainer of large wealth

Of understanding, and chief master wise

Of diverse works of skill and wisdom all;

60 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. |

For whensoe’er he sought with scope and reach

Of understanding, then ’twas his to view

Readily each and every thing that e’er

In ten or twenty human ages throve.

Those Days. 130. hoay 8 xrita mdvra Kat avOpamo. tpoonvy, Oipés 7 oiwvoi te, diioppootvy re Sedyee.

All things were tame, and gentle toward men, All beasts and birds, and friendship’s flame blew fair.

The Divine. 131. ei yap épynpepiov evexey Tos, apBpote Modoa, e 4 i4 4 Q 4 3 ial npeerépas pederas [pede ror] Sua ppovridos eet, evyonévat viv atte tapiotaco, Kadddrreva., dpi Gedy paxdpav ayaldv AS-yor Eudaivorrs.

For since, O Muse undying, thou couldst deign

To give for these our paltry human cares

A gateway to thy soul, O now much more, Kalliope of the beautiful dear voice,

Be near me now beseeching !—whilst I speak

Excelling thoughts about the blessed “gods.

OABi0s, 8s Oeiwv rparidav éexrjcaro movrov, Serds 8’, du oxorderoa Ocav wépr Sdéa peundrer.

O well with him who hath secured his wealth

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 61

Of thoughts divine, O wretchetl he whose care

Is shadowy speculation on the gods!

133. obk eat reddcacbat ev ddbarpoiow éduxrov

Huerépors F xepat AaBeiv, Hurép te peyiory mevOovs avOpamovow apatites eis bpéva winra,

We may not bring It near us with our eyes,

We may not grasp It with our human hands, With neither hands nor eyes, those highways twain

Whereby Belief drops into minds of men.

134.

3 a A > id a b. ~ if ovde yap avSpopen Kedady. ard yuia Kéxacras, ob mev aarat varowo So KAddou digoovras,

> la 3 a Leal > c4 4 ob 7d8es, ob God yotva, ob widea hayvierra, GANG pphy iepy Kat dOéodaros ehero povvor, portion Kéopov amavra Katalocovoa Gojuow.

For ’tis adorned with never a manlike head,

For from Its back there swing no branching arms, It hath no feet nor knees alert, nor form

Of tufted secret member; but It lives,

One_haly mind, ineffable, alone,

And with swift thoughts darts through the universe. ys pd > 4 Ld 8 fo3 63 Xx , 7 A atdépos yvexéws réraras Sud + dawérov avyis.

But the wide law of all extends throughout

Broad-ruling ether and the vast white sky.

62 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Animal Sacrifice. 136. ob tavcerbe dovoio Svanyéos; ovK éoopare 3 la td 3 vA , GAdWAous SdrrovTes aKndeinurr vdoto;

Will ye not cease from this great din of slaughter ?

Will ye not see, unthinking as ye are, How ye rend one another unbeknown?

137.

popdny 8 dd\d\dEavta warip pidov vidy deipas

oddle erevxdpevos péya vimos: of 8 éropedyras

Noodpevor OYovras, 6 8 ad vijKovoTos GpuoKhéwy , 3 4 ‘N 3 a 8 a

aoddgas ev peydpoor kay ddeytvaro daira.

€ 8° ¥ 4,3 en EX N SN , rv)

ws 8 avrws marép’ vids Eloy Kal pyntépa maides

Oupov droppaicavre hikas kata odpKas ESovow,

The father lifteth for the stroke of death

His own dear son within a changed form,

And slits his throat for sacrifice with prayers— A blinded fool! But the poor victims press, Imploring their destroyers. Yet not one

But still is deaf to piteous moan and wail.

Each slits the throat and in his halls prepares

A horrible repast. Thus too the son

Seizes the father, children the mother seize, And reave of life and eath their own dear flesh.

Drawing the soul as water with the bronze.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 63

139. ® oip’ Ore ob mpdcOev pe Siddeore vy ees Fpap, mptv oxérd’ épya Bopas rept xeideot pnticacbar.

Ah woe is me! that never a pitiless day

Destroyed me long ago, ere yet my lips

Did meditate this feeding’s monstrous crime!

Taboos.

Withhold your hands from leaves of Phoebus’ tree!

14!.

Sedol, wdvSeror, kudpwv dao xelpas exeoOu.

Ye wretched, O ye altogether wretched, Your hands from beans withhold!

Sin, 142, tov S ovr ap te Avds Téyeou Sdpoe aiydxoro

té[ pou] av ovdé [aivis w]e dr] ns téyos [Hhurd- towov |.

Neither roofed halls of xgis- holding 2 Zeus

Delight it, nor dire Hecate’s venging house.

143. , » 2 id 3 3 3 , al

Kpnvdwv aro wévre tadvtT [ev] drape xadkar...

Scooping from fountains five with lasting bronze.

64 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 144. ynoredoat KaKOTNTOS.

O fast from evil-doing. 4 4 2. 4 , , ovrore Sedaiwy adxéwv Aupyoere Oupdv.

Since wildered by your evil-doings huge, Ne’er shall ye free your life from heavy pains. my

The Progression of Rebirth. 146.

3 a LA \ 4 , 3 4 els 5é rédos pdyrets TE Kat dpvordXor Kal inrpot kal mpdpor avOparoow émxPoviovrs édovrat. » > Le] Q Lal i4 ev dvaBdacrovar Geol tynqior péprrrou,

And seers at last, and singers of high hymns, Physicians sage, and chiefs o’er earth-born men

Shall they become, whence germinate the gods, The excellent in honors. aBavdros d\Noow perro. abrorpdzelor, evvies avSpeiav axéwv, dardKAnpor, areipets.

At hearth and feast companioned with the immor- tn, tals, From human pains and wasting eld immune.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES,. 65

Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost. 148. dpdiBpornv xOova.

Man-enfolding Earth. 149. vehednyeperny.

The cloud-collecting. 150. modvaiparoy Hrap.

The blood-full liver.

Life-giving.

Evening, the day’s old age.

The belly.

153a. év énra, EBSopdow,

In seven times seven days.

NOTES.

ON NATURE.

Fr. 1. Pausanias is the friend to whom Empedocles addresses himself throughout the poem On Nature. Matthew Arnold has made him a character in Empedocles on Aetna.

Fr. 2, Narrow ways: these are the pores (7épor) into which pass the emanations (dééppoa) from things (cf. fr. 89) ; whence man’s portion—such as it is—of perception and knowledge (cf. the simulacra of Lucr. IV). “Ways” (waddpar) are literally “de- vices”; but the notion of small passages is suggested by orewwmol; cf. fr. 4.

Their little share of life: a note of sadness struck more than once by Empedocles, and one of the few elements in common with the personage in Arnold’s poem. Cf. the comments on life and man in the Gnomic writers.

Like smoke: cf.

“Ergo dissolwi quoque convenit omnem animai naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aéris auras.” Luer., ITI, 455-6.

Than mortal ken may span: more literally, “than mortal skill may have power to move” (8pwper).

Fr. 3. Addressed to Pausanias; so elsewhere.

Fr. 4. Their madness: this evidently refers to the over-bold specu- lations of Parmenides and other philosophers.

Meek Piety’s: lit., “from [the realm of] Piety.”

By every way of knowing: by every passage, or device (wahdun) ; cf. fr. 2. Empedocles, unlike Parmenides, affirms the relative trustworthiness of the senses.

Trust sight no more than hearing, etc.: here E. may imply a distinction between the understanding and sense perception;

Fr. 5.

Fr. 6.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES,

or he may consider, with the sensationalists of modern psy- chology, one sense as acting as a check on another, without realizing that there must still be something over and above them which weighs and decides. His theory of knowledge was apparently little developed. Aristotle (De an., III, 3, 427a 21-29) says that E. drew no distinction between voetv or Ppoveiy and alc@dvec@a:,

Note by all ways: “ways” here translates 76pos, ‘road,’ ‘pore.’

The Roman critic (Hor., De arte poetica, 134 ff.) warns the poet against a beginning that promises bigger things than the work bears out, and he might have chided Empedocles with the contrary fault; for the reverent attitude, reflected in this fragment, soon gives way to dogmatism and grandiloquence, as the old philosopher’s soul thrills to his large thought and the roll of his splendid verse. Later writers on the Unknow- able and the limitations of human knowledge have not always been more consistent.

The High and Strong: “either philosophers or doctrines or the gods Love and Strife.” Diels, PPF.

Sifted through thy soul: an illustration of the dependence of a poetic value on an emendation; if, instead of diaconbévros (FV), we read diarundévros (PPF), the translation might run:

“Deep in thine inward parts dividing thought,” a very different, and to me less effective figure.

The four-fold root: the four elements, but there is some dis- agreement as to the interpretation of the symbols that follow.

Nestis is presumably a Sicilian water divinity, identified by van ten Brink and Heyne with Proserpina, and the context shows that she symbolizes water. Zeller (p. 759) makes Zeus fire, Here air, and Aidoneus (Dis) earth; Burnet (p. 243) and Bodrero (p. 78), following Knatz, make Zeus air, Here earth, and Aidoneus fire. I am not persuaded that any peculiar theory is implied in this mythology, as Bodrero attempts to prove (cf. also Gomperz, p. 245); at the most E. is hinting at the elements as eternal (the “established gods” of fr. 17) and primary—“the four-fold root of all things.” Moreover, E. was poet no less than philosopher.

Earlier philosophy had recognized the materials which E. calls the four elements, though it had never made them Grund- Stoffe. Cf. also the “flowing” (like water), the “mistiform”

Fr.

Fr,

Fr.

THE FRAGMENTS @F EMPEDOCLES. 69

(like air) and the dry mist (like fire) of Heraclitus; and the contrasted warm ad cold which*Anaximander conceived as differentiated frém the &repov, (The five-fold division of Phi- lolaos was probably derived from E.) E. was the first ab- solute pluralist; preceding thinkers, Thales, Pythagoras, Hera- clitus, Parmenides, etc., had made ultimate reality a material

One. Not until Plato have we an approach to an idealistic monism (cf. Burnet, p. 207-8).

preserved to us by E., and was apparently first used in philos- ophy by Plato. Cf. Zeller, p. 759.

the idea of birth; it is, however, but the other aspect of the latter: the interchange of the mixed implies a scattering as well, the dissolution of the old to form the new; at least I take it so. Cf. fr. 17.

I too assent to use: how many philosophers have felt them- selves balked in the perfect expression of their thought by having in their vocabulary to “assent to use.” “doom of death” in fr. 9 (cf. Plut. quoted by Diels, PPF). “at ’A@nva ddoizis Lycoph. 935 est sceleris vindex, sic Mors peccatorum unltrix.” Diels, PPF.

. 11-12, The doctrine (and in part the words) of Parmenides,

afterwards developed with such energy and imagination and observation of the processes of the sensible universe in Book

I of the De Natura Rerum.

For there ’twill be, etc.: perhaps a more literal rendering would make the meaning more obvious to some readers: “For every time will it [i. e., any given object] be right there, where any one every time puts it.”

13-14. E. held with Parmenides that the world is a Plenum, in- capable either of excess or of deficiency.

15. “But that there is here any affirmation of the immortality of the psychic life (Siebeck, Gesch. d. Psychol., I, 53, 267) I do not believe. Bporot denotes with E. not only men but all per-

70 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

ishable beings, and these are eternal only in so far as their elements are eternal.” Zeller, p. 736.

Diels, however, renders (FV) Bporot “wir Sterbliche”; in- deed, as “men” is evidently the understood subject of KaAdovar (‘call’), it must also be the subject of Puior (‘live’), and it is but natural to construe Bporol below in the same sense. But there is still presumably no reference to the immortality of the soul: Thought and feeling with E. are part of the physical system; and “our being” is but a physical being, to which, however, as to every thing, the thought of fr. 11 must apply. “Compacted” and “loosed apart” refer to the mingling and the scattering of the body’s constituent elements.

Fr, 16. Love and Hate: under varying names, “Lovingness” and “Strife,” “Aphrodite” aud “Wrath,” etc., conceived by E. as the dynamic powers of the universe. Many details of the conception are still in dispute (cf. Zeller, p. 771; Tannery, p. 306). Efforts to relate them genetically to the Isis and Typhon of the Egyptian, or to the Ormuzd and Ahbriman of the Persian seem to me unsuccessful; one is rather reminded of the “War” and “Harmonia” of Heraclitus.

Fr. 17. The longest, the most significant, and the most difficult of the fragments; preserved by Simplicius. “The One” is the

Sphere; “the Many,” as we see from line 18 (of the Greek text), are the four elements.

Two-fold the birth, two-fold the death of things: a dark saying; I paraphrase a Latin note of Diels, PPF:

“The wheel of nature runs a double course, one from the complete separation of the four elements to the union of the

Sphere, the other from the Sphere to the separation of the elements. In either course exist the certainties of creation and dissolution: for, as the elements come together, their meeting (otvodos) brings things to birth, but when the tend- ency to mingle has finally increased so far as to form the

Sphere again, the same meeting is found at last to be no less the source of their destruction (thus ovvodos rlkret 7’ édéket Te) ; again, as the elements begin to separate from the Sphere (da- Qvoxévwv), things are born into an orderly arrangement of their elements, until, with the increased tendency toward sepa- ration, everything at last flies apart (Sérrq) and perishes.” Cf. fr. 26.

acell

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 71

It must be noted that, when Love is supreme, we have the harmony of the Sphere; when Hate is supreme, a complete dissipation. In neither state is anything like our world pos- sible: we must be in either one or the other intermediate period, where the elements are making headway (1) away from the Sphere toward dissipation, or (2) from dissipation toward the Sphere. Cf. Burnet (p. 248 ff.), who believes we are in the former period.

Anaximander (but cf. Burnet, p. 64) and Heraclitus and the

Pythagoreans seem also to have taught a succession of worlds born and destroyed; and a similar thought is implicit in the nebular hypothesis of modern astronomy.

So far have they a birth, etc.: “they” refers, I believe, to the four elements: mortal, if viewed as parts of the perishable things of our world; immortal and unshaken as gods (cf. the mythological names of fr. 6), if viewed as the primeval sources of all things and as subject to the law of the four cosmic periods—eternal eae sat and revolution round “the circle of the world.”

And shut from them apart, etc.: both Strife and Love are apparently conceived as material, not simply as dynamic prin- ciples. The early philosophers were a long way from the in- corporealities and abstractions of modern science (cf. Burnet, p. 246) ; and even the Pythagorean numbers were by no means sharply distinguished from their concrete expression in geo- metrical forms and material things, and even the “Nous” of

Anaxagoras was mindstuff in space. Thus Strife is in equi- poise, i.e., everywhere of the same weight (drddapror s’entend de l’équilibre des poids. Tannery, p. 305), and at this moment somewhere outside the Sphere; while Love, equal in length and breadth, is situated inside, and

“speeds revolving in the elements.”

Tannery (p. 306) regards them as “media endowed with special properties and able to displace each other, media in the bosom of which are plunged the corporeal! molecules, but which are still conceived to ‘be as material as the imponderable ether of the modern physicists,” i. e., almost as diffused gases; but it is very doubtful if Empedocles had such a defi- nite thought in mind.

"Tis she inborn, etc.: whatever the difficulties in thinking out the thought with consistency of detail, there is a freshness

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

and a grandeur in this identification of a cosmic principle, or material, with a passion, or a faculty, in the life of man. E. makes a similar identification of Hate (cf. fr. 109). Schopen- hauer’s identification of the dynamic principle of all nature with “will” offers a modern analogy. Nor should we overlook the prior significance in the very choice of the names, drawn from the passions of men to stand for activities as funda- mental and wide as the universe.

I think, by the way, that E.’s language here makes it possible to interpret love (“thoughts of love,” etc.) as more than the physiological passion of sex for sex, with which it is usually identified by the commentators.

Behold these elements own equal strength, etc.: E. conceives the elements as each alike in quantity and strength, each alike primeval; but each, with its peculiar function and appearance (cf. E’s specific descriptive adjectives used in naming the ele- ments), qualitatively distinct from the others. Cf. Zeller, p.

“each

Prevailing conquers with revolving time”

is not, to me at least, perfectly clear. He speaks nowhere of an age of Air, or Earth, or Water; and the peculiar agencies he imputes to fire (see infra) are apparently at all times at work, without ever ending in fire’s dominating all, as in the common interpretation of the system of Heraclitus. Possibly he refers to the temporal sequence in the separation of the elements from the Sphere (for which see Zeller, p. 787), or simply to the fact that now this, now that created object in natura rerum has more of this or more of that element in its composition, Cf. fr. 26. In Chinese philosophy “The elements are supposed to conquer one another according to a definite law. We are told that wood conquers earth, earth conquers water, water conquers fire, fire conquers metal, and metal con- quers wood.” Paul Carus, Chinese Thought, 1907, p. 47. But there is nothing in E.’s thought that seems to correspond.

Through one another: an allusion to the theory of the pores, the precursor of Atomism. Cf. Zeller, p. 767.

Fr. 18, The translator has made no effort to be consistent in render-

ing dAly and diAérys into English by different words. There is evidently no vital difference of meaning in the Greek as used by E. Cf. Plut., quoted by Diels, PPF.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 73

Fr. 19. With reference here to water.

Fr. 20. Line 1 has been supplied by the translator. Cf. with this fragment fr. 57-62.

Fr. 21. But come, etc.: i.e. ‘observe if what I have already said does not give a sufficiently clear description of the form, or physical characteristics of the elements’—“si quid materiae etiam in priore numeratione elementorum relictum erat formae explicandae.” Diels, PPF.

The Sun: see note on fr. 41.

The eternal Stars: E. conceived the fixed stars as fastened to the vault (of the dark hemisphere), the planets as free, and both as formed of fire separated from the air.

The sun and the stars apparently correspond to the fiery element, rain to the watery, and earth to the earthy, con- sidered here as visible parts of the present universe no less than as the sources thereof. Air seems to be unrepresented, unless it be suggested by “glowing radiance.” I am inclined to take the phrase merely as a bit of poetry—it is the radiance of the night, hardly the bright heaven, the aery expanse of day. But were it so interpreted, one might well note that E. regularly wses al@jp (‘sky’) and once odpayés (‘heaven’) for air, and might compare Lucretius’

“Unde aether sidera pascit” (Bk. I, 231), and Virgil’s “Polus dum sidera pascit” (Bk. I, 608)—

phrases which, however, are not, as I understand them, based on an astronomy like that of Empedocles.

The green: the Greek is 0é\upva, ‘the beginnings of things,’ the ‘semina rerum’ of Lucretius (Liddell & Scott), here possibly with some suggestion of the growth of the vegetable world (hence the translation “green”). There is assuredly no ref- erence to the primeval “lumps with rude impress” of fr. 62, for E. is here speaking of things as they are.

The long-lived gods: the gods in the On Nature of Em- pedocles are part of the perishable world, formed, like tree or fish, out of the elements; hence, though “in honors excellent,” they are not immortal.

74 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr. 22. Heaven: air; cf. note to fr. 21.

For amber Sun, etc.: the mutual attraction of the like and the repulsion of the unlike are here referred respectively to the action of Love and Hate; but elsewhere in his system Em- pedocles leaves us much in the dark on the matter. Cf. Gom- perz, p. 237. Tannery, p. 308. Also Burnet, p. 247.

Things that are most apt to mix: where the emanations of the one are peculiarly well fitted to the pores of the other. Cf.

Burnet, 247 ff. d

Fr. 23. mixing harmonious, etc.: Gomperz (p. 233) sees a reference in this fragment to the four primary colors, as analogous to the four elements. The simile were then doubly striking.

The goddess: lit., ‘divinity’ (@eot), undoubtedly the Muse, mentioned several times by E. (cf. fr. 4, 5, 131); important as a hint that the author is poet as well as philosopher, and may use language not always literally in accord with his sys- tem.

Fr. 25. One may regret that Empedocles has not left us more such pithy sayings.

Cf. “A reasonable reason, If good, is none the worse for repetition.” Byron, Don Juan, XV, 51.

Fr. 26. In turn they conquer: “they” means the elements; cf. note on fr. 17.

olden Fate: fate is mentioned several times by E., and can only mean, I think, the universal law of being.

Whiles in foir order: Gr. els va xécpov; it refers to that orderly arrangement of the elements which results, as the uni- fying process goes on, in the dead harmony of the Sphere.

Whiles rent asunder: this refers to the process which ends in the complete dissipation of the elements and the destruction of all things.

Till they, when grown....succumb: i.e., as I understand it, till, after having completed the process of coming together again which ends in the Sphere, they again begin the process of separating which ends in dissipation. Cf. fr. 17; and Zeller (p. 778), who might question this interpretation,

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 75

“Go under and succumb” is in the Greek imévepGe yévnrat, a phrase found in Theognis (1. 843):

“ANN bwérav KabbrepGer édv Swévepbe yérnrat, rouTaéKts olkad’ Tuev mravodpevor méctos,”

where the event is, however, hardly of the same cosmic im- portance. a

Fr. 27. There: in the Sphere, where one could distinguish none of the elements and none of the forms of things. One notes that the passage makes no mention of air, and wonders if a line may have been lost. The Sphere corresponds somewhat to the “Being” of Parmenides, which was spherical and im- movable; but the four elements, though in this sphere visibly indistinguishable, must still maintain their respective qual- ities. For various ancient interpretations of the nature of the

Sphere, cf. Burnet, p. 250 ff.

In the close recess of Harmony: “in Concordiae latebris fixus tenetur.” Diels, PPF. A poetic figure for the idea that the Sphere is completely under the reign of Love. Possibly “the close recess” is but the “surrounding solitude” below, and is not, perhaps, to be taken any more literally than the refer- ence to the Sphere as “exultant.” If examined narrowly, however, difficulties must be admitted. The figure may be

Pythagorean. Harmony, then, were the personified “fitting,” “adaptation,” and would refer to the closely fitted parts of the universe, when brought together by Love. Ivx«wos (‘close- fitted,’ ‘compact’) were itself perfectly appropriate; but Kpvdos, as a noun (meaning, as it seers to here, ‘a hidden place’) would confuse the thought, for the figure, if Pythagorean, requires us to conceive “Harmony” as pervading the Sphere, not as hiding it somewhere in space. Moreover, one would expect to find xpédos applied to the Sphere rather than to the recess. Prof. Newbold in a letter suggests xptw for Kptdy, ij.e., ‘in Harmonia’s close-binding frost? as “better than the MS reading, though not altogether satisfactory.”

Bodrero assumes (p. 135) that Harmony “is not Love alone, but the union of Love and Hate, their equilibrium”; but his whole interpretation of Empedocles is very far from that of all other scholars, and is usually, as here, of little service to the point of view adopted in these pages.

The rounded Sphere: This primeval Sphere must never be confounded with E.’s present spherical universe, composed, as

Fr.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

we learn from the doxographers, of a revolving bright hemi- sphere of day and a dark hemisphere of night. Cf. note to fr. 48.

Exultant in surrounding solitude: quoted with literary tact, though in a corrupt form, by Marcus Aurelius (XII, 3): “If thou wilt separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles’ Sphere, ‘All round, and in its joyous rest reposing.’” apparently of the Divine; and note that below in fr. 31 the

Sphere is called God.

Nor form of life-producing member: a touch possible only to a free and an austere imagination: Empedocles gazes upon man, the naked and the swift, and seizes at once on that which most identifies his manhood. breaks up and separates the elements in the Sphere.

Amplest oath: Gr. wharéos Spxov, lit. ‘broad oath.” Cf. fr. 115. only in the sense in which antiquity in general sees in the world itself the totality of divine beings and powers.” Zeller, p. 813; cf. p. 814.

32. “quod e coniectura scripsi artus iungit bina eleganter ex- pressit Martianus Rota sive ingenio sive meliore libro fretus: articulis constat semper tunctura duobus.’ Diels, PPF.

. 33. Diels (PPF) cites Homer, E,g02, and says “e Plut. patet

Concordie processum illustrari”—it illustrates the process of

Love.

34. i.e. like a baker, according to Karsten and Burnet. plained in any existing fragment of Empedocles. Tannery thinks (p. 312) “the vortex is due to a disturbance of equi- librium....the final resultant of the disordered movements which Hate occasions in the Sphere.” And again (p. 314): “Hate....is the principle of division and movement; in con-

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 7/7

sequence of its very mobility it werks its way naturally into the interior of the motionless Sphere, produces an agitation and then a movement of revolution. Thereupon Hate is thrown off to the circumference where the movement is most rapid, and is finally excluded altogether.” But cf. Zeller, p. 784, 787. This chaos, or vortex, caused, according to Tannery by Hate, has suggested to some the “xdéoxue” of Hesiod and the “rudes indigestaque moles” of Ovid; it was, however, an accepted tenet of the older schools (cf. The dlvn in Anaximenes and Anaximander, W. A. Heidel, Class. Philology, I, 3. July

1906).

The eddying centre of the mass: “the mass” is not in the

Greek; but is to be understood rather than “the Sphere”’— which has properly ceased to be in becoming a vortex.

Oneness: not to be identified with the Sphere, but with the “fair order” of fr. 26, as seems clear from the lines that fol- low, “and from their mingling,” etc.

Only as willingly: possibly a reference to the attraction of like for like. Cf. note to fr. 22.

Not all blameless: i. e., Hate retreated under protest, differ- ing from “blameless Lovingness” in not willingly submitting to the “old decree” (see Diels, PPF, and fr. 30); although this seems, if anything more than a poetic touch, to involve the inconsistency of a free will over against the fundamental ne- cessity. Such cruxes recall the inconsistencies even in the more developed materialism of modern times, which assumes the possibility of sense experience and of distinguishing truth and error, right and wrong. Ci. fr. 116. ;

The circle’s utmost bounds: the circumference of the vortex, not the Sphere.

The members: the elements.

Those mortal things: the elements as constituents of physical objects in the perishable world, contrasted with the elements as eternal sources of creation. Cf. fr. 17 and 26. “Dagli elementi eterni si formano esseri viventi e peribili.” Bodrero, p. 130. The two states are again contrasted in

“The erstwhile pure and sheer

Were mixed,” below.

Fr. 36. They: The elements. Cf. preceding fragment.

78 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr. 37. “cetera elementa duo commemorata fuisse veri simile (cf.

Luer. II 1114 sq.), at versus recuperari nequit.” Diels, PPF.

Cf. fr. 109 on sense perception.

Fr. 38. If the brief examples of “all things we now behold” are to correspond to the four elements, one finds nothing representa- tive of fire, unless ether be here used, as by Anaxagoras, for fire, with reference to the fiery sky (cf. note to fr. 135) and to the etymology of the word itself (from at@ew, ‘light up, ‘blaze’)—a sense, indeed, appropriate to the appellative “Titan.” But this were quite a different sense than is usual in E., with whom ether regularly stands for the element air. This, how- ever, involves us in another difficulty: “moist air” (ivpds dip) has been already mentioned; but with Zeller we may interpret it as the lower, thicker, misty air (so 47 in Homer), as op- posed to the upper air, the pure ether, “without, however, assuming arly elemental difference,” p. 786. “Moist air” is rendered “feuchten Luftkreis” by Diels (FV), and “damp mist” by Burnet. I may add that Burnet is evidently wrong in affirming that é%p never refers to air in E.: it is used inter- changeably with al@yp (‘air’) in fr. 100 (q.v.) Cf. Stickney, notes to Cicero’s De Nat. Deorum, I, 44.

“With Ether, the Titan who binds the globe about:” cf.

“Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.” Emerson, Days.

Fr. 39. The white Ether: “white” is not in the Greek, but is in keeping with E’s “Ether, the all splendorous,” the “awful heights of Air,” the vaulted sky of his imagination.

As forsooth some tongues, etc.: a gruffness reminding of

Heraclitus, and of Emerson’s line:

“The brave Empedocles defying fools.”

Fr, 41. E. seems to have conceived the sun as “a luminous image of the earth, when the latter was lighted up by the fire of the day [i.e., the bright hemisphere] and reflected upon the crys- tal vault of heaven.” Tannery, p. 317. But cf. Burnet, p. 254, and

Zeller, p. 789, for slight differences of interpretation. How the sun, a mere reflection, was borne along its track in the re- volving sky we are left to guess.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 79

Fr, 42. An anticipation of the modern scéentific explanation of solar eclipses.

The silver-eyed: ‘yhavkémibos pivns; for the much discussed yAaukemis see the Homeric dictionaries. It refers properly not to color but to “brightness and flashing splendor,” used especially of Athene, of whom the Iliad (A,'200) says, “dewd 6é of 3ace pdavOev.” Cf. Schol. on Apoll. Rhod. 1. 1280 (quoted by Merrill and Riddell, Odys. A, 44): “dtayAatooovow dri rob dwrl{over f diadéurovet, 8bev Kal 7} "AOnva yAavKwms, Kal yAnvn } képn rot éd0adpuov, mapa 7d yhatocew & éort Adurev, Kat Evpint- dns ext ris cedyvns éexpijoaro yAaveaals re orpéderar ujvy.” But it is doubtful if E., who speaks of “Selene mild,” intended here anything stronger than “with eye of silvery sheen.”

yAavkés is used of the willow, the olive, and E. himself uses it (fr. 93) of the elder. Diels’ “blaudugigen” seems to me in- adequate.

Fr. 43. E. knew the source of the moon’s light (cf. fr. 45, 47); but the moon itself he held to be a disk of frozen air, and one-half as far from the earth as the sun (“E. SerAdovov dwéxew (Trav

HAcov) dwd ris yas Yaep Thy cedgvyr.” Plac, II, 31).

Fr. 44. He darts his beams: with Diels I take the subject to be ‘the sun’ and not ‘the earth’ (Burnet) ; and “Olympos” is then the bright heaven, Tannery’s “feu du jour” (see note to fr. 41).

E. explained the light of the heavenly bodies through his doc- trine of emanations, and, accordingly maintained—a correct conclusion from incorrect premises—that the sun’s light re- quires a certain time to reach earth. Cf. Zeller, p. 790.

Fr. 46. Which round the outmost: probably ‘goal is turning,’ or something of the sort, followed here. The form of the clause shows that it served as a simile.

Fr. 47. Her lord: the sun, see note on fr. 43.

Fr, 48. E. conceived our earth as surrounded by a hollow globe composed of two hemispheres, a lighter of fire, a darker of air, whose revolution produces day and night. Cf. Zeller, p. 786 ff. This line means only that earth shuts off the light of the fiery hemisphere that sinks below the horizon, bearing with it its sun (see fr. 41).

80 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr, 50. For authenticity cf. Diels, PPF. I am uncertain what scien- tific meaning this line had for Empedocles; but for the modern reader it is at least charming poetry. Burnet (p. 256) says: “Wind was explained from the opposite motions of the fiery and airy hemispheres. Rain was caused by the compression of the Air, which forced any water there might be in it out of its pores in the form of drops.”

Fr. 51. And upward, etc.: of fire, which, in E.’s thought, had an upward, as air a downward (see fr. 54) tendency, innate powers apparently not elsewhere explained. The peculiar functions attributed by E. to fire led Aristotle (De gen. et corr., B 3. 330b 19) to separate it from the other elements of the system, an interpretation developed with much ingenuity by

Bodrero (Chap. II.).

Fr. 52. Doubtless an allusion to volcanic phenomena, as common in

Sicily.

Fr. 53. “It” refers to air. “Met,” i.e. with the other elements.

Fr. 54. See note to fr. 51.

Fr. 55. “The earth....was at first mixed with water, but the in- creasing compression caused by the velocity of the world’s revolution [the Vortex of fr. 35] made the water gush forth.” Burnet, p. 256. The phrase is not, then, as criticized by Aris- totle, mere poetic metaphor.

Fr. 56. With E. fire has a crystallizing, condensing function. Cf. fr. 73.

Fr. 57-61. These fragments contain the rude germ of the theory of natural selection and the origin of species (but cf. Zeller, p. 795) ; they seem to refer to a process of animal genesis during the period when Love is increasing in power (i.e., the fourth period; see fr. 17) ; fr. 62, on the other hand to another process when Hate is increasing (i.e. in the period of the present world). Cf. Burnet, p. 26r.

God with god: Gr. Salnon Saluwr, i.e, Love and Hate.

There seems to be no reason for the conjecture, sometimes advanced, that E. is here influenced by the monsters of Baby- lonian legend and art. The Greek imagination was long fa-

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 81

miliar with centaurs, satyrs, chimeras, cyclops, hermaphro- dites and other “mixed shapes of being.” The library of

Johns Hopkins has recently (1906) been enriched, so a med- ical colleague informs me, by a collection (originally from

Marburg), containing some 936 old volumes on monsters,

which the curious reader may consult at his leisure for further parallels.

Fr. 62. See notes to fr. 87-61.

The sundered fire: Gr. Kptvéuevoy mip, lit. ‘self-sundering’ —the fire which “burns beneath the ground” and has the “npward zeal.” Though E. is speaking here of mankind,

“Of men and women, the pitied and bewailed,”

he probably considers the process as typical for the whole animal kingdom.

Warm: warm and cold seem to have been important con- ditions in E.’s system, the former favoring growth, the latter inducing decay, old age, sleep, death, in the last instance per- haps serving as the occasion for the separation of the elements by Hate. The general idea is probably as old as speculation.

Fr. 63. For ’tis in part in man’s: i.e. in part in the male semen.

E. explained conception as a union of male and female semen, each furnishing parts for the formation of offspring. Cf.

“Aegre admiscetur muliebri semine semen.” Luer., IV, 1239.

In so far as this ancient belief recognizes that both sexes furnish the germs of the offspring, it is an anticipation of modern embryology.

Fr. 64. An alternative reading, a little freer:

“Love-longing comes upon him, waking well

Old memories, as he gazes.”

Fr. 65. This is, perhaps, as rational as most modern theories. “At present we are almost absolutely ignorant concerning the causation of sex, though certain observers are inclined to suppose that the determining factor must be sought for in the ovum.” Williams, Obstetrics (1904), p. 143.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr. 66. Cloven meads: surely the labia majora.

Fr. 68. White pus: Gr. 76 mov, not 6 wiés (‘colostrum’), if my

available lexical information be correct, though the latter is probably meant (Burnet). The comparison seems to be— however grotesque—between mother’s milk (properly colos- trum) in the breast enlarging during pregnancy, and the matter of a suppurating boil—the teat of the former corre- sponding to the “head” of the latter. Colostrum is, however, present in the breast after the first few months.

Fr. 69. Twice-bearing: i.e. bearing offspring in the seventh and

tenth month.

. 70, Sheepskin: used of the membrane conceived as covering

the “embryo” (fcetus?). E. could only have been familiar with the membranes which follow the birth of the young.

Sun: this is of course here a symbol for the element fire.

Fr. 73. Kypris: Aphrodite, Love.

To speed of fire that she might grow firm: fire has a con- densing property. Cf. fr. 56.

. 74. The subject may be Aphrodite.

Fr. 75-76. Here the bones, the earthen part (in modern science, the

lime) within some animals are related, quite in the spirit of our own physiology, to the shells on the outside of others.

The turtle’s shell, consisting chiefly of keratin, is, however, morphologically connected, like horn, finger-nails, etc., with the skin. Aristotle (Pneumat. 484a 38) says that E. explained fingernails as produced from sinew by hardening.

Fr. 77-78. Trees were supposed by E. to derive their nourishment

Fr.

through their pores from the air, more or less vitalizing ac- cording to the mixture—again a suggestion of modern science.

laid by birds, E. was probably guided by similarity no less of function than of form.

suggests it\is “because the pomegranate has a very hard

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 83

thick skin, not admitting air as readily as the thin skin of an apple. See fr. 77-78.”

Fr. 82. A doctrine of comparative morphology that has reminded many critics of the poet-scientist Goethe.

Fr. 84. Of horny lantern: the ancients had lanterns made of trans- lucent horn, and “horny,” though not in the text, must be understood here.

“Emp. conceives the eye as a sort of lantern. The apple of the eye contains fire and water enclosed in films, the pores of which, alternately arranged for each element, give to the emanations of each a free passage. Fire serves for perceiving the bright, water for the dark. When the emanations of visible things reach the outside of the eye, there pass through the pores from within it emanations of its fire and water, and from the joint meeting arises vision.” Zeller, p. 801.

“It was an attempt, however inadequate, to explain percep- tion by intermediate processes. It was an attempt, moreover, which admitted, however reluctantly, the subjective factor, thus completing one stage of the journey whose ultimate goal is to recognize that our sense-perceptions are anything rather than the mere reflections of exterior objective qualities of things.” Gomperz, p. 235. Cf. Burnet, p. 267.

Fr. 86. From which: i.e. from these elements.

Fr. 87. Bolts of love: a metaphor for the uniting power of Aphro- dite. Cf. fr. 96.

Fr. 88. Interesting as an early lesson in a sound theory of optics.

Fr. 89. Cf. note on fr. 2.

Fr. 90. Sour sprung for Sour: “went for” (#87) would be a more effective rendering, but for the slangy connotations.

Fr. 92. Diels (FV), following Aristotle, who has preserved us the fragment, makes the connection sufficiently clear: “Die Samen- mischung bei der Erzeugung von Mauleseln bringt, da zwei weiche Stoffe zusammenkommen, eine harte Verbindung zu- stande. Denn nur Hohles and Dichtes passt zu einander.

Dort aber geht es, wie wenn man Zinn und Kupfer mischt.”

84 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr. 93. Silvery: See riote to fr. 42.

Fr. 94. Preserved only in Latin (Plut. Quaest. nat., 39). Diels (PPF) has thus turned it into Greek: “Kad wéder év BévOer worapod péday éx oxiderTos kat omndaudiecow duds évopirat év dyrpois,”

Fr. 95. They: i.e. the eyes. The thought is thus completed by Diels (FV), following Simplicius: “ergab sich auch der Unterschied, dass einige bei Tag, andere bei Nacht heller sehen.”

Fr. 96. Thus bones are formed of 2 parts earth, 2 parts water, and 4 parts fire.

Broad-breasted melting pots: “ben construtti vasi,” as Bod- rero translates it.

Glue of Harmony: cf. “bolts of love.”

Fr. 97. Thus completed by Diels (FV), following Aristotle: “hat ihre Form daher, dass sie bei dey Entstehung der Tiere durch eine 2ufallige Wendung zerbrach.”

Fr. 98. She met: Gr. ovvéxvpce, a word, among others, which sug- gests in Empedocles’ system, an implicit doctrine of chance.

Cf. fr. 102, 103. Cf. Bodrero, p. 107 ff.

Ether, the all-splendorous: an illustration of how E. will sometimes emphasize a term, used symbolically to denote an element as one of the four-fold roots of all things, by an epithet suggestive of that element as it appears in the world about us.

Diels (PPF) paraphrases: “Tellus ad sanguinem efficiendum fere pares partes ignis, aquae, aeris arcessit, sed fieri potest ut paulo plus terrae aut minus, ut quae pluribus elementis una occurrat, admisceatur.”

Fr. 99. A fleshy sprout: E.’s picturesque definition of the outer ear.

The inner ear he likens to a bell which sounds as the air strikes upon it—again an anticipation of modern science.

Fr. 100. This fragment (cf. fr. 105) shows some knowledge of the motions of the blood, though far enough from the discovery of Harvey. Cf. Harvey’s own work On the Motion of the

Heart and Blood in Animals (1628) for the anterior views.

As a theory of respiration, it is as grotesque as it is ingenious.

Fr.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 85

The comparison with the clepsydra, though in form of a

Homeric simile, rests, as Burnet points out, upon scientific experiment, and is doubly significant for its sound physics.

The following diagram and analysis from Burnet (p. 230) will, perhaps, make the allusion clear:

“The water escaped drop by drop through a single orifice at a. The top b was not altogether open, but was per- forated so that the air might exert its pressure on the water inside. The in- strument was filled by plunging it in water upside down, and stopping the orifice at a with the finger before taking it out again.” The water's destined bulk: i.e.,a cor- responding mass of water. . Ior. All that is left of E.’s theory of scent. The mites are the

emanations.

. 102, Got: lit., “chanced on” (AeAbyxact), Cf. note on fr. 98.

. 103. Chance: cf. note on fr. 98. Here, as in some passages

elsewhere, E.:seems to be a hylozoist. Cf. Zeller, p. 802; but

E. nowhere credits the elements as such, with consciousness, unless fr. 109 be so interpreted (but cf. Gomperz, p. 245).

The blood that stirs, etc.: the verse was often alluded to by the ancients (cf. Diels, PPF), and Tertullian seems himself to have turned it into Latin in his De Anima (chap. 16):

“namque homini sanguis circumcordialis et sensus.”

But E. did not mean here, I think, to exclude some power of thought from other parts of the body; he says “where prevails the power,” i.e., where it chiefly (udéAtora) exists. Cf. Zeller, p. 803.

86 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

Fr. 106. Cf. “Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore et una crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem.” Luer., IIL, 445-6.

“Empedocles hat nicht die Seele aus den Elementen zusam- mengesetzt, sondern er hat das, was wir Seelenthatigkeit nen- nen, aus der elementarischen Zusammensetzung des Korpers erklart, eine vom K6rper verschiedene Seele kennt seine Phy- sik nicht”—i. e., a soul as distinct from the composition of the elements in the body is nowhere found in the On Nature.

Zeller, p. 802.

Fr. 107. These: the elements. Cf. note on fr. 106.

Fr. 108. “By day” and “by night” have been supplied here from references in Simpl. and Philop., quoted by Diels, PPF.

Fr. 109. Through Earth, etc.: “we think each element with the cor- responding element in our body” (Zeller, p. 802), and the same holds true of Love and Hate (cf. note on fr. 17).

Cf. Plotinus: 08 yap av rdbrore eldev dDOaduds Hrtoy Hrroedhs pH} veyernuévos, Cf. also Goethe:

“War’ nicht das Ange sonnenhaft,

Die Sonne kénnt’ es nie erblicken;

Lag’ nicht in uns des Gottes eig’ne Kraft, Wie kénnt’ uns Géttliches entziicken ?”

Man is the microcosm.

Fr. 110. All these things: perhaps the good thoughts of the master’s doctrine; E. is here, as elsewhere, addressing Pausanias.

For of themselves... .they grow, etc.: sound psychology, if my interpretation just above be correct, and capable of serving as the basis for a chapter in the philosophy of living, on the practical bearings upon character of right and wrong thinking.

All things have fixed intent: i. e., consciousness.

Fr. 111. Drugs: Gr. ¢épyaxa; possibly “charms” is better, as sug- gested to me by a friend. Galen makes E. the founder of the

Italian school of medicine. Cf. Burnet, p. 215.

The dominion over human ills, sickness, windstorms, drought and death, here promised to Pansanias, was early imputed to

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 87

Empedocles himself (cf. Introduction), perhaps, chiefly by vir- tue of these lines.

The might of perished men: Gr. karadOruévov pévos dvdpés, “Spirits of the dead” seems hardly permissible with pévos (though the word is sometimes used of the spirit, the courage of man), and would render still more crass the contradiction with what E. has elsewhere told us in the On Nature of the psychic life. One would conjecture that the fragment belongs to the Purifications, but for the fact that it is addressed to

Pausanias, and not, as the latter, to the citizens of Acragas.

THE PURIFICATIONS.

The inconsistency of the religious tenets of this poem with the philosophic system of the On Nature is, like the relation between the two parts of Parnienides’ poem, a commonplace in the history of

Greek thought; and, though attempts at a recontiliation have been made, conservatively by Burnet (p. 271), radically by Bodrero (pas- sim), our materials seem too scanty for anything more than in- genious speculation. The work evidently owes much to Orphic and

Pythagorean tradition; but there seems no reason for doubting its genuineness.

Fr. 112. The yellow Acragas: The river beside the walls of Agri- gentum.

As god immortal now: an Orphic line runs:

“Happy and blesséd, shalt thou be a god and no longer a mortal.”

Cf. Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 580.

Crowned both with fillets and with flowering wreaths: Em- pedocles’ passage about the Sicilian cities reminds one of the peasant-prophet who went about the populous towns of Gali- lee, followed by the multitudes seeking a sign or a healing word; but the simplicity of the Jew is more impressive than the display of the Greek.

Fr. 113. I.e., “Why should I boast of my miracles and my following, who am a god and so much above mankind?’ E., if an

Orphic (cf. Burnet, p. 213, and his references), has here

88 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.

little of even “the somewhat elaborate and self-conscious hu- mility” of his sect.

Fr. 115. With.amplest oaths: cf. fr. 30.

Those far spirits: Gr. 8alpoves; Burnet (p. 269) identifies these with “the long-lived gods” of the On Nature.

With slaughter: i. e., bloodshed of animals, no less than of fellowmen; it probably refers also to the eating of flesh. Cf. fr. 136.

In offense: in sin, sinfully.

Thrice ten thousand... .yeors: Gr. tTpis mupla: Spat, by some interpreted as 10,000 years. Cf. Zeller, p. 780.

Be born through time, etc.: the doctrine of metempsychosis in E. is probably Pythagorean in origin, though apparently not entirely Pythagorean in form: “Non é specializzata solo a certi determinati esseri, ma riguarda tutti gli esseri organici € giunge sino agli Dei,’ according to Bodrero (p. 146).

For now Air hunts them, etc.: Here we have mention of the familiar four elements, and below of Hate, but the realm of the Blessed and the curse pronounced upon the spirits seem in- compatible with the On Nature. Moreover, something is needed after all for metemphychosis besides “the reappearance of the same corporeal elements in definite combinations” (Burnet, p. 271), though perhaps Empedocles deemed that sufficient. Cf. the Buddhistic doctrine of reincarnation and retribution. Cf. also Gomperz, p. 249 ff.

Fr. 116. Charis: Aphrodite. In the On Nature (fr. 35) E. refers to the unwillingness also of Hate to submit to the law of ne- cessity.

Fr. 117. Possibly as a punishment for having tasted flesh: “Empe- docle ci fa sapere che il suo spirito era gia pervenuto alla sede dei beati, ma che cedendo alla tentazione accosté impuri cibi agli labbri [cf. fr. 139], e tornd ad essere arbusto, pesce, uccello, fanciullo e giovinetta.” Bodrero, p. 147.

“So long as man [in the Orphic belief] has not severed completely his brotherhood with plants and animals, not real- ized the distinctive marks and attributes of his humanity, he will say with Empedocles:

‘ THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 89

‘Once on a time a youth was I,,and I was a maiden, ; A bush, a bird, and a fish with scales that gleam in the ocean.’ ”

Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 590.

Fr. 118. This must refer to Empedocles’ feelings, as he entered, after banishment from heaven, upon his earthly career (cf. fr. 119). Cf. “Infans.... vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut zeqummst cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.”

Lucr., V, 226.

For other parallels see Munro and Guissani, notes to loc. cit.

Fr. 119. Cf. note to fr. 118.

Fr. 121. A joyless land: with fr. 122 and 123 this refers, as I under- stand it, to our mundane world itself.

And Labors burthened with the water-jars: this is a para- phrase of the puzzling épya ‘pevord, which, it has been sug- gested to me by Prof. Newbold, “can hardly be anything other than the fruitless toil of the water-carriers, representing, if the scene be earth, life’s disappointments and the vanity of all human pursuits.” If this interpretation be correct, the figure is evidently taken from the conception of the Orphic Hell, which, if the literary tradition be reliable, was situated upon earth (for water-carriers in Hell, cf. Harrison, Proleg. to

Study of Greek Religion, Chap. XI, p. 614 ff.) ; but that E. is depicting scenes from the Orphic Hell itself may be ques- tioned from what is preserved to us of the context: he seems throughout these adjacent fragments to be dwelling on the earthly abiding place unto which he and others must descend from the realm of the blessed.

But Diels (PPF): “nec sunt humanae res fuxae (Karsten) nec vero foedum morbi genus (Stein), sed agri inundationibus vexati.’ According to this, it might run in English:

“And slimy floods of wasting waters rise

And wander,” etc.

CE.

“Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains.” Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, I, 169.

go THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES,.

Fr. 122. There: i.e, in the joyless land,” the “rooféd cave,” this earth.

Virgin of the Sun: the moon(?).

The personages that follow are feminine. E. evidently imitates the catalogue of Nymphs in Il. 2 39:

“yg? Up’ Env Trabxn re, Oddecd te Kupodéxn re”... .KTr,

Fr. 125. This refers, perhaps, to the passage from the life. of the blessed to the (relative) death on this earth, where souls are wrapped

“in unfamiliar tunics of the flesh” (fr. 126.), and have a hapless existence.

Fr. 126. This refers to metempsychosis.

Fr. 127. The worthiest dwellings: for those who have proceeded in their purification; expanded from the context where the orig- inal passage is found (in Ael. nat. an., XII, 7., quoted by Diels, PPF): “Adéyes 5& kat ’E, rhv dploryy elvac yerolknow rh» rov dvOpdrov, el udv és Sctov 4% Ages abrdy peraydryot, Néovra ylvea- Oat: ef 58 és Gurdv, Sdpynv.” E. conceived the plants as having souls, a fancy not confined to antiquity.

Fr. 128. A Golden Age seems incompatible with the biology of the

On Nature, but cf. Burnet (p. 271), who thinks it to be re- ferred to the time when Hate was just beginning to separate the elements.

‘Kydoimos: personification of uproar, as in battle.

Unmixed blood: the figure is from unmixed wine, which, as such, is thick and dark.

Fr. 129. “Similiter mentis infinitam vim (philosophi scilicet non vatis) Parmenides praedicat fr. 2 Netoce 5 Buws dredvra véwt rapedyra

BeBalws xrd, unde apparet cur nonnulli Parmenidem hic respici arbitrati sunt. nec dubiwm cur Pythagorae quater redivivi mentio [“a reference to Pythagoras, four times returned to life”’] facta sit.” Diels, PPF. But Burnet (p. 236), conjec- turing that E. is still speaking of the Golden Age, thinks the “supreme man” is Orpheus.

In ten or twenty human ages: cf. paraphrase of Diels (PPF) : “ubi summa vi mentem intenderat, facile singula quae-

Fr.

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. gr

cumque sive decem sive viginti homjnum saeculis fiebant per- spicere solebat.” thoughts of Empedocles explains this passage with reference to what has gone before in the On Nature as follows: “Felice colni che ha una cosi perfetta composizione di elementi da poter comprendere Ia natura degli Dei; misero chi per la poverta delle proprie risorse, segue le credenze superstiziose e comuni” (p. 159). speaking of the Sphere; but the last lines seem out of place in such a connection, even though we recall that E. has vaguely named the Sphere “God” (fr. 31). aether und den unermesslichen Himmelsglanz.” Diels, FV.

Cf. note to fr. 38.

Din of slaughter: killing of animals. Cf. fr. 137 and 115.

The reader need hardly be reminded of the Orphic interdict against eating animal food.

138. “As our philosopher placed life and soul in the blood [cf. fr. 105], it was not unnatural for him to speak of ‘drawing the soul.’” Diels, PPF. The passage seems to refer either to the draining or scooping up into a bronze vessel of the blood of slaughtered animals, or to cutting their throats with a sacrificial knife of bronze. which scholars have offered a variety of suggestions. Bodrero (p .149) and others connect it with the doctrine of metem- psychosis (cf. fr. 139, 127); Burnet (p. 104) well compares it (and kindred Pythagorean rules) to the bizarre taboos of savages. Possibly there was some fancied association, based on shape, with the egg (as E. likened olives to eggs in fr. 79), which, as may be gathered from Plutarch, was held by Orphics and Pythagoreans to be taboo, perhaps as being the principle

THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. of life (cf. Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 628). \ . Ye

‘ mies

Fr. 142. “etiam sensus incertus, utrum Iovis et Hecates regna (cf.

Fr.

fr. 135, 2?) opponantur an quattuor elementa, unde exclusus sit scelestus (cf. fr. 115, 9).” Diels, PPF. ceremonial lustration(?), for which bronze vessels were regu- larly employed. poems. which doom souls to ‘ “be born through time

In various shapes of mortal kind which change

Ever and ever paths of troublous life.” Fr. 115.

146-7. The last words left us of the all too few on the trans- migration of the soul. body, “rd rife puxte mepixeluevov odpa” (Plut. Quaest. Conviv.

V 8, 2, p. 683 E [post fr. 80], quoted by Diels, PPF).

. 149. Of air. . 151. Of Aphrodite. . 152. Preserved in Aristotle’s Poetics, 21, quoted by Diels, PPF.

. 153. Gr. Sav8d, a very rare word: “onyalver 8 Kal KorAlay cs map’

*Evredord\e’.” Hesych., quoted by Diels, PPF.

. 183a. Diels (FV) translates the doxographer: “J” sieben mal

sieben Tagen wird der Embryo (seiner Gliederung nach) durchgebildet.”

Fragments of Empedocles

Contents

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