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, Proleg. 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. IIS. With amplest oaths: cf. fr. 30.
Those far spirits: Gr. Sat/ioves; 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. rpU iivplai «5pot, 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 specializzata solo a certi determinati esseri, ma riguarda tutti gli esseri organici 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 S.
Fr. 116. Charis: Aphrodite. In the On Nature (fr. 35) E. refers to the unwillingness also of Hate to submit to the law of ne- cessity.
Fr. 117. Possibly as a punishment for having tasted flesh: "Empe- docle ci fa sapere che il suo spirito era gii pervenuto alia sede dei beati, ma che cedendo alia tentazione accosto impuri cibi agli labbri [cf. fr. 139], e tomo 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,^nd I was a maiden, A bush, a bird, and a fish with scales that gleam in the ocean.' " Harrison, Proleg. to Study of Greek Religion, p. 590.
Fr. 118. This must refer to Empedocles' feelings, as he entered, after banishment from heaven, upon his earthly career (cf. fr. 119). Cf.
"Infans...vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut sequmst cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum."
Lucr., V, 226.
For other parallels see Munro and Guissani, notes to loc. cit.
Fr. 119. Cf. note to fr. 118.
Fr. 121. A joyless land: with fr. 122 and 123 this refers, as I under- stand it, to our mundane world itself.
And Labors burthened with the water-jars: this is a para- phrase of the puzzling ^pya 'pevari, 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 fluxae (Karsten) nee vero foedunt 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.''
Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, I, 169.
90 THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES.
Fr. 122. There: i.e., in the joyless land," the "roofed cave," this earth.
Virgin of the Sun: the moon(?).
The personages that follow are feminine. E. evidently imitates the catalogue of Nymphs in II. S 39: "&«' &p' iijv TXaiKV re, edXetd re KvfioS6Kri re" Kt\, Fr. 125. This refers, perhaps, to the passage from the life, of the blessed to the (relative) death on this earth, where souls are wrapped "in unfamiliar tunics of the flesh" (fr. 126.), and have a hapless existence.
Fr. 126. This refers to metempsychosis.
Fr. 127. The worthiest dwellings: for those who have proceeded in their purification; expanded from the context where the orig- inal passage is found (in Ael. nat. an., XII, 7., quoted by Diels, PPF): "X^et dt Kal 'E. r^v iplarqv elvai lurolKiiaiv ri/v toD ivOpiiirov, et fiiv is (wiov ii Xnfts airbv lurayiyoi, \4ovTa ylvea- 0af el dk is (jniTov, Sd^Kijv.VE. conceived the plants as having souls, a fancy not confined to antiquity.
Fr, 128. A Golden Age seems incompatible with the biology of the On Nature, but cf. Burnet (p. 271), who thinks it to be re- ferred to the time when Hate was just beginning to separate the elements.
•Kydoimos: personification of uproar, as in battle.
Unmixed blood: the figure is from unmixed wine, which, as such, is thick and dark.
Fr. 129. "Similiter mentis infinitam vim (philosophi scilicet non vatis) Parmenides praedicat fr. 2 'XeOaae S' i/uas direSura j>6ut vapeivra Pepaltos ktX. unde apparet cur nonnulli Parmenidem hie respici arbitrati sunt, nee dubimn cur Pythagorae quater redivivi mentio ["a reference to Pythagoras, four times returned to life"] facta sit." Diels, PPF. But Burnet (p. 236), conjec- turing that E. is still speaking of the Golden Age, thinks the "supreme man" is Orpheus.
In ten or twenty human ages: cf. paraphrase of Diels (PPF): "ubi sununa vi mentem intenderat, facile singula quae- THE FRAGMENTS OF EMPEDOCLES. 9I cumque sive decern 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 che ha una cosi perfetta composizione di elementi da .poter comprendere la natura degli Dei; misero chi per la poverti delle proprie risorse, segue le credenze 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. ' Vr. 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 (cf. Harrison, Proleg, to Study of Greek Religion, p. . 628)., ■t: Fr. 142. ''etiam sensus incertus, utrum lovis et Hecates regna (cf. fr. 13s, 2?) opponantur an quattuor elementa, unde exclusus sit scelestus (cf. fr. 115, 9)." Diels, PPF.
Fr. 143. Scooping ■ Gr. raixSvr', 'cutting,' i. e., water for purposes of ceremonial lustration (?), for which bronze vessels were regu- larly employed.
Fr. 144. George Herbert uses the same figure somewhere in his poems.
Fr. 14s. Evil doings: presumably such "sin" as referred to above which doom souls to "be bom through time In various shapes of mortal kind which change Ever and ever paths of troublous life." Fr. 115.
Fr. 146-7. The last words left us of the all too few on the trans- migration of the soul.
Fr. 148. This does not refer to "mother earth," but to the human body, "rb Tf/i \l/vxvt wepiKelufvov aa/ia" (Plut. Quoest. Conviv. V 8, 2, p. 683 E \post fr. 80], quoted by Diels, PPF).
Fr. 149. Of air.
Fr. 151. Of Aphrodite.
Fr. 152. Preserved in Aristotle's Poetics, 21, quoted by Diels, PPF.
Fr. 153. Gr. /Soi//3<J, a very rare word: "arnmlvet Sk koJ KoiKlav is irop' •E/iveSok\€:." Hesych., quoted by Diels, PPF.
Fr. iS3a. Diels (FV) translates the doxographer: "In sieben mal sieben Tagen wird der Embryo (seiner Gliederung nacK) durchgebildet."