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Parmenides and Er

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. S. Morrison
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Extract

The aim of this paper is to explore the suggestion that Parmenides's poem, or at any rate some of it, has light to throw on the difficulties of the myth of Er in the Republic. Parmenides descends to the underworld as a shaman-poet in search of knowledge, Er goes there by the fortuitous circumstance of his death-like trance; but both katabaseis share a common setting, and in both the hero is shown a glimpse of the real shape and mechanism of the universe. In the case of Parmenides the exhibit is two-fold, both ‘the unshakeable heart of rounded truth’ and ‘the opinions of men in which there is no true belief’. Interest has been mainly concentrated on the former, metaphysical, section, from which the greater part of our fragments derive; but the latter contained, in the system of stephanai, an account of the appearance of the universe, which is interesting, both on its own account and in view of the light it throws on the difficulties of Er's myth. I shall consider first (I) the setting of Parmenides's poem as it appears in the opening lines, then (II) propose an interpretation of the system of stephanai, and (III) seek support for some of its main features in the general tradition of cosmological speculation from Homer downwards. Finally (IV), I shall proceed to examine the myth of Er and offer an interpretation of some of its difficulties which will take account of this body of earlier thought.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 75 , November 1955 , pp. 59 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1955

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References

* The draft now presented incorporates many suggestions made at and after the original reading of the paper to the Cambridge Philological Society. I am besides particularly indebted to Mr. H. D. P. Lee for his interest and criticisms.

1 Parm. Diels-Kranz (hereafter DK) B 1. 1–3.

I keep Sextus's reading δαίμονο;. Stein and Wilamowitz read δσίμονες, and this is adopted by DK, but was rejected by Ritter and Preller. Although κοῦραι are later mentioned as guides, they have no place here, since they are described as emerging later from the house of night to meet the poet. With the reading δαίμονες, furthermore, the antecedent of the relative clause that follows becomes ὅδον. Yet the road, on which the poet journeys, leads him in fact in just the opposite direction, not ‘through the cities of men’ but ‘away from the beaten track of men’ to his interview with Dike. We know in fact from Aetius and Simplicius that Parmenides spoke of a daimon, and Aetius says she was called Dike or Ananke.

2 Alcaeus Fr. I (c) Lobel; Empedocles DK B3; Pindar Ol. IX 80–1; Isthm. II 1–3; ib. VIII, 62; Bacch. V. 176.

3 This statement may be the motive for Proclus's attribution of the name Hypsipyle to the daimon (Parmenides 640, 39). Cf. Phaedrus 245 A: and Od. 24, 12:

4 See Gruppe, , Gr. Myth. 458Google Scholar, note 10.

5 215 (beyond glorious Ocean), 274–5, the Gorgons live beyond glorious Ocean at the world's end hard by the house of Night, where are the clear voiced Hesperides.

6 ap. Athen. XI 469 E.

7 ap. Athen. XI 470 A.

8 Od. 10. 508.

9 See Guthrie, , The Greeks and their Gods, 224 ff.Google Scholar

10 DK B 1 ad fin.

11 DK B 1.

12 DK B 94.

13 5, 30: cf. Orphic Hymn 74, 2; Sophocles Fr. 615 P (558 N); Eurip. Fr. 944 N.

14 II 7, 1: DK A37.

15 For the identification in Parmenides of light = fire, darkness = earth, see DK A34 ad fin. Simpl. Phys. 25, 15: (sc. )

16 F; B. It seems reasonable with Kranz to regard B as a correction of the syntactically inexplicable of F: and to regard that reading as a result of telescoping

17 Parmenides pp. 10 ff.

18 I can see no reason for altering to in the fact that Dike, in the prologue, is said to have the keys of the gates of the paths of day and night.

19 Simpl. Phys. 39, 18:

20 Parmenides, DK B 12.

21 Od. 3. 2; Il. 5. 504; 17. 425.

22 Od. 15. 329.

23 Il. 18. 485, cf. Hes. Th. 382; 18. 399; od 20. 65; 10. 508.

24 Theog. 713 ff.

25 Aristotle, Metaphysics, A3.Google Scholar 983 G6, de Caelo B 13 294 a 28. DK A12, A14. See diagram (a) p. 63.

26 Hippolytus Ref. I 6, 3: DK A11, cf. Aet III. 10, 2: DK A25.

27 [Plut.] Strom. 2: DK A10.

28 Theo. Smyrn. p. 198, 18 Hill: DK A26 ad fin.

29 Aetus II, 15, 6; 20, 1; 21, 1; 25, 1; DK A18, 21, 22. Plut. Strom. 2, DK A10. Like wheel tires: Achill. Is. 19 and Aet. II. 20, 1: DK A21. In view of their origin it seems likely that the stars' kukloi formed a hemispherical system.

30 B 1, 354 a 29.

31 Hipp. Ref. I 7: DK A7. Aet. II 16, 6: DK A14.

32 Aet. II 2, 4; DK A12.

33 Aet. II 8, 2: DK A58.

34 Diog. Laert. II 9: DK 59 A1: Aet. II 8, 1: DK 59 A67; Hippol. Ref. I 9, 4: DK 60 A4.

35 Aet. II 13, 10: DK A14.

36 E.Gr.Ph. 3, p. 77.

37 Aet. II 31, 4; DK A50 the cosmos egg-shaped; Aet. II 8, 2: DK A58 the inclination. Such an inclination can only occur to a plane surface. Diog. Laert. VIII, 77: DK A2 Aet. II 11, 2: DK A51: For the double sun see Aet. II 20, 13: DK A56.

38 DK B38

39 See note 14 ad fin.

40 E.G.Ph.3 p. 190 and note 1.

41 IX. 21 VIII 48 (Pythagoras)

42 97 D.

43 DK A54.

44 Frg. 129, 130.

45 61 ff.

46 B13. 293 a18 f.: DK 58 B37.

47 70.

48 B12, A16.

49 See above p. 60.

50 Aet. II 4, 15: Stob. 1, 21, 6d: DK A17.

51 p. 30 Heiberg: DK 28 A44.

52 524 A.

53 108e ff.

54 250 B.

55 See Guthrie, , Orpheus and Greek Religion, p. 173.Google Scholar

56 Od. 10. 509; cf. 11. 22.

57 See Od. 4. 563 ff. for ‘the Elysian plain where is fairheaded Rhadamanthus’; and Od. 11. 539 and 24. 13 for ‘the meadow of asphodel where the dead dwell’.

58 Cf. (e.g.) Xen. Hell. VII, iv, 22, where means ‘over the hill’.

59 Kern. O.F. 165. Procl. in Plat. Tim. I, 28 C.

Zeus addresses Night:

Night replies:

166. Id.ib. 31 C. Proclus, commenting on the analogia, or numerical proportion with which Plato in the Timaeus binds together the two elements of fire and earth in the world's body, observes:

60 Cf., of course, the folk tale in Il. VIII, 18 ff., which may be an attempt to explain the Milky Way.

61 The displacement of the words seems to make this clear.

62 Cf. Empedocles's Philotes, who sits at the centre of the revolution during her period of ascendancy and creates mortal creatures by mixing the elements (DK B35).

63 For refs. see Land S. s.v.

64 IG II2 1649.

65 IG II2 1479 B.