THE FRAGMEN S
EMPEDOCLES
WILLIAM E. LEONARD. PH D.
.JH.
THE FRAGMENTS OF
EMPEDOCLES
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE
BY
WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD, PH. D.
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON AGENTS
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
1908
.
- E
Empedocles . . .
Whom that three-cornered isle of all the lands
Bore on her coasts which, though for much she seem
The mighty and the wondrous isle,.. . hath ne er
Possessed within her aught of more renown,
Nor aught more holy, wonderful, and dear
Than this true man. Nay, ever so far and pure
The lofty music of his breast divine
Lifts up its voice and tells of glories found
That scarce he seems of human stock create.
Lucretius, I. 716 ff.
COPYRIGHT BY
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.
1908
DEDICATION.
(To W. R. N.)
In my last winter by Atlantic seas,
How often, when the long day s task was through,
I found, in nights of friendliness with you,
The quiet corner of the scholar s ease;
While you explored the Orphic liturgies,
Or old Pythagoras mystic One and Two,
Or heartened me with Plato s larger view,
Or the world-epic of Empedocles:
It cost you little; but such things as these,
When man goes inland, following his star-
When man goes inland where the strangers are
Build him a house of goodly memories :
So take this book in token, and rejoice
That I am richer having heard your voice.
W. E. L.
MADISON. Wis., Dec. 1906.
PREFACE.
THIS translation was made at the suggestion of my
friend, Dr. W. R. Newbold, Professor of Greek Phi
losophy at the University of Pennsylvania, in the hope of
interesting here and there a student of thought or a lover
of poetry. The introduction and notes are intended merely
to illustrate the text: they touch only incidentally on the
doxographical material and give thus by no means a com
plete account of all it is possible to know about Empedocles s
philosophy. My indebtedness to the critics is frequently
attested in the references; but I have in all points tried to
exercise an independent judgment. Most citations from
works not accessible in English are given in translation.
It is a genuine pleasure to acknowledge my special obli
gations to Professor Newbold and to Professor E. B. Mc-
Gilvary of the philosophical department at Wisconsin for
their kindness in reading the manuscript and adding several
valuable suggestions. I am indebted to Dr. J. R. Blackman
of the department of physiology at the University of Wis
consin for medical references.
WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD.
MADISON, Wis., May 14, 1907.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE v
EMPEDOCLES : THE MAN, THE PHILOSOPHER, THE POET.
Life i
Personality 2
Works 3
History of the Text 3
Translations 4
The Ideas of Empedocles 4
The Poetry of Empedocles 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY 13
Ow NATURE.
To his Friend IS
Limitations of Knowledge 15
The Elements 17
Ex Nihilo Nihil 19
The Plenum 19
Our Elements Immortal 20
Love and Hate., the Everlasting 20
The Cosmic Process 20
Love and Hate in the Organic World 23
From the Elements is All We See 24
Similia Similibus 25
An Analogy 26
The Speculative Thinker 27
An Aphorism 27
The Law of the Elements 28
The Sphere 29
Physical Analogies 30
The Conquest of Love 31
Similia Similibus 32
The World as It Now Is 33
Earth and Air not Illimitable 33
viii THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
PACE
Sun and Moon 33
The Darkling Night 35
Wind and Rain 35
Fire 35
The Volcano 35
Air 35
Things Passing Strange 36
Strange Creatures of Olden Times 36
The Process of Human Generation To-day 38
On Animals and Plants 39
Our Eyes 42
Similia Similibu-s 44
The Black River Bottoms 44
Eyes 45
Bones 45
Blood and Flesh 45
The Far 46
The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra 46
Scent 48
On the Psychic Life 49
Dominion 5 1
THE PURIFICATIONS.
The Healer and Prophet 53
Expiation and Metempsychosis 54
This Earth of Ours 5
This Sky-Roofed World 56
This Vale of Tears &
The Changing Forms 5 1 ^
The Golden Age 5 ^
The Sage 59
Those Days 60
The Divine 60
Animal Sacrifice 62
Taboos 63
Sin 63
The Progression of Rebirth 64
Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost 65
NOTES. . 67
EMPEDOCLES: THE MAN, THE PHILOS
OPHER, THE POET.
LIFE.
THE 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 1 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.
1 From Empedocles, indeed, according to Aristotle, the study of
rhetoric got its first impulse. Cf. Diels s Gorgias und Empedocles in
Sitzungsbcrichtc d. K. P. Akademic d. Wissenschaften, 1884.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
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. 2
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 3 and notes. But our best text is unquestion
ably that of Hermann Diels of Berlin, first pub
lished in 1901 in his Poctarnm Philosophorum
Fragmeuta, and subsequently (1906), with a few
slight changes and additions, in his Fraemente dcr
o o o
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
Fragmcntc one in German, Hodrero in his // 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 \Y. C. Law-
ton may be found in \Yarner s Library of the
ll orld s Best Literature. The works of Frere and
of Symonds contain specimen renderings, the form
er s in verse, the kilter 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
8 1 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 same way, new \vorld-periods
arise, and in continual interchange follow one an
other forever, like the secular axms 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 dark 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
ration 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-
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.
Tn 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. 4
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.
4 Some portions of the above paragraphs are translated and con
densed from Zeller. some others from Vorlander, Geschichte der
Philosophic, 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." 8
8 Parmenides, fr. 10, n, 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 1777701 rat />te <j>epovo-Lv, 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-
8 Diels, PV. 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. 1 1
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 aeons 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 w r as 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.
BODRERO in his // Principio fondamentale del sistema di Empedode 1
(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 :
BLAKE WELL. 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.").
FAIRBANKS, The First Philosophers of Greece, New York, 1898.
(Contains translations of the doxographers on Emped ocles.)
GOMPERZ, Greek Thinkers, vol. I., trans, by Laurie Magnus, New
York, 1901. (Beautifully written, inspiring; but somewhat
fanciful. Cited as "Gomperz.")
SY.MONDS, Studies of the Greek Poets, vol. I, chap. VII., London,
1893. (Good critical appreciation, with some prose transla
tions.)
TANNERY, Pour I histoire de la science hellene, Paris, 1887. (Keen
and independent. Cited as "Tannery.")
WINDELBAND, Plistory of Ancient Philosophy, trans, by H. E. Cush-
man, New York, 1899.
This 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.
14 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
ZELLER, Die Philosophie dcr Griechcn, I. Teil, fiinfte Auflage, Leip-
sic, 1892. (Cited as "Zeller.")
And the above mentioned texts of
DIELS, 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,
PPR")
Fragmcnte der Vorsokratiker, zweite Auflage, erster Band,
Berlin, 1906. (Contains German translation. Cited as "Diels,
FV.")
ON NATURE.
To His Friend.
I.
Haver cu> 117, cru Se /cXv$t, Sat ^poz os Ay^trov vie.
Hear thou, Pausanias, son of wise Anchitus!
Limitations of Knowledge.
2.
CTTeivcoiroi fjiev yap TraXdfJLai Kara yvla /ce
TroXXa, Se SeiX ejaTrata, ra T a/
Travpov Se ^w^5 tStou yaepo? d
O)KVfJLOpOl KCLTTVOIO St/CT^V a
avro IJLOVOV Tretcr^eVre? , ora;t Trpoa-eKvptrev eKacrro?
e Xavi d/xevot, TO S oXoz> [TTCI?] ev^erat evpelv
V > ) ^ \ /O> O > > ^
ovr eiTioepKra rao avopacriv ovo e?raKovcrra
V / \ / NO 1 ? N *O> >\ /
ovre z^oa>t TreptX^Trra. crv o ovz^, CTTCI coo eXtac
Trevcreat ou TT\eov rje (Bporeir) ja^rt? opwpev.
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,
1 6 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-
crreydcrcu <^>pevo9 eXXoTro? eicrai.
Shelter these teachings in thine own mute breast.
4
dXXa Oeol TOJI/ yxei/ (JLavfyv a.Trorpe^ia.T. yXa
K S ocrifov o-TOfJLO.Toji> KaOaprjv o^erevorare
/cat ere , TroXv^vrjcrTrj XevKwXei e Trap9ev. Movcra,
aWo/xat, &v dejjLis eVrti^ e^i^/Aeptottrti/ aKoueti/,
7T/i7T Trap Ever 6^8117 5 eXcioucr evtjvLOv ap/Jia.
ere y cuSd^oto ^Str^crerat (Lvdea.
alt
Bdpcrti KOI rore 817 <ro<j>vr)s eV d/cpotcrt
dXX dy ddpei TrdcrrjL TraXdjai^t, TT^I S^Xoi/ e/cacrrot ,
TL oi//t^ e^wi/ Tricrret irXeov ^ Kar
OLKQ-TIV epiSovTTOV vvrep rpavatfjiara
rt rail/ dXXwv, OTrdcr^t vrdpo? ecrrl
TricrTiv epvK y voei 6* 171 SiJXov e/cacrroi>.
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. 1 7
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.
5-
dXXo, /ca/cot? p,v Kapra /le Xei Kparlovcriv amcrTcu/.
a>? Se Trap* Tj/Aerep^s /ce Xerai mcrTa^aTa Moucr^s,
yva)0L $Laa O"r)0VTO<5 evl erTrXay^votcrt Xoyoio.
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.
rccrcrapa yap travrtov /5iw/Aara Trpwrov
Zevs apy^s "Hpy T <epecr/3(,o5 178
# , 17 Sa/c/3voi5 reyyet Kpovvaif^a (3p6reiov.
And first the fourfold root of all things hear !
White gleaming Zeus, life-bringing Here, Dis,
And Nestis whose tears bedew mortality.
1 8 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
7-
The uncreated elements.
Birth and Death.
8.
aXXo oe rot e pe ar ^vcrt? ouSer o? CCTTLV
OvrjTuv, ovSe rt? ovXo/jLevov 6a.va.Toio reXeur??,
aXXa H,QVOV /JLLL<; re StaXXa^ig re piyevTaiv
ecru, Averts 8 eVl rot? o^o/xa^erat a.v9 puTroicnv .
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.
9.
01 o ore fj,ev Kara, c^wra yuiyeVr et<? aWep l
r) /cara 9rjpuv dypoTpa)i> -yeVo? ^ Kara, Od^
-^e /car otw^ai^, Tore /LteV ro [Xe yovcrt] yeve
evre 8 dTroKpLvOvcn, ra 8 au 8ucrSat/>to^a
17 ^e/x,ts [ou] Ka\ovcn. , ^o/xwt 8 eVu^/xi Kal avro?.
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.
10.
Qa.va.Tov , . . aXoirrjv.
Avenging Death.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Ex nihilo nihil.
ii.
VTfJTTLOL- OV yap O~(f)LV SoXt^O^pOVe ? el(Ti
ot ST) yiyvecrOai Trctpo? OVK eov eX7rtovo"ti>
rj TL KaraOvrjKTKeiv re /cat e^oXXvcr^at aTra
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.
etf re yap ovSa/x e ojro? a^ij^avov ecrrt
/cat T eoi^ e^aTToXecrdai avijvvcrTov Kat O.TTVO TOV
atet -ya/3 Tt y ecrrat, 077171 KC rt? atez>
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-
ov8e rt TOV iravTos Keveov ueXet ovSe irepia O ov.
The All hath neither Void nor Overflow.
14.
rov Trai Tos 8 ovSev Keveov trodev ovv TL K eTre
But with the All there is no Void, so whence
Could aught of more come nigh?
2O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Our Elements Immortal.
15-
OVK av avrjp rotaura o-oc^os (frpecrl /lai/revo-airo,
w? o<f)pa IJLCV re /3iwcri, TO 877 fiiorov /caXeovcri,
r6(j)pa fjiev ovv etcriV, /cat cr<ti> Trapa SetXa /cat eV#Xa,
fipoTol /cat [eVet] \vdev, ovSej/ ap tcrt/.
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 he,
And when as mortals we he loosed apart,
We are as nothing.
Love and Hate, the Everlasting.
16.
rji yap /cat Trapo? ecr/cc, /cat ecro-erai, ovSe TTOT , ot<u,
v /cei/eaxrerat ao~7rero9 ata)^.
For even as Love and Hate were strong of yore,
They shall have their hereafter; nor I think
Shall endless Age he emptied of these Twain.
The Cosmic Process.
17-
otTiX epe or rore yu,eV yap ev yv^TJOr) ^QVOV eu ai
IK TiXeo^aj^, rore 8 av Ste^u TrXe o^ e^ eVos eii/at.
8ot^ 8e 6vr}Tuv yeWcrts, 80117 8 a77-oXeti/;ts-
Trjv jaei/ yap TTavrajv o~woSo? rt/cret T oXe /cet re,
17 8e TraXtv $ia(f)vofjii>a)v 0pe(f)0la-a SteTmy.
/cat ravr aXXao"crovra Sta/iTrepeg ovSa/xa XTyyet,
aXXore /otet ^tXdr^rt (rvvep^o^e^ ets eV avra^ra,
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 21
aXXore o av St^ e/cacrra (jtopevfieva Net/ceo?
TJI jLteV ev e /c TT\e6v(i)v fjLefjLadrjKG <vecr#at]
ta<vVro9 0/09 TrXe oi/ eVreXe 0oucrt,
yiyvovrai re /cat ou cr^tcrtv e/A7reSos cu<ui>
oe otaXXacrcrovra StajaTrepe? ovSajua X^yet,
8* atei/ eacnv aKwrjroL Kara /cu/cXo^.
dXX aye ^vda)v K\v0i- fjidOrj yap rot <j)peva<5 av^
ce>? yap /cat 7rptz> eetTra Tri(j)avo Ka)v Treipara fJLv6o)
oiVX cpeoj" Tore /xei yap eV rjv^TJOr) povov eivai
K TT\.OV(i)V, TOTE 8 ttU 8t(^)V TT\4ov ^ C^O5 ell/at
Trv/3 /cat u8r-;p /cat yata /cat ^epo? airXerov vi//o9,
Net/co? T ovXojJLevov 8t^a TW^ , arakavrov aTrdvr
/cat ^tXor^s ez/ rotcrti/, ten? /x^/cds re TrXaro? re-
av j owt Sep/cev, ^178 o/t/xacrtv i^cro re^Trw?-
/cat Ovrjrola-L ^o^t^erat e/x^fro? apOpois,
re <t Xa (frpoveovcri /cat ap0fjiLa cpya reXovcrt,
oo vvriv /caXeo^re? ITT^VV^OV 778*
ov rt? /xera rolcriv eXtcrcro^Ltev^v SeSa^/ce
os dvTJp- crv 8 a/cove Xoyov OToXoj/ ov/c a
ravra yap Tcra TC Travra /cat ijXt/ca ycvvav eacrt,
Tt/x^? 8 aXXr/s aXXo /ae8et, Trapa 8* ^^os e/cacrra>t
eV Se /u,epet /cpareovcrt 7rept7rXo/a,eVoto
/cat Trpo? rot? ovr ap re rt ytVerat ovr
etre yap tfyOelpovro Sta/ATrepe?, ov/cer* ai/ r)<rav
rovro 8 eTrav^ifcrete TO Traz/ rt /ce Kat TroOev \66v;
TTTJI Se /ce KT^aTToXotro, eVet rai^S ovSeV cpTjfioi/;
dXX* avra ecrrti/ ravra, 8t* dXXi^Xwv Se Oeovra.
yiyverai aXXore aXXa /cat ^ve/ceg ateV o/zota.
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 :
For, 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.
18.
<&iXirj.
Love.
19.
Firm-clasping Lovingness.
Love and Hate in the Organic World.
20.
TOVTO fj,ev av pporeuv ^ueXeW a/DtSet/ceroi/ OJKOV
aXXore ^/ OtXor^rt a-vvep^o^ev eis ev diravra
24 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
ra <ra>/u,a XeXoy^, filov
dXXore 8 avre Ka/ojicrt StaT/xi
irXa^erat at/Si^ eKacrra Treplpp^yfJiivL /3ioio.
cus 8 avrco? OdfjLvoicri Kal iyOvcriv v8po/xeXa^pois
Orjpcri,
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.
21.
aXX* dye, rwvS odpuv Trporepuv eTTLp-aprvpa Se p/cev,
Ct Tt Kal V TTpOTCpOLfTi XlTTO^uXoi/ 1T\TO
rje\Lov fjitv Oepp-ov opav KCU \ap.7rpov arrai
apPpora 8 over tSet re Kal dpyeri Several av
6fji/3poi> 8 eV Tracrt Svo</>oei>Tct re piya\eov re-
K 8* 0,1779 irpopeovcn 0\vp.va re Kai crrepeanra.
v 8e Kdrojt $id(jLop<j>a Kal di/8t^a irdvra
a-vv 8* e)3i7 eV <I>tXoTT7Tt Kal aXX^Xotcrt Tro
IK TOVTOJV yap TrdvO ocra T* r/v ocra T rrt Kat carcu,
d T e /8Xdo-n7(r /cat dt/epes i)8e
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
T o(Dvo re Ka
/cat re #eol SoXt^atwves
avra ya/3 eoTiz> raura, Si* dXX^Xwv 8e
yiyverau, aXXotaiTra- TOCTOV 8ta
But come, and to my words foresaid look well,
If their wide witness anywhere forgot
Aught that behooves the elemental forms:
Behold the Sun, the warm, the bright-diffused;
Behold the eternal Stars, forever steeped
In liquid heat and glowing radiance; see
Also the Rain, obscure and cold and dark,
And how from Earth streams forth the Green and
Firm.
And all through Wrath are split to shapes diverse ;
And each through Love draws near and yearns for
each.
For from these elements hath budded all
That was or is or evermore shall be
All trees, and men and women, beasts and birds,
And fishes nourished in deep waters, aye,
The long-lived gods, in honors excellent.
For these are all, and, as they course along
Through one another, they take new faces all,
By varied mingling and enduring change.
Similia Similibus.
22.
(lev yap raura eavratv Travra
re -^da>v re /cat ovpavbs ^8e
ocrcra <J>LV iv dv^rolaiv a
26 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
o)<? aurojg ocra Kpacriv IrrapKea /xaXXo^ Icteric ,
g ecrrepKTcu 6yu,oio>$eW
a \_o a] TrXetcrro^ 0,77 d\\ij\a>i> Ste^ovcrt
y.vvt}i re KpTJcret, re KCU etSecrt^ eK/a,a/crotcrt,
TTO.VTTIL (Tvyyivf.crOa.L drjOea Kal /xaXa \vypd
NetVeo? eWea i^icriz , ort cr^)icrt yevvav 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 best.
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-
a)? o o-rrorav -ypa^e e? oLva.0-rjfjLa.Ta 7TOLKL\\a)cnv
dvepts d/jL(^l 76^77? VTTO [J.-IJTLOS ev SeSacore,
oir eVet ovv fjid pi^aicr i TroXv^poa (jxip/jiaKa yepcriv,
dp/jLovLYii fjiti^avre ra /xei^ vrXew, aXXa 8 e Xacrcra;,
e/c Tail/ etSea TTOLCTIV aXty/cta Tropavvovcn,
SeVSpea re Kri^ovre /cat avepa?
Orfpa.^ 7 oiwvovs re KCU
KCLL re 6eov<; SoXt^ataj^a?
cr aTraTrj (frpeva KaivvTco ahXodev
, ocrcra ye S^Xa yeyaKaariv a<T7rera,
aXXa To/aw? ravr tcr^t, ^eov irdpa pvOov a/
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 2/
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.
24.
. . . Kopv(j>as ere/acts ereprjicri
lLv9a>v /AT) reXeetv drpaTrov JJLLCLV. . .
To join together diverse peaks of thought,
And not complete one road that has no turn.
An Aphorism.
25-
. . . Kai ot? yap, o Set, KaXov ecrrtv i
What must be said, may well be said twice o er.
28 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
The Laiv of the Elements.
26.
eV Se jjiepeL Kpareova-i TreptTrXo/xevoto /cv/cXoto,
/cat <f)0ivei ei<; a\\r)\a /cat au^erat eV
avra yap ecmv ravra, Si dXX^ Xajv 8e
yivovTai avOpajnoi, re /cat dXXaiv tOveai Qr\pu>v
aXXore jaei/ ^1X0717x1 o-vvep^o^ev et? el-a
aXXore 8 av St^ e/cacrra tfropovfjitva Nei/ceo?
^ (rvfJi^vvTa TO TTOLV v-rrevcpOe
171 /zev e^ e/c TrXedi/wt p,ejJid9r)Ke
-)j8e TraXtv Stac^wro? ei^os vrXeW e/creXe^oucrt,
r^t /xei^ ylyvovrai re /cat ou crc^tcrti/ e)x7re8o5
i^t Se ra8 aXXacrcroi^ra Siaju,7repe<? ouSayaa X^yet,
Tavrrji 8 atev eacnv d/ctV^rot /caret /cv/cXo^.
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-
ev# ovr* HeXioio SietSercu <y/ce a yvta
ovSe [j,v ovS aii7<5 \dcriov /xeVos ovoe
TTVKLVWL Kpvcfxoi ecrr^pt/crat
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.
ov crrctcrt? ovSe re S^pis d^cucrijuo? ez>
Nor faction nor fight unseemly in its limbs
28.
dXX* o ye TrdvToOev Icros [eTp] /<ctt TrdfATrav
The Sphere on every side the boundless same,
Exultant in surrounding solitude.
29.
ov yap 0,770 varroio Svo /cXctSot dtcro~ovTat,
ou TroSe?, ou ^oa yowa, ov ja^Sea
dXXa cr(f>alpo<s Y)V KOL
For from its back there swing no branching arms,
It hath no feet nor knees alert, nor form
3O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Of life-producing member, on all sides
A sphere it was, and like unto itself.
30.
avrap eVet /xe ya Net/cos eVt/x^teXeeo o tv et
e? rt/xa? T dvopovcre reXctoyaevoto ^poVoio,
09 <r$iv a /xot/3ato5 TrXare og Trap eX^ Xarat opKov .
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. .
3 .
TrdVra yap e^etr^? TreXe^at^ero yvla Oeolo.
For one by one did quake the limbs of God.
Physical Analogies.
32.
8uo> Seei ap9pov.
The joint binds two.
33.
tu? 8 or OTTO? yaXct XevKov lyo fji^aicrev /cat eS^cre
But as when rennet of the fig-tree juice
Curdles the white milk, and will bind it fast. .
34-
Cementing meal with water . . .
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 3!
The Conquest of Love.
35-
avrap e yo) TraXivopcro? eXevcrojuat e<? iropov
rov Trporepov /careXe^a, \6yov Xdyov e
eVei Net/cog /xe> eWpraTov tAcero
eV Se yae cr^i $1X0x175 crrpoc^aXiyyc ye
e^ r^t Sr) raSe Trdvra crvvep^erai ev [JLOVOV etvat,
OVK: a^>ap, dXXa Oe\r)[JLa crwicrra/Aei aXkoOev aXXa
rw^ Se re /xicryo/AO toZ x 6 *- 7 " tOvta pvpia
TroXXa S a/xet/^r ecrri^Ke Kepaio^evoicnv
ocrcr ert Net/co? epvKe ju-erapcrto^- ov yap a
TOJZ> Traz/ l^eo-rj]Kev eV ecr^ara rep/xara /cu
dXXa ra fteV r eVe/xtp-^e, /xeXewv ra Se r e
oacrov 8 atei^ vTreKrrpoOeoi, rocrov altv eVi^
ati//a Se OV^T* etfrvovro, ra Trpt^ pdOov aOdvar et
^copa re ra Trptv, a/cp^ra [Kpr/rd, ?] StaXXct^a^ra
OJV Se re ^icryo^vo^v X 6 *- 7 " @vea pvpLa
dp^pdra, dav^a. tSe
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.
WV Se crvvepxofJiewv e ecr^arov tcrraro Net/co?.
And as they came together, Hate began
To take his stand far on the outer verge.
Similia similibus.
37-
avei Se -^Oatv JJLZV (T^irepov Se/xa?, aWepa 8
And Earth through Earth her figure magnifies,
And Air through Air.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 33
The World as It Now Is.
38.
. . . et 8 aye rot Xe^w TrpwO T^Xt/ca r apxyv,
eg uv 8f)\ tyivovro ra vvv eVopw/xev avra^ra,
yata re /cat Tro^rog TroXvKVfjLaiv 778 uypo5 d^p
^o aWrjp crfyiyyaiv Trepl KVK\OV
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 Illimitable.
39-
L7rep aTreipova yfjs re ftdOr] /cat 8ai//t\o?
a)<j Sta TroXXw^ 877 yXwcrcr^? prjOevra jaarata)?
e/c/ce^vrat (rrojaarwt , okiyov TOV Travros
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.
40.
17X105 6u/3eXr}5 778 tXctetpa creX^Vfi.
Keen-darting Helios and Selene mild.
41-
aXX o jaez^ aXtcr$ets /xeyav ovpavov cl
But the sun s fires, together gathered, move
Attendant round the mighty space of heaven,
34 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
42.
> / cj \ t j /
o.TrecTTeycicrez oe oc ctt>y<X5j
* > * V /)/ /} 5 /; P. \ /
ear av 1171 Kauvrrepuev^ a77ecr/c^t(pa)cre oe yai^s
TOfTcrov ocrov T evpos yXavKcomoos eVXero ^^^s.
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-
a)? avyr) Tityacra creXrjvaLrjs KVK\OV evpvv . . .
As sunbeam striking on the moon s broad disk.
44-
avTavyel 77/305 OXvfjLTrov a.Tap/3~r)ToicrL 7T/3oo"cu77Ot5.
Toward Olympos back he darts his beams,
With fearless face.
45-
KVK\OTep$ TTepl yaiav eXtcrcrerat aXXdrptov ^015.
Round earth revolves a disk of alien light.
46.
ct/3/iaTO5 o>5 Trept X^ 01 7 ? tXiVcrercu rj re Trap aKprjv .
Even as revolves a chariot s nave, which round
The outmost. . .
47-
aOpel JJLCV yap avaKros ivavriov ayta KVK\OV.
For toward the sacred circle of her lord
She gazes face to face.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 35
48.
VVKTOL Se ycua Tidycrw v^tcrra^evoto (ae<TTi.
But earth makes night for beams of sinking sun.
The Darkling Night.
49.
Of night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes.
Wind and Rain.
50.
1/315 o IK TreXayou? ave^iov (frepei r)
Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain.
Fire.
Si-
Ka/37raXt)u,a>? S dvoiraiov . . .
And fire sprang upward with a rending speed.
The Volcano.
52.
TToXXo, 8 evepOe ovSeo? Trvpa Kaierai.
And many a fire there burns beneath the ground.
Air.
53-
OVT&) yap crvveKvpcre decav Tore, vroXXa/a 8
For sometimes so upon its course it met,
And ofttimes otherwise.
36 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Things Passing Strange.
54-
aWijp [8 av] paKprjicri Kara ^96va Svero yoicug.
In Earth sank Ether with deep-stretching roots.
55.
Earth s sweat, the sea.
56.
aX? iirdyri pLTrrjicriv eoKT/xez/os iJeXtoto.
The salt grew solid, smit by beams of sun.
Strange Creatures of Olden Times.
57-
TroXXat [lev KopcraL
l 8 eVXa ovTO fipa^iovts cwtSe?
r ola eVXavaro Tre^revo^ra
There budded many a head without a neck,
And arms were roaming, shoulderless and bare,
And eyes that wanted foreheads drifted by.
58.
[. . . fJiOvvofjieXr) ert ra yvta . . . OVTOL eVXai^aTO . . . J
In isolation wandered every limb,
Hither and thither seeing union meet.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 37
59-
avrap CTret /caret ^t^ov e/u cryero Saiftovt Sai//,&&gt;,
Tavrd re cjv/u,7ri7rTeo"Koz>, 077171 crvveKvp(rev eKacrra,
aXXa re 7T/50? rots TroXXd 8117 verf e^eyivovro.
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.
eiXiVoS oL
Creatures of countless hands and trailing feet.
61.
TToXXct fjiev djji(f)nrp6crct)7ra KCU dfjufricrTepva <f)veo-0ai,
/Bovyevrj dvSpotrpuipa, ret 8 e/xvraXtv e^avareXXet^
dv$pcxj)vrj fiovKpava, ^e^eiy^iva rrji pev avr dvopwv
rrji Se ywat/co^)U^ , cr/ctepots rjcrKyneva yvtot?.
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.
vvv 8 ay , 07TW9 aVS/awv re TroXu/cXavrwv re
evvv^ovs opTrrjKOLS avTjya ye. Kpivo^evov Trv/3,
ra>^8e /cXv - ov yap pvOos avrocr/coTro? ovS d
ov\o<f)vels fjiev irpwra TVTTOL ^dovo?
uSaro? re /cat tSeos alorav
38 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
irvp av7TiJL7re 6eXov 77/369 ofjiolov i/cecr^cu,
ovre ri 7TU) /LteXeajv epaTov Seyaa? e/x^aiVo^ra?
ovr IvoTrrjv oiov T CTrt^ajptov az/Spacri yvtov.
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-
aXXa SiecTTraoTcu /xeXeaji/ Averts- 17 p,v eV a*>8po? . . .
But separate is the birth of human limbs;
For tis in part in man s. . .
6 4 .
ran 5 eVt KO.I ITo^o? elcrt St OI/H.OS a.fjLfjLijj.vrjio KCDv.
Love-longing comes, reminding him who sees.
6s-
cv IxyOr] Ka0apOL(n- TO, p^v re\i9ovcri
i//v^eo? dvTiaVa.i Ta, [TO, 8 e]u,7raXt^ dppeva
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.
fet?] cr^tcrrov? Xetjuwz/a? . . . A^poStr^?.
Into the cloven meads of Aphrodite.
67.
iv yap OepfJiOTepoii TO/CGI? appevos eVXero yacrrifp
/cat ^aeXaves Sta rouro /cat dz/SpcoSeoTepot aVSpes
/cat
For bellies with the warmer wombs become
Mothers of boys, and therefore men are dark,
More stalwart and more shaggy.
ev oySooVov Se/cdV^t TTVOV eTrXero
On the tenth day, in month the eighth, the blood
Becomes white pus.
69.
Twice bearing.
70.
Sheepskin.
On Animals and Plants.
71.
et oe rt crot Trept rwi Se XtTro^vXo? eTrXero TrtcrTt?,
770)5 vSaros yatr;? re /cat at^epo? -^eXiov re
Kipva^vaiv etSi7 re yevoia.ro ^pota re 0vr)Ta>v
TOCTCT , ocra i/vi^ yeyaacrt crvvap^ocrOivr
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,
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-
7TW5 KCU devdpea aa/cpa KCU
As the tall trees and fish in briny floods.
73-
o>5 Se Tore -^Oova Kuvrpi?, eVet T e S l-r\vtv ev
tSea TTOLTrvvovcra BOWL Trvpl 8ai/ce KpaTvvai . . .
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.
74-
(frv\ov dfMOVCTo^ ayoucra TroXvcnrepeaiV Kaf^acrrjvtav.
Leading the songless shoals of spawning fish.
75-
TWV 8 O(T (7(1) fJieV TTVKvd, TO. S KTO0l ^Oi
KuvrptSo? eV TraXa/x^to-t vrXaS^? rotrJcrSe TV^OVTO, .
Of beasts, inside compact with outsides loose,
Which, in the palms of Aphrodite shaped,
Got this their sponginess.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 4!
76.
TOVTO pep eV /coy^atcrt OaXacrcrovo^v
val {JLTjv KrjpvKwv re \(,6oppiv<DV
V0 oi//ei
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.
77-78.
[Sez/Spea 8 ] e //,7reSo<vXXa /cat e ^vreSo/capTra reOrjX
Kaprrwv d^^o^aytcrt /car rjtpa irdvT eviavrov.
Trees bore perennial fruit, perennial fronds,
Laden with fruit the whole revolving year,
Since fed forever by a fruitful air.
79-
OVTCD 8 ojtoro/cet fjLCLKpd Se^Spea irpwrov eXatas.
Thus first tall olives lay their yellow eggs.
80.
ovveKtv tyfyovoi re criSat /cat V7rep<f)\oia fjLrjXa.
Wherefore pomegranates slow in ripening be,
And apples grow so plentiful in juice.
Si.
owo? o,7To <J)\OLOV TTcXerat cranev iv V\Q)L vSa)p.
Wine is but water fermented in the wood,
And issues from the rind.
42 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
82.
raura rpt^e? /cai c^uXXa /cat oioivoiv Trrepd TTVKVO.
Kal XeTuSes yiyvQvra.1 eVl crTifiapolcn
From the same stuff on sturdy limbs grow hair,
Leaves, scales of fish, and bird s thick-feathered
plumes.
83-
avToip
Stiff hairs, keen-piercing, bristle on the chines
Of hedge-hogs.
Our Eyes.
84.
o? 8 ore TI<> TrpooSov voewv ajTrXtcrcraro
^Lfjiepi,r)i> Sta vv/cra, Trvpo? cre\a<;
cfy/a?, TTavTOLW avi^v Xa/x Trrepa
01 T ave^aiv JJLCV TT^eu/xa Siacr/aSi acriz de
<^>a>5 S eifw Sta^poHcrKov, ocroi Tavacorepot
Xa^iTrecr/cei/ /card ^817X6^ dretpecrt^ d/crtVecreny
019 Se ror eV /x^Vty^iv iepy^vov ZryvyLOV Trvp
\67TTrj LCTLV [r ] oOovriKTi Xo^a ^ero /cv/cXo7ra
[at] ^odvr](.cri Siavra Terpifaro 6ecrircri.r)La-ii>
at 8 vSaro? /xet ySeV^os aTrecrreyoi/ d/
8 eifcu Sttecr/cot , ocroi> Ta^aa/repo^
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 breath 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.
85-
r Se (>\o
The gentle flame of eye did chance to get
Only a little of the earthen part.
86.
J/-TV > V > / O-O > / O> /
e w ofJifJiaT eTrygev aretpea 01 AypooLTr).
From which by Aphrodite, the divine,
The untiring eyes were formed.
87.
yoja<oi5 acrKfjcracra Karacrropyot? A^poStrrj.
Thus Aphrodite wrought with bolts of love.
yyverai
One vision of two eyes is born.
44 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Similia similibus.
" , ort TrdvTtov elcrlv drroppocu, ocrcr eyeVovro
Knowing that all things have their emanations.
90.
015 yXv/cv fji^v yXu/cu /aapTrre, TTLKpov 8 eVt irutpov
opovcrev,
o^v 8 eV o^u e/3i7, Saepov 8 eVo^etro Sa^pait.
Thus Sweet seized Sweet, Bitter on Bitter flew,
Sour sprung for Sour, and upon Hot rode Hot.
91.
olvtoi . . . fJLa\\ov IvdpBiJiiov, avTap e Xcuou
OVK eWXet.
Water to wine more nearly is allied,
But will not mix with oil.
92.
TO>I KOLTTLTeptoi jjieL^Oei Ta TOV ^aX/coi/ . . .
As when one mixes with the copper tin.
93-
/3vcrcraH 8e yXavKrjs KOKKOS Kara/xto-yerai aKTrjs.
With flax is mixed the silvery elder s seed.
The Black River Bottoms.
94.
et niger in /undo fluvii color exstat ab umbra,
atque cavernosis itidem spectatur in 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.
95-
KvTrpiSo? eV TTaXoi^KTiv ore V{JL Trpoir* l<j)vovro,
As, in the palms of Kypris shaped, they first
Began to grow together . . .
Bones.
96.
rj Se -^dcov tTrfypos ev evo-repvoiS ^octvotcrt
TO) Svo T<i)v 6/cro) fiepecav ^ci^e N^crnSo? atyX^s,
recrcrapa 8 H^aicrroto- ra 8 ocrrea Xev/ca yevovro
Kind Earth for her broad-breasted melting-pots,
Of the eight parts got two of Lucid Nestis,
And of Hephsestos four. Thence came white bones,
Divinely joined by glue of Harmony.
97-
The back-bone.
Blood and Flesh.
98.
?) Se XOaiv rovroicriv 10*17 crvveKvpcre jact\to"ra,
T o/x/3pa>t re /cat aWepi
opjatcr^eicra reXetots ev
46 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
ctr 6\iyov uti^atv etre TrXeoi ecrcru eXcu
IK TOJV aljjid re yeVro Kal aXXi?? etSea
And after Earth within the perfect ports
Of Aphrodite anchored lay, she met
Almost in equal parts Hephsestos 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.
99-
KeoSajy. ddpKivo*; oo5.
A bell ... a fleshy twig.
The Rushing Blood and the Clepsydra.
100.
a>0 8 dvaTrvtl TTOLVTO. KOI CKnvel- TTCLCTL
crapKwv crvptyye? nvfjiarov Kara crw/ia
Kai crfyiv eVt orofitots TrvKtvat? rerpr^vrai
ecr^ara repOpa StayaTrepe?, ware <$>6vov pep
, aWepi 8 einropfyv 8to8ot<rt rer/x^cr^at.
ev06v erret^* orrorav i*.ev aTraf^t repev af/xa,
awrjp 7ra(j)Xd^a)v KaratcrcreTai otS/xart /xapywt,
ewe 8 dva0pa>L<TKr)i, ird\iv e /cTri^e et, axTTrep orav Trat?
K\ei/;v8/3T7t Trat^tcrt SieiTrere o? ^a
evre /xet avXoi) nopOfjiov eV euetSet
ets vSaro? ^SaTrr^tcrt repev Se /xa?
ovS er e ? ayyocrS 6fji/3po<; eVe p^erat, dXXa ttii/ elpyei
fa
\
aepo? oy/co? ecrojc/e Trecrw^ evrt
aTrocTTey acr^t TTVKLVOV poov avrdp eVetra
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 47
e XXetVo^ro? etrcp^erat alcn^ov vSaj/3.
* o> * r /p ^C 1 \ v / rt * o \ "
cos o avTcos, of uocop /xez/ e^ryt Kara pevuea ^aA/cov
TropBfJiov xcocr#eVro9 yS/aoreau XP ^ V^t Tropoto,
aWrjp 8 KTos ecra) XeXt^jiteVo? 6p,/3pov epv/cet
a.jj.(j>l TrvXa? tcr^/xoio Sucr^^eog, a/cpa Kparvvaiv,
etcrd/ce X a P^ ju-e^f rare S av TraXtv, efjiirakiv T) irpiv,
015 S avroj? repev at/aa /cXaSacrcro/x-evo^ 8ta
OTTTTore /xet iraXivopcrov aTrat^ete /xv^d^Se,
aWepos v0v$ pevfjia Karep^erat otS/u,art
eure 8 dvaOpuiO Krji) TrdXiv IKTTV.L Icrov oirLcrcra).
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.
101.
/zeXeo)i> p-vKTTJpcriv e
ocrcr a.7re Xei7re TroSwv aTraX^t, Trepl 7701171
Sniffing with nostrils mites from wild beasts limbs,
Left by their feet along the tender grass. . . .
102.
eSSe f^ev ovv Trvoir}s re XeXoy^acrt TTOLVTO. /cat
And thus got all things share of breath and smells.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 49
On the Psychic Life.
103.
/xei> ovv 10x17x1 Tu^Ty? TrecfjpovrjKev
Thus all things think their though by will of Chance.
104.
KCU K.aff ocrov fjLv cipaioxaxa vvKvpcre TrecroVxa.
And in so far the lightest at their fall
Do strike together ....
105.
aijaaxo? iv 7reA.dye<ro"t xe^pajLt/xeVi^ avTiOopovTO*;,
rrji xe z^ory/xa p-dXtcrxa KLK\TJCTKTOLL dj
alua yap dv^pwTroc? 7rept/xpSto^ ecrxt
/ I I II
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.
1 06.
Trpo? Trapeov yap //,>?xi5 de^exat a.v6p<t>TTOL<Tiv.
For unto men their thrift of reason grows,
According to the body s thrift and state.
107.
e/c TOVTCDV [yap] TrdVxa 7rem7yacrii> apjjLOcrOevTa.
KO.I xovxoig <j>povov(rt /cat iJSoiV ^S* dvtwvxat.
For as of these commingled all things are,
Even so through these men think, rejoice, or grieve.
5O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
108.
ocra ov [8 ] aXXotoi /tere^v^, rocrov dp cr<j)LO iv aiet
/cat TO (frpovelv dXXoia rraptcrTaTai . . .
As far as mortals change by day, so far
By night their thinking changes . . .
109.
fiev yap yalav oTrajTrajaev, vSart 8 vScop,
8 aWepa 8to^, drap rrvpl Trvp dtSi^Xov,
8e (TTopyfji, vft/co? Se re veiKei, \vypa)L.
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.
no.
et -yap K.iv cr<> dStv^irrtv VTTO TrpaTri&ecra-Lv e peura?
ravrd re crot ^aXa Trdi/ra 8t ataivo?
ctXXa re TrdXX aTro raJj^S eKTifcreaf avra yap aue
ravr t5 77$os (LKO-CTTOV, 077171 ^ucrt? ICTTIV e/cacrrajt.
ci 8e o~v y dXXotwv eVope ^eat, ota Kar a^Spa?
/zvpta SetXa Tre Xovrat a r d/M/3Xwouo~i
^ o~ a<f>ap e/cXeiv|/ovo~t TreptTrXo/u-eVot
cr<j)cjv auraiv TroOeovra (^>t\f]v evrl yevvav
Trdi/ra yap tcr^t (^pdz/^crtv exeti^ *a! vatpaTos al&av.
For if reliant on a spirit firm,
With inclination and endeavor pure,
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 51
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.
III.
(j>dpfjLaKa 8 ocr<ra yeyacri KaK&v KO.I yifpao? a\Kap
Trevcr^i, eVel JJLOVVCOL crol e ya> Kpavea) raSe Trdvra.
Travcrets 8 d/ca/u,arajv ave^wv fj,evo<; ol r eVt yalav
TTVoia&i Karaivvovcriv apovpas
f)i> eOeXrjLcrBaj TraXivrtra irvevfjiaTa CTra
0T](rL<; 8 l ofjifipoio K\a.ivov Kaipiov av^fjiov
, 0-rjcreLS Se /cat e av^oto Bepeiov
vSped^peTrra, ra r aWepi vairforovrai^
<>> /> i ^ i /i * ^
o eg AtOao /caracpc/tjae^ou /zet o? avopos.
And thou shalt master every drug that e er
Was made defense gainst sickness and old age
For thee alone all this I will fulfil
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 cowcdst 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.
112.
at <j>i\oL) ot /teya acrrv Kara avQov
er av* a/cpa TroXeo?, dyaOvv jueA.eSi ^toz es epycw,
>^ ^ \ v
cuootot A^teife? Ka/cor^ro? aTretpot,
- eya) 8 V/AU> ^05 a/x/3poro9, ov/cert
/xera Tracrt rert/xeVog, wcrTrep eot/ca,
rat-tat? re TreptcrreTrro? crre ^ecrtV re ^
roicriv a/jC [evr J at LKotfJiaL e? acrrea
>^^ < /T5" e o> v > v
^oe yvz/atgt, crept^o/xaf ot o a/x errovrai
e^epeovre?, oTT-^t -Trpo? Ke/oSos a
ot jaev fjLavTocrvvewv Ke^p^^Ltevot, ot 8 eTTt
TvOoVTO K\V.LV evr)K(L {3diV
^ ^aXeTrotcrt TTCTrap/AeVot [clju,^)t
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.
"3-
dXXa rt TourS* eTTi/cei//, eucret jieya ^p rjf^d n
el
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.
a> <i Xot, oTSa fJLtv OVVCK a\7)0eCrj irdpa //<v#oi9,
^ > > t/- / \ s j * \ r "n
ov? eya) e^epeoj- jjia\a o apyaAe^ L^J -ye rerv/crat
KOL Sucr^Xo? CTTI (frpeva TTWTTtos
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.
"5-
ea-Tiv Aixxy/ojg ^p^/xa, 0u>v ijj-rjfacrfjLa 7raXeuoi>,
diStov, TrXareecrfrt KaTer^>/3T7ytcr/u,eVov o/3/cot?-
cure Tt? d/xTrXa/cuyKn <f>6va)L ^>tXa yvta
[Net/cet ^ ] os K ttriopKov djaapr^cra?
otre n-aKpaiaivos XeXa^acrt /3toto,
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 55
upas CXTTO jJLaKopcov
(f>vofjLvov<; TravTola Sid ^povou eiSea
dpyaXeas /3ioroio /xeraXXacro ovTa
aWepiov fjiv ydp crfye /aevos 7rovroi/8e
Trot To? 8 eg ^oz O? ovSag aTreVrvcre , yata 8 e? avya?
T^eXtof (fraedovTos, 6 8 aWepos e/A/3aXe SiVcu?-
aXXog 8 e^- aXXou Several, crrvyeovcrc Se Tra
/cat eya>
Net/cet xat^oaeVwt TTICTWO?.
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 one obedient unto raving Strife.
116.
OTvyeet SvcrrXi^TO^ AvdyKyv.
Charis abhors intolerable Fate.
56 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMJEDOCLES.
117.
*
yap TTOT eya> yef/ATji/ Koups re KO/DT} re
s re /cat e^aXos eXXoTros t
For I was once already boy and girl,
Thicket and bird, and mute fish in the waves.
This Earth of Ours.
118.
K\avcrd re KCU KUKVCTCL tSan/ ao-vvrfOea ywpov.
I wept and wailed, beholding the strange place.
re KOI ocro-ov JLTKCOS 6\3ov
1 19.
e 01775 n/
w8e [Trecrwv Kara yatav] dvacrrpe ^o/jLat, /xera 9vr]To1s.
From what large honor and what height of bliss
Am I here fallen to move with mortal kind!
This Sky-Roofed World.
1 20.
r)\v0ofj,ev roS v-n avrpov vTrdcrreyov . . .
And then we came unto a roofed cave.
This I ale of Tears.
121.
arepnea ywpov,
evBa 3>6vo<; re KOTO? re KCU aXXcov eOvea Krjpvv
T I/ o <TOt Ka " ) ? x / /te? epya re pevcrra
av Xa/jiaW Kara CTKOTO? 7)Xao-/covo-ti/.
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.
evO* rjaav "KOovivi re /cat HXtoTn?
A?5pt9 & aijaardecrora /cat Apjjiovi
KaXXtcrrw r Alcr^prf re, Oowcra re AT^^ai^ re,
rjs T epotcrcra /teXay/coupog r Acra<eta.
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.
123.
<&u(ra> re QQipevri re, /cat Ev^any /cat ^Eyepcrt?,
Kti w r AcrrejLt^)^? re, 7roXvo"re / (ai>o5 re Meytorw
/cat <&ovr ^CJTTT re /cat
Growth and Decay, and Sleep and Roused-from-
sleep,
Action and Rest, and Glory many-crowned,
And Filth, and Silence and prevailing Voice.
124.
o> TroTrot, o> SeiXoz/ 6vr}Twv yeVo?, o>
Toio)v e/c r epiScjv e/c re o~Tova^a>v
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-
> \ \ <f ~ i //) v v > n
e/c jaez/ yap 4 WWI/ ertfet veKpa etde a/xeipajv.
For from the living he the dead did make,
Their forms exchanging . . .
126.
(TapKutv aXXoy^cort Trepicrre XXoucra, yiruvL.
All things doth Nature change, enwrapping souls
In unfamiliar tunics of the flesh.
127.
v Oijpecro L Xe ovre? opetXe^ee?
yiyvovrai, Scu^ai 8 eVt SeVSpecrt^
The worthiest dwellings for the souls of men,
When tis their lot to live in forms of brutes,
Are tawny lions, those great beasts that sleep
Couched on the black earth up the mountain side;
TUit, when in forms of beautiful plumed trees
They live, the bays are worthiest for souls.
The Golden Age.
128.
ovSe Zeu<j /So.o iXevs ovSe Kpoi/o? ov8e
dXXa Kv7rpt9 /SacrtXeta.
ot y* evcre^e ecrcrtv dyaXyLtacrt^ iXacr/covro
re ^ojtot(Tt [JLVpOLCTL T SatSaXedo/xot?
T OLKpTJTOV 6v(TLCLL<; XlftoiVOV T6
re (TTroi/Sa? eXiTaiv lTrrovres e? o38a?
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 59
Tavpo)v S aKp-qTOKTi (f)6vois ov Severe /8eo/u,og,
ctXXd jLvcros TOUT ecrKev eV av#w7roicri
a7roppaL<TavTa<; eve&pevai ije a yuta.
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.
129.
fy Se rt? eV Keivoicriv avyp Treptwcrta etSw?,
65 ST) fjLTJKio-Tov 7rpa,7uSwz> eVnfcraTO TT\OVTOV
re /AaXtfrra CTCK^WV eTrnjpavos epyw
yap irdo"r]icriv ope^curo 7rpa,7TtSe<Tcriv,
pel o ye rwv ovrwv Trdvrwv Xevcrcrecr/cet e
/cat re SeV avOMTrcav /cat r
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.
ycrav 8e /m Xa TrdWa /cat dvOpatTroicri irp ocrrjvrj,
T otajz/ot re xXoocrvvr re
All things were tame, and gentle toward men,
All beasts and birds, and friendship s flame blew
fair.
The Divine.
131-
ei yap (j)rjfj.epLO)v eW/ceV rtvog, a^i/3pore Movcra,
r)p,Tepa<; /LteXeVa? [fj.e\ rot] Sta (^povn So? eX^etv,
vvv avre TraptVracro, KaXXtoTreta,
jaa/capaji/ ayaOov \6yov [JL(f)aLvovTL.
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.
132.
0X^8109, 6? OeLcov TrpaTTL^cov eKTijcraro 7rXovroi>,
OeiXo? S , <Si cTKoroecrcra dewv Trept, 8oa fj,fj, f)\v.
O well with him who hath secured his wealth
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 6l
Of thoughts divine, O wretched he whose care
Is shadowy speculation on the gods!
133-
OVK CCTTIV 7reXdcra,o-#ai ev 6(j>0a
f) X P a ^ L ^/^cu , rjnrep re
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-
ouSe yap di/Spo/ie-^i Ke(j>a\rjL Kara ywa Ke /cacrrat,
ov fjLev airal varroio Suo /cXaSot dtcrcrovrat,
ov TroSe?, ov 6oa yovva, ov /xi^Sea
a <f>pr)v iepr) /cat d^ecr^aros e-TrXero
L Kocrpov anavTa Kara^crcrovcra dorjicnv.
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 holy mind, ineffable, alone,
And with swift thoughts darts through the universe.
135-
aXXa TO [lev TrdvTfDv VQ^LI[LQV Sid r* evpv/x
aWepos T^e/ce cos rerarat Sid T aTrXerou avyfjs
But the wide law of all extends throughout
Broad-ruling ether and the vast white sky.
62 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Animal Sacrifice.
136.
ov Travo co Oe (frovoLO 8vo"T7^e o9; OVK ecropare
SaTTTO^res d/c^Sei^tcrt vooio;
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-
fjLOpfjyrjf 8* aXXa^avTa, Trar^p (^i\ov vlov
cr^>aet eVeu^o/xez^o? /xe ya i^^Vto?- ot S
Xtcrcroyae^ot ^uo^ra<?, 6 8 au vrfKovcrTo*;
<r^>aa<? cV ^ydpoicri KUKRIS a.\eyvvaro Satra.
OJ9 8 aura5 Trare p vto<?
a.TTOppa.i(TavTe
The father liftcth for the stroke of death
His own dear son within a changed form,
And slits his throat for sacrifice with prayers
A blinded fool! Hut the poor victims press,
Imploring their destroyers. Yet not one
Hut 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.
138.
~^a\K(jJL 0,770 \I)V^TIV apvcras
Drawing the soul as water with the bronze.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 63
139-
on ov 7rpo<T0ev /ae StwXecre t^Xee?
lv cr^erXt epya /3opa? TTC/H ^etXecrt
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.
140.
airo
Withhold your hands from leaves of Phoebus tree !
141.
oetXot, Traz/SetXot, KvdfjLcov ano ^
Ye wretched, O ye altogether wretched,
Your hands from beans withhold!
Sin.
142.
TOV o ovr ap re Aios reyeot So/xot atyto^oto
av ovSe [atv^ E]K[aT]i7? reyos
Neither roofed halls of aegis-holding Zeus
Delight it, nor dire Hecate s venging house.
143-
> * / / > i- > ~i > \
Kpyvaav 0,770 Trej/re ra/AOvr \_tvj aretpet vaX/ccut . . .
Scooping from fountains five with lasting bronze.
64 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
144.
j/^orevcrat KOXOTTJTOS.
O fast from evil-doing.
145-
roiydproi xaXeTr^ioni dXvovres KaKorrja-iv
OVTTOTC oetXatwv d^la^v \a)<f>TJcrTe dvpov.
Since wildered by your evil-doings huge,
Ne er shall ye free your life from heavy pains.
The Progression of Rebirth.
146.
ts Se re Xo? /xdVret9 re /cat v/xi/oTroXoi Kat 1177/301
/cat Trpo/Ltot a.v6p(i)Troia Lv eVt^^o^totcrt Tre Xoirat.
evuev avafiXaarovcri 6to\ rt/x^tcrt
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.
147.
a#aj>dYots aXXotortv o/zeortoi avTorpdVe^oi,
ewie? avSpeicw d^ecov, aTro/cX^pot, dretpet?.
At hearth and feast companioned with the immor
tals,
From human pains and wasting eld immune.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 65
Last Echoes of a Song Half Lost.
148.
ova.
Man-enfolding Earth.
149.
The cloud-collecting.
150.
The blood-full liver.
151-
Life-giving.
152.
Evening, the day s old age.
153-
fiav/3(t>.
The belly.
1533.
ev 7rra e
In seven times seven days.
NOTES.
ON NATURE.
Fr. I. 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 (Tropoi) into which pass the
emanations (diroppoai) from things (cf. fr. 89) ; whence man s
portion such as it is of perception and knowledge (cf. the
simulacra of Lucr. IV). "Ways" (ira\a/j.a.i) are literally "de
vices"; but the notion of small passages is suggested by
ffreivuiroi ; 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 dissolui quoque convenit omnem animai
naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aeris auras."
Lucr., Ill, 455-6.
Than mortal ken may span: more literally, "than mortal
skill may have power to move"
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
(VaXd^Tj) ; 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 ;
68 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., Ill, 3, 4273.
21-29) says that E. drew no distinction between voelv or <ppoveiv
and alcrOdveffOai.
Note by all ways : "ways" here translates iropos, road, pore.
The Roman critic (Hor., DC arte poetlca, 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.
Fr. 5. 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 StaffffTjOevros
(FV), we read 8ia.Tfj.rj6ei>Tos (PPF), the translation might run:
"Deep in thine inward parts dividing thought,"
a very different, and to me less effective figure.
Fr. 6. 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-
stoffc. Cf. also the "flowing" (like water), the "mistiform"
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 69
(like air) and the dry mist (like fire) of Heraclitus; and the
contrasted warm and cold which Anaximander conceived as
differentiated from the &Treipoi>. (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).
Fr. 7. Elements (oroi^eta), supplied here and elsewhere, is nowhere
preserved to us by E., and was apparently first used in philos
ophy by Plato. Cf. Zeller, p. 759.
Fr. 8. End in ruinous death: this is not here enlarged upon as is
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 i f . so. Cf. fr. 17.
Fr. 9. In msn, etc. : properly, "in the case of man."
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."
Fr. 10. Avenging Death : evidently used in a connection similar to
"doom of death" in fr. 9 (cf. Plut. quoted by Diels, PPF).
"ut A6-rjva d\oiris Lycoph. 935 est sceleris vindex, sic Mors
peccatorum ultrix." Diels, PPF.
Fr. H-I2. 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 tucill lie, 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."
Fr. 13-14. E. held with Parmenides that the world is a Plenum, in
capable either of excess or of deficiency.
Fr. 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. Pporol denotes with E. not only men but all per-
7O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
ishable beings, and these are eternal only in so far as their
elements are eternal." Zeller, p. 756.
Dicls, however, renders (FV) Pporol "wir Sterbliche"; in
deed, as "men" is evidently the understood subject of KaXeovet
( call ), it must also be the subject of /Stwfft ( live ), and it is
but natural to construe fipoTol 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. ir must apply.
"Compacted" and "loosed apart" refer to the mingling and
the scattering of the body s constituent elements.
Fr. 16. Lore and Hate : under varying names, "Lovingness"
and "Strife," "Aphrodite" and "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 Ahriman 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 tilings: 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 (ffvvoSos) 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 ffvvoSos ri /cret r <5Xe /cei re) ;
again, as the elements begin to separate from the Sphere (Sia-
<f>vonti>uv) , things are born into an orderly arrangement of
their elements, until, with the increased tendency toward sepa
ration, everything at last flies apart (Sieirrij) and perishes."
Cf. fr. 26.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 7!
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 (i) 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 interchange 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 (aTaXavrov s entend
de 1 equilibre 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
72 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMFEDOCLES.
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.
762. But what he means by affirming that
"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 <J>i\li) and 4>i\6ri)s into English by different words. There
is evidently no vital difference of meaning in the Greek as
used by E. Cf. Pint., quoted by Diels, PPF.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 73
Fr. 19. With reference here to water.
Fr. 20. Line i 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 uses alffjp ( sky ) and once ovpavos ( 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 0&vpva, 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 fr.
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 (0eoO), 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 fair order: Gr. eh eva riff/iov; 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 virevepOe yevrjTai, a
phrase found in Theognis (1. 843) :
" AXX bworav KaOvirepdev ewi> virevepOe yevrjTai
TOVTOLKIS OLKad i,uet> Travffd/j.ei Oi iroffios "
where the event is, however, hardly of the same cosmic im
portance.
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. HVKIVOS ( close-
fitted, compact ) were itself perfectly appropriate; but Kpvcj>os,
as a noun (meaning, as it seems 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 Kpifas applied to the Sphere rather than to the
recess. Prof. Newbold in a letter suggests Kpvu for Kpixpu, i. 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
76 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
f r. 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 arc 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. "
Fr. 29. Cf. fr. 134, where expressions, in part identical, are used
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.
Fr. 30. Yet after mighty Strife: it will be remembered that Strife
breaks up and separates the elements in the Sphere.
Amplest oath : Gr. TrXare os 6p/cou, lit. broad oath. Cf. fr. 115.
Fr. 31. God: the Sphere. "This mixture of all materials is divine
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.
Fr. 32. "quod e coniecttira scrips! artus hingit bina eleganter ex-
pressit Martianus Rota sive ingenio sive meliore libro fretus :
articulis constat semper iunctura duobus." Diels, PPF.
Fr. 33. Dicls (PPF) cites Homer, E,QO2, and says "e Plut. patet
Concordiae processum illustrari" it illustrates the process of
Love.
Fr. 34. i. e., like a baker, according to Karsten and Burnet.
Fr. 35. When down the Vortex : the origin of the vortex is not ex
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. 77
sequence of its very mobility it works 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 "x^Ma" of Hesiod and
the "rudes indigestaque moles" of Ovid; it was, however, an
accepted tenet of the older schools (cf. The Siv-rj in Anaximenes
and Anaximander, W. A. Heidel, Class. Philology, I, 3., July
1906).
The ec dying 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. Cf. 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.
7 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Fr. 37. "cetera elementa duo commemorata fuisse veri simile (cf.
Lucr. 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 atOeiv, light up,
blaze ) a sense, indeed, appropriate to the appellative "Titan."
Rut 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" (vypbs drip)
has been already mentioned: but with Zeller we may interpret
it as the lower, thicker, misty air (so a-yp in Homer), as op
posed to the upper air, the pure ether, "without, however,
assuming any elemental difference," p. 786. "Moist air" is
rendered "feuchten Luftkreis" by Diels (FV), and "damp
mist" by Rurnet. T may add that Rurnet is evidently wrong
in affirming that drjp never refers to air in E. : it is used inter
changeably with aiGr/p ( air ) in fr. 100 (q. v.) Cf. Stickney,
notes to Cicero s DC Xat. Dconun, T, 44.
"With Ether, the Titan who binds the globe about :"
cf.
"Rread, 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 gruffncss reminding of
Ileraclitus, 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 fi. e., the bright hemisphere] and reflected upon the crys
tal vault of heaven." Tannery, p. 317. Rut cf. Rurnet, p. 254, and
Zellcr, 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 scientific explanation of solar
eclipses.
The silver-eyed: y^avKuinSos wvw, for the much discussed
yXavKuiris 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, "Seivu
5e oi oaae (paavOev ." Cf. Schol. on Apoll. Rhod. I. 1280 (quoted
by Merrill and Riddell, Odys. A, 44) : "diayXatiffffovffut dvrl rov
(pwrl^ovai rf diaXdfjLTrovaij 66et> /cat }] AOrfva. y\a.vKuiris } /cat y\rii>7] TJ
Kop-rj rov 6<p6oL\fj.ov > irapa rt> y\av<Tffeiv 6 ecrri \d/j.Treii>. /cat ~Evpnri-
dys eirl rijs creATjj Tjs expijiraTO 7\ai>/Cw7rt s re arpefperai /JL-TIVIJ." But
it is doubtful if E., who speaks of "Selene mild," intended
here anything stronger than "with eye of silvery sheen."
y\avKos is used of the willow, the olive, and E. himself uses
it (fr. 93) of the elder. Diels "blauaugigen" 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. StTrXdo-ioj aTrexetj/ (ri>v
ijXtoi ) diro rijs yijs rfirep TTJV ffeX^vijv." 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. Pier 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).
8O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
FT. 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. 33ob 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. Sec 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. 57-6r. 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. 261.
Cod with god : Gr. Salmon balnuv, \. 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. 8l
miliar with centaurs, satyrs, chimasras, 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. 57-61.
The sundered fire : Gr. Kpiv&nevov irvp, lit. self-sundering*
the fire which "burns beneath the ground" and has the
"upward 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."
Lucr., 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.
82 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Fr. 66. Cloven meads: surely the labia majora.
Fr. 68. While pus: Gr. TO TriW, not 6 7""os ( colostrum ), if my
available lexical information be correct, though the latter is
probably meant (Burnet). The comparison seems to he
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. Tii ice-bearing : i. e., bearing offspring in the seventh and
tenth month.
Fr. 70. Sheepskin : used of the membrane conceived as covering
the "embryo" (fa tus?). E. could only have been familiar
with the membranes which follow the birth of the young.
Fr. 71. Sun : this is of course here a symbol for the element fire.
Fr. 73. Kypris: Aphrodite, Love.
To speed of fire that she might groiv firm: fire has a con
densing property. Cf. fr. 56.
Fr. 74. The subject may be Aphrodite.
Fr. 75-76. Here the hones, 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. 4843 38) says that E. explained
fingernails as produced from sinew by hardening.
Fr. 77-78. Trees were supposed by E. to derive their nourishment
through their pores from the air, more or less vitalizing ac
cording to the mixture again a suggestion of modern science.
Fr. 79. In thus assimilating the seeds of the olive tree to the eggs
laid by birds, E. was probably guided by similarity no less of
function than of form.
Fr. 80. Wherefore: Can any one tell me? Prof. McGilvary happily
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" (e^) 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 Samcn-
mischung bei der Erscugung von Mauleseln bringt, da swei
iveiche Stoffe zusammenkommen, cine harte Verbindung zu-
standc. Demi nur Hohles and Dichtes passt zu einandcr.
Dort aber geht es, wie wenn man Zinn und Kupfer mischt."
84 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Fr. 93. Silvery : See note to fr. 42.
Fr. 94. Preserved only in Latin (Plut. Quaest. not., 39). Diels
(PPF) has thus turned it into Greek:
"/cai Tre Xet ei> fievOti TTOTO./JLOV /ue Xav e/c ffKioevros
Kal cnrri\atu5ea(Tiv 6/uuis fvoparai fi> avrpois.
Fr. 95. They: i. e., the eyes. The thought is thus completed by Diels
(FV), following Simplicius: "crgab sich auch dcr Unterschicd,
dass cinige bei Tag, anderc bci Nacht heller schcn."
Fr. 96. Thus hones 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 dahcr, dass sie bei dcr Entstchung dcr Tiere durch
cine zufalligc IVcndung zcrbrach."
Fr. 98. She met: Gr. ffwlKvpye, a word, among others, which sug
gests in Empeclocles system, an implicit doctrine of chance.
Cf. fr. 102, 103. Cf. Bodrero, p. 107 ff.
Ether, the all-splcndorous : an illustration of how E. will
sometimes emphasize a term, used symbolically to denote an
clement 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.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 8^
j
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. 2.30) 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."
Theviater s destined Inilk : i. e., a cor
responding mass of water.
Fr. 101. All that is left of E. s theory of scent. The mites are the
emanations.
Fr. 102. Got: lit., "chanced on" (\e\6yxo-ffi). Cf. note on fr. 98.
Fr. 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).
Fr. 104. The lightest : supply "bodies."
Fr. 105. In the blood streams: cf. note to fr. 100.
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 (fj-aXiffra) 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."
Lucr., Ill, 445-6.
"Empedoclcs hat nicht die Seele aus den Elementen zusam-
mengesetzt, sondern er hat das, was \vir Seelenthatigkeit nen-
ncn, aus der elementarischen Zusammensetzung des Korpers
erkliirt. cine vom Korpcr verscliiedene Seele kehnt 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. 8o_>.
Fr. 107. These : the elements. Cf. note on fr. 106.
Fr. 1 08. "Ry 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. PlotiriUS : Oi5 yo-p ai> TTUTTOTC tlSev 6ff>0a\fj.bs ri\iov r)\ioe<.5i]s fiy
T^yei/Tj/xeVos. Cf. also Goethe :
"War" nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,
Die Sonne konnt es nie erblicken ;
Lag nicht in tins des Gottes eig ne Kraft,
Wie konnt tins Gottliches entzucken?"
Man is the microcosm.
Fr. no. 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. in. Drugs: Gr. (pap/j.ana ; 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 Pausanias, 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. KarafiOi/jievov jteVoj dvSpos,
"Spirits of the dead" seems hardly permissible with /tteVos
(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 Parmenides poem, a commonplace in the history of
Greek thought; and, though attempts at a reconciliation 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 blessed, shalt thou be a god and no longer
a mortal."
Cf. Harrison, Prolog, to Study of Greek Religion, p. 589.
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. Salftoves; 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. .. .years: Gr. rpiy pvplai wpat, 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 e spccializzata solo a
certi determinati esseri, ma riguarda tutti gli esseri organic!
e 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. Charts: 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 alia sede
dei beati, ma che cedendo alia tentazione accosto impuri cibi
agli labbri fcf. fr. 139], e torno 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. 59x1.
Fr. 118. This must refer to Empcdocles feelings, as he entered,
after banishment from heaven, upon his earthly career (cf. fr
119). Cf.
In fans. . . .
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequmst
cui tantum in vita restet traneire malorum."
Lucr.. V. 226.
For other parallels see Munro and Guissani, notes to loc. cit.
Fr. 119. Cf. note to fr. 118.
Fr. T2i. A joyless land: with fr. 122 and 123 this refers, as 1 under
stand it, to our mundane world itself.
And Labors burthened with the water-jars: this is a para
phrase of the puzzling fyya pei crrd, 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) : "nee sunt humanae res nuxac (Karsten)
nee 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.
Cf.
"Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains."
Shelle>, Prometheus Unbound. I, 169.
()O THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Fr. 122. There: i.e., in the joyless land," the "roofed cave," thi-
earth.
Virgin of the Sun: the moon(?).
The personages that follow are feminine. P.. evidently
imitates the catalogue of Xymphs in 11. - 39:
" Hv6 dp irjv rXai \7j re. OdXeid Tf Ki /xooo/cij re". . . ./vT\.
Fr. 125. Thi- refer-, perhaps, to the passage from the life of the
hlcssc-d to the (relative) death on this earth, where -ouls are
wrapped
"in unfamiliar tunic- of the tle-h" ( f r. 126.),
and have a hap!e>- e\i-tcncc.
Fr. 120. This refer.- to metempsychosis.
Fr. 127. The tsortliiest dwellings: for those who have proceeded in
their purification ; expanded from the context where the orig
inal pa--ai;e is found (in Ael. nut. an., XII, /.. ([noted by Diels.
I I F) : "\tyti df Kai R. rr)i> dpi<JTr)V flvat ^troiKijaiv TT]V rot
u f)puTroi\ el fj.ii/ es fcDtoj 17 X^i^ij avrbv fj.eTayu.~yoi, Xe oi ra yivtff-
Hai el 8t ts <!>\-rov, 5a0i 7jr." }-.. conceived the plants ;us having
-onls, a fancy not confined to antiquity.
Fr. 128. A Golden Age aeem^ incompatible with the biology of the
On A alitie, hut cf. linrnet (p. 2/1), who thinks it to be re
ferred to the time when Hate was just beginning to separate
the elements.
Kydoii>n>s : personification of uproar, as in battle.
Unini.red bhod : the figure is from unmixed wine, which,
as -uch, i- thick and dark.
Fr. 129. "Similitcr mentis infinitam vim (philosophi scilicet non vat is )
Parmenides ]iraedicat fr. 2 Xercrcre 5 6/j.ws a-n-fovra. voui Trapeovra
fiffiaius KT\. unde apparet cur nonmilli Parmenidem hie re-pici
arl)itrati .sum. nee duhium cur Pythagorae qnater rcdivivi
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-
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 9 1
cumque sive decem sive viginti hominum saeculis fiebant per-
spicere solebat."
Fr. 132. Bodrero in his attempt to interpret harmoniously all the
thoughts of Empedocles explains this passage with reference
to what has gone before in the On Nature as follows : "Felice
colui die ha una cosi perfetta composizione di elementi da
poter comprendere la natura. degli Dei: misero chi per la
poverta delle proprie risorse, segue le credence superstiziose
e comuni" (p. 159).
Fr. 134. Cf. fr. 29 and note. Burnet thinks that E. is here too
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).
Fr. 135. Broad-ruling Ether, etc. : "den weithin herrschenden Feuer-
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.
Fr. 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.
Fr. 139. Cf. note on fr. 117.
Fr. 140. For the probable reason of this injunction cf. fr. 127.
Fr. 141. A familiar Pythagorean commandment, on the meaning of
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
92 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
of life Ccf. Harrison. Prole?., to Study of Greek Religion, p
628).
Fr. 142. "etiam sensus incertus. utrum Tovis et Hecate* regna (cf.
fr. 135. 2?) opponantur an quattuor elementa. unde exclusus
sit scelestus (cf. fr. 115. g)." Dicls. PPF.
Fr. 143. Scooping : Gr. rap.ovr\ cutting. i. e.. water for purposes of
ceremonial lustration (?). for which bronze vessels were regu
larly employed.
Fr. 144. George Herbert use* the same figure somewhere in his
poems.
Fr. 145. /:// doings : presumably such "sin" as referred to above
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
Fr. i \fi-~. The la.^t word- left us of the : .ll too few on the trans
migration of the soul.
Fr. 148. Thi- does not refer to "mother earth." hut to the human
body, "ro rji i/ i W TrepiHttufvoi- ffw^a" (Plut. Onti.-st. Conviv.
V 8. 2. p. 683 E [fast fr. Sol. quoted by Dicls. PPF)
[>. i.\(). Of air.
Fr. 157. Of Aphrodite.
Fr. 152. Preserved in Aristotle s Poetics. 21. quoted by DieK PPF
Fr. 153. dr. fiarfiu, a very rare word : "ffijualvci 8t /ecu KocXlnc w* Trap
Efnr f 5oK\ei" Hesych.. quoted by Diels. PPF.
Fr. I53a. Dicls (FV) translates the doxographer : "/;/ sieben mal
sieben Tagen uird dcr Embryo (seiner Gliedcrung nach}
durchgebildet."
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