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.
lOI.
KipfJiara OrjpeCcov [leXeav [ivKT-^pcriv ipeuvZv, [^(uoj'^'] oacr direXewre voBwv a.TraX'^t irepl irovqi...Sniffing with nostrils mites from wild beasts' limbs, Left by their feet along the tender grass...102.
58e (ikv ovu irvoLT]^ re XeXo-y^acri irdvra koX 6crju,a)i>. And thus got all things share of breath and smells.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 49 On the PsychicJLife. 103.
Thus all things think their thougm^ will of Chance.
104. Kai Kaff o<rov fikv dpaioTara ^veicvpcre vecrovTa, And in so far the lightest at their fall Do strike together...--^i 105. atfiaro^ iv ir^Kdye.cTa'i redpafifievr) avTidopovro^, T'^i re vorffjua /ictXiora Kikk'qa'KeTcu avOpmnoKriv aifia yap avdpanoi.^ irepi-KoipBiov icrn vorjfia.
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.
For unto men their thrift of reason grows, According to the body's thrift and state.
107.
CK TovTcov [yap] irdvra ireTnjyacriv apfiocrdepTa Kal Tourois ^poviova-i koX rjSovT '^8' dvLcUvTai.
For as of these commingled all things are. Even so through these men think, rejoice, or grieve.
50 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
io8. o(r(rov [S'] dWoioi jieri^w^ t6<tov dp <r^uriv aiei KoX TO ^povelp dWola tTapixTTaraj...As far as mortals change by day, so far By night their thinking changes...109. yaCrjL fiev yap yalav otrdmaficv y uSan 8' vStup, aitfepi o aiaepa olov, arap irvpi irvp aioiyA.oi', (rTopyr/v 8e a-Topyrji, I'etKos 8e re veiKe'C \vypoii.
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. ei ydp Kcp (rtj)' dBtvrjicnv viro iTpawiSe(rtTi.v ipeicra^ evp-eveo)^ Ka&aprjuriv crrowTcvtrTjis fiekerquriv, ravrd ri oroi ju.aXa irdvra 81' al&vo? TrapecrovraL, aXXa re ttoXX' diro t&vB' CKTijo-eai- avra ydp av£« TavT CIS ^Oo^ eKacTTOv, oinji ^utris ia-rlv e/catrTwi. CI oe (TV y aAAouuv eiropegeav, ota kot avopa<s p.vpCa 8ciX.a TT^Xovrai a t dp,pKvvovcri p,epLp.va^, •^ cr' a^ap e»cXeM/»ov(n n€pnr\op,€voLO ^povoLO (T^aiv avT&v irodiovra ^ikiqv em yevvav iKecrOaf irdpTa ydp ladi <]>p6vr)<riv ^eiv koX v(op,aro^ dttrav.
For if reliant on a spirit firm, With inclination and endeavor pure, THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 5 1 Thou wilt behold them, all th«se 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.
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 cowedst them. Thou shalt change Black rain to drought, at seasons good for men, And the long drought of summer shalt thou change To torrents, nourishing the mountain trees. As down they stream from ether. And thou shalt From Hades beckon the might of perished men.
THE PURIFICATIONS.
The Healer and Prophet.
112.
ft) (^tXoi, 01 fiiya darv Kara ^avOov ' AKpdyavros vai£T av aKpa TrdXeos, dyadZv [leXeStJiiove? ipycov, geivav aiSoioi Xifieves KaKOTrjros direipoi,, XatpeT- iyo} S' vpXv deo<i dfi/SpoTo^, ovKeri OvrjTo^ 7rft)XeG/u,ai /Licra ttScti rerifievo^, axrirep Ibt/ca, raiz/tais re 7rep[(rTeirTo<s ar4<^ecri,v re ^aXeiois* TOLcriv ap, [evr'J av iKCDpao e? dcrrca TrjXeddovTa, dvhpd<Tiv rjl^k yvvai^i, tre^i^o/iaf oi S' ajoi' eirovTai p,vpioL i^epeoi/T£^, otttji irpos KepBo<s aTapiro's, OL p,ev p-avToavvioiv Ke)(jfyiqpivoi, ol S' ettI voiiroip iravToioyv iirvdovTo Kkueiv evr)Kea, fid^Lv Brjpov Srj ^aXeTroicri ireTrappivoi [dp^i p,6yoi(riv\.
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 AJiealing word 'gainst many a foul disease That all too long hath pierced with grievous pains.
113- dXXa Ti ToitrS' eTfiKeifi oxnl fieya ^f/r/fia ti Troacra'OiVf ei dvajrav irepueLfii 'iro\vtf>0epeo)v avOpmroav; 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!
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.
- THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 55 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 oflfense. 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 t5iIe'^edient"unto raving Strife.
ii6. OTuyeei SvarXrjrov 'AvdyK7)v.
Charis abhors intolerable Fate.
56 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
117. ■ijBr) yap vor iyot yevofi.'qv Kovpo? re Koptj re dd[ivo<i T oicDi/os re /cat efaXos cXXotto? i}(0vs.
For I was once already boy and girl, Thicket and bird, and mute fish in the waves.
This Earth of Ours. 118. fcXavcra re /cal KtoKvcra ISwp aavvqdea -^wpov.
I wept and wailed, beholding the strange place.
From what large honor and what height of bliss Am I here fallen to move with mortal kind!
This Sky-Roofed World. 120. rj\vdop.e.v ToS' utt' dvrpov virocrTeyov...And then we came unto a roofed cave.
This Vale of Tears. 121.
drepTrda ^wpov^ evda <^6vo? re Kotos re Kal dWcov idvea Krjpav avxp-yjpaC re. voaoi. Kal (rTJ\lii,es ipya re pevard *Attjs dv XeLfiava Kara, o-kotos 'Q\dcrKova-Lv.
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 ^(rav KdoviTj re Kal 'HXiowrj TavaZvi^f ArjpC^ 6' aijuaroEO'cra Kal 'Kpfiovir] defiepamSy KaXXioTc!) t' Attrxpij re, ©ococrd re Arjvair) tc, N'r}p,epr>j^ t ipotcraa fieXdyKovpos t 'Atrd^eia.
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. ^craJ T€ ^difiiirq re, Kal Evvacrj Kal *Eye/0(ris, Kiz^<u T ' AareiMtfyyjs re, ■ir6kvaTi<\>av6<i re Meyiorw Kal ^opvTj, Xamij re Kal '0[i<f>aLy)...Growth and Decay, and Sleep and Roused-fromsleep. Action and Rest, and Glory many-crowned. And Filth, and Silence and prevaihng Voice.
O mortal kind! O ye poor sons of grief! From such contentions and such sighings sprung!
58 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
The Changing Forms.
I2S.
For from the living he the dead did make, Their forms exchanging...126. arapKciv aWoyvZri irepurTeWovo'a '}(t,T(ovi.
All things doth Nature change, enwrapping souls In unfamiliar tunics of the flesh.
127.
y The worthiest dwellings for the SDiila_of men. When 'tis. IhfdxJot-toJive in forms of brutes, Are taway-lions, those great beasts that sleep Couched on the black earth up the mountain side; But, when in forms of beautiful plumed trees They live, the bays are worthiest fo^' souls.
The Golden Age. 128. ou8e Tis "ffv KeipoLcrLV "Aprj^ 6eo^ ouSe KvSotju.os ouSe Zeus ^acriXeus ovSe Kpovo^ ovSe llo<TeiSuvy dXXa Kuirpis )8a(riXcia.
T^v ol y evcre^4e<Ta'Lv dyaXfiacnv IkdcrKovro ypairrois tc ^(oloutl fjivpoi(rC re SaiSaXedSjuois (TfivpvrjS T dKprJTOV dva-Cau's Xu^dvov re dvaSovS) ^ovdav re crirovBas iifkvrav piirTovTCs es oSSas- THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 59 Tavpwv S' a.KpiJTOLa'i (})6vol? ov Seuero )8(uju.d?, dXXa fLViTos TovT €(TKev iv dvOpoTTOLcn fiiyiOTOv, dvfjiov diroppaLcravTas ive8fi€vat, rjia yvZa.
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. I2g. ^v 8e Tis ip KeCpoicriv dvrjp irepiwtna eiSeu;, OS 81) p/rjKLCTTOv irpaTTi^oiv iKrrjcraTO liKcnrrov travToutiv re /ActXtcrTa cro^mv iiriTJpavo? epyav OTTiroTe yap irdcrquTiv ope^cuTO irpairiSeo'a'iv, peT 6 ye tZu ovto)v TravTatv XeucrcrecTKev eKaarov KaC re Seic' dvOpdnrotv Kat t eiKocriv almve<T<riv.
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; 6o 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. ^(rav 8e /crtXa vaivra Kal avOpdmouri irpcxrqvri, Orjpes T olo)voiT€, ^L\o<f)po(rvv7j re SeSi/ei.
All things were tame, and gentle toward men. All beasts and birds, and friendship's flame blew fair.
The Divine. 131. €1 yap iijyqfiepuov ei/eKev nvo<s, afi^pore Movtra, Tj/ierepas jncXeras [fxeXe toi] 8ia <^povTiSos iKdeiv, eixofievioi vvv aSre rrapuTToaro, KaXXtoTreta, dju^l Bewv fiaKoipcav dyadov \6yov ip,(f>aCvovTi.
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 ^ods.
O well with him who hath secured his wealth THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 6l Of thoughts divine, O wretchel! he whose care Is shadowy speculation on the gods!
133- oiiK eoTLV treXacraxrdai. iv o^OaKiLoiaw i^iKTOv iT€i9ov^ avdpamoia-iv ajuafiTos eis <}>p€va TTHrra.
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- ovoe yap dvSpop,er]t. Ke<j)a\rJL Kara yvla Ke/caorcu, ov p,kv airaX vdrroio Svo KXaSoi ditrcowat, ov iroSes, ov doa yovva, pv fiijSea Xa^i/ijewa, dXka ^pTjv lep'^ Kal d6e(r<]>aT0^ eirXeTO p,ovvov, (ftpovTurt Kotrp-ov diravTa KaTataaovaa dorjitriv.
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, Ojig^holy mind, ineffable, alone.
And with swift thoughts darts through the universe.
135- aWa TO pev irdvTOiv vopipov 8ia t' evpvpedopTO^ aldepo^ ■^veKeoD'S Terarai Sici r dtrXeTov auy^s.
But the wide law of all extends throughout Broad-ruling ether and the vast white sky.
62 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Will ye not cease from this great din o£ slaughter? Will ye not see, unthinking as ye are, How ye rend one another unbeknown?
The father lifteth for the stroke of death His own dear son within a changed form. And slits his throat for sacrifice with prayers — A blinded fool! But the poor victims press, Imploring their destroyers. Yet not one But still is deaf to piteous moan and wail. Each slits the throat and in his halls prepares A horrible repast. Thus too the son Seizes the father, children the mother seize. And reave of life and eath their own dear flesh.
Drawing the soul as water with the bronze.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 63 139- ^ oijit' on ov irpocrdev joic SLoikecre vrjXeks ^ff-o-Pt TtpXv (T^erXt' ipya ^opa<i irepl ^eiXetn [jiTjTLcracrdai,.
Ah woe is me! that never a pitiless day Destroyed me long ago, ere yet my lips Did meditate this feeding's monstrous crime!
Withhold your hands from leaves of Phoebus' tree!
141. SaXoi, irdvhaXoi, tcudfioav diro j^ei/aas ex^crOai.
Ye wretched, O ye altogether wretched, Your hands from beans withhold!
Sin.
ITOLVOV ].
Neither roofed halls of segis-holding Zeus Delight it, nor dire Hecate's venging house.
143- Kpr]vd(i)v diro irivre. rafiovr [ei'] drapii ^(aXKcDt...Scooping from fountains five with lasting bronze.
64 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
O fast from evil-doing.
Since wildered by your evil-doings huge, ' Ne'er shall ye free your life from heavy pains.
The Progression of Rebirth. 146.
61$ Se TcXos [idvTa? re koX vfiuoiroXoi koi LTjrpot Kal irpofioi dvOpcmoLO-iv itn^dovioun iriKovTOJi. ev6ev dva^XaaTovtri 6eol TifirjurL ^cpurroi.
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- dOavaroi^ dWoiariv ofiearioi avTorpdire^oi, cvj/tes dvSpeuav dxeuv, diroKhrjpoi, dreipei^.
At hearth and feast companioned with the Jmmortals, From human pains and wasting eld immune.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 65 Last Echoes of a Song Hfilf Lost. 148.
The cloud-collecting, ISO. iroXvatftarov -^Trap.
Evening, the day's old age.
IS3.
The belly.
iSSa. iv eirra €phop.axn,v.
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 (Tr6poi) into which pass the emanations (dirSppoai) from things (cf. fr. 89); whence man's portion — such as it is — of perception and knowledge (cf. the simulacra of Lucr. IV). "Ways" (jroXo/tai) are literally "de- vices"; but the notion of small passages is suggested by (TTeiywiro/; 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, 4SS-6. Than mortal ken may span: more literally, "than mortal skill may have power to move" (ipmpev).
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 (rroXd/tg); 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 modem 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, 427a 21-29) says that E. drew no distinction between voelv or <ppovelv and ala6ivea0ai.
Note by all ways: "ways" here translates v6pos, 'road,' 'pore.'
The Roman critic (Hor., De arte poetica, 134 ff-) warns the poet against a beginning that promises bigger things than the work bears out, and he might have chided Empedocles with the contrary fault; for the reverent attitude, reflected in this fragment, soon gives way to dogmatism and grandiloquence, as the old philosopher's soul thrills to his large thought and the roll of his splendid verse. Later writers on the Unknow- able and the limitations of human knowledge have not always been more consistent.
Fr. s. 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 Sioo-ffijff^nToj (FV), we read Siar/iTieivTos (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 s3Tnbolizes water. Zeller (p. 759) makes Zeus fire. Here air, and Aidoneus (Dis) earth; Burnet (p. 243) and Bodrero (p. 78), following Knatz, make Zeus air. Here earth, and Aidoneus fire. I am not persuaded that any peculiar theory is implied in this mythology, as Bodrero attempts to prove (cf. also Gomperz, p. 245); at the most E. is hinting at the elements as eternal (the "established gods" of fr. 17) and primary — "the four-fold root of all things." Moreover, E. was poet no less than philosopher.
Earlier philosophy had recognized the materials which E. calls the four elements, though it had never made them Grund- stoffe. Cf. also the "flowing" (like water), the "mistiform" THE FRAGMENTS QF EMPEDOCLES. 69 (like air) and the dryniist (like fire) of Heraclitus; and the contrasted warm ajsd cold which*Anaximander conceived as differentiated friJtn the &Treipov. (The five-fold division of Phi- lolaos was probably derived from E.) E. was the first ab- solute pluralist; preceding thinkers, Thales, Pjfthagoras, 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 (amx^ta), 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 it so. Cf. fr. 17.
Fr. 9. In man, etc.: properly, "in the case of man."
/ 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 'ASitva &\olris Lycoph. 935 est sceleris vindex, sic Mors peccatorum ultrix." Diels, PPF.
Fr. 11-12. The doctrine (and in part the words) of Parmenides, afterwards developed with such energy and imagination and observation of the processes of the sensible universe in Book I of the De Natura Rerum.
For there 'twill be, etc.: perhaps a more literal rendering would make the meaning more obvious to some readers: "For every time will it [i. e., any given object] be right there, where any one every time puts it."
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 aifirmation of the immortality of the psychic life (Siebeck, Gesch. d. Psychol, I, 53, 267) I do not believe. Ppanl denotes with E. not only men but all peryO THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
ishable beings, and these are eternal only in so far as their elements are eternal." Zeller, p. 7^ Diels, however, renders (FV) &poro\ "wir Sterbliche"; in- deed, as "men" is evidently the understood subject of Ka\ko\>ai ('call'), it must also be the subject of |8«5<" ('live'), and it is but natural to construe jSpoTo2 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 fV. 11 must apply. "Compacted" and "loosed apart" refer to the mingling and the scattering of the bod/s constituent elements.
Fr. 16. Love 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 tlie Sphere; "the Many," as we see from line 18 (of the Greek text), are the four elements.
Two-fold the birth, two-fold the death of things: a dark saying; I paraphrase a Latin note of Diels, PPF: "The wheel of nature runs a double coujse, 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 ((ripoSos) 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 dvoSos tIktsi t' 6\4Kei re); again, as the elements begin to separate from the Sphere (Sia- (pvo/iivuv), things are born into an orderly arrangement of their elements, until, with the increased tendency toward sepa- ration, everything at last flies apart (SUtttii) and perishes." Cf. fr. 26.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 7I 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 ans^thing Uke 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 bom and destroyed; and a similar thought is implicit in the nebular hypothesis of modern astronomy.
So far have they a birth, etc.: "thejr" 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 m3fthological 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 mindstufl in space. Thus Strife is in equi- poise, i. e., everywhere of the same weight (iriXavrov s'entend de I'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 EMPEDOCLES.
and a grandeur in this identification of a cosmic principle, or material, with a passion, or a faculty, in the life of man. E. makes a similar identification of Hate (cf. fr. log). Schopen- hauer's identification of the dynamic principle of all nature with "will" offers a modem 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"