eight parts of bright Nestis, and four of Hephaistos, and they became
white bones, fitted together marvellously by the glues of Harmony.
203. And the earth met with these in almost equal amounts, with
Hephaistos and Ombros and bright-shining Aether (_i.e._ air), being
anchored in the perfect harbours of Kypris; either a little more earth,
or a little less with more of the others. From these arose blood and
various kinds of flesh.
208. ... glueing barley-meal together with water.
209. (Water) tenacious Love.
_Book II._
210. And if your faith be at all lacking in regard to these (elements),
how from water and earth and air and sun (fire) when they are mixed,
arose such colours and forms of mortal things, as many as now have arisen
under the uniting power of Aphrodite....
214. How both tall trees and fishes of the sea (arose).
215. And thus then Kypris, when she had moistened the earth with water,
breathed air on it and gave it to swift fire to be hardened.
217. And all these things which were within were made dense, while those
without were made rare, meeting with such moisture in the hands of Kypris.
219. And thus tall trees bear fruit (_lit._ eggs), first of all olives.
220. Wherefore late-born pomegranates and luxuriant apples....
221. Wine is water that has fermented in the wood beneath the bark.
222. For if thou shalt fix them in all thy close-knit mind and watch over
them graciously with pure attention, all these things shall surely be
thine for ever, and many others shalt thou possess from them. For these
themselves shall cause each to grow into its own character, whatever is
the nature[80] of each. But if thou shalt reach out for things of another
sort, as is the manner of men, there exist countless evils to blunt
your studious thoughts; †soon these latter shall cease to live as time
goes on, desiring as they do to arrive at the longed-for generation of
themselves.† For know that all things have understanding and their share
of intelligence.
232. Favor hates Necessity, hard to endure.
233. This is in the heavy-backed shells found in the sea, of limpets and
purple-fish and stone-covered tortoises ... there shalt thou see earth
lying uppermost on the surface.
236. Hair and leaves and thick feathers of birds are the same thing in
origin, and reptiles’ scales, too, on strong limbs.
238. But on hedgehogs, sharp-pointed hair bristles on their backs.
240. Out of which divine Aphrodite wrought eyes untiring.
241. Aphrodite fashioning them curiously with bonds of love.
242. When they first grew together in the hands of Aphrodite.
243. The liver well supplied with blood.
244. Where many heads grew up without necks, and arms were wandering
about naked, bereft of shoulders, and eyes roamed about alone with no
foreheads.
247. This is indeed remarkable in the mass of human members; at one
time all the limbs which form the body, united into one by Love, grow
vigorously in the prime of life; but yet at another time, separated by
evil Strife, they wander each in different directions along the breakers
of the sea of life. Just so it is with plants[81] and with fishes
dwelling in watery halls, and beasts whose lair is in the mountains, and
birds borne on wings.
254. But as divinity was mingled yet more with divinity, these things
kept coming together in whatever way each might chance, and many others
also in addition to these continually came into being.
257. Many creatures arose with double faces and double breasts, offspring
of oxen with human faces, and again there sprang up children of men with
oxen’s heads; creatures, too, in which were mixed some parts from men and
some of the nature of women, furnished with sterile members.
261. Cattle of trailing gait, with undivided hoofs.
262. But come now, hear of these things; how fire separating caused the
hidden offspring of men and weeping women to arise, for it is no tale
apart from our subject, or witless. In the first place there sprang up
out of the earth forms grown into one whole,[82] having a share of both,
of water and of fire. These in truth fire caused to grow-up, desiring to
reach its like; but they showed as yet no lovely body formed out of the
members, nor voice nor limb such as is natural to men.
270. But the nature of the members (of the child?) is divided, part in
the man’s, part in the woman’s (body).
271. But desire also came upon him, having been united with ... by sight.
273. It was poured out in the pure parts, and some meeting with cold
became females.
275. The separated harbours of Aphrodite.
276. In its warmer parts the womb is productive of the male, and on this
account men are dark and more muscular and more hairy.
279. As when fig-juice curdles and binds white milk.
280. On the tenth day of the eighth month came the white discharge.
281. Knowing that there are exhalations from all things which came into
existence.
281. Thus sweet was snatching sweet, and bitter darted to bitter, and
sharp went to sharp, and hot coupled with hot.
284. Water combines better with wine, but it is unwilling to combine with
oil.
286. The bloom of the scarlet dye mingles with shining linen.
287. So all beings breathe in and out; all have bloodless tubes of flesh
spread over the outside of the body, and at the openings of these the
outer layers of skin are pierced all over with close-set ducts, so that
the blood remains within, while a facile opening is cut for the air to
pass through. Then whenever the soft blood speeds away from these, the
air speeds bubbling in with impetuous wave, and whenever the blood leaps
back the air is breathed out; as when a girl, playing with a klepsydra
of shining brass, takes in her fair hand the narrow opening of the tube
and dips it in the soft mass of silvery water, the water does not at
once flow into the vessel, but the body of air within pressing on the
close-set holes checks it till she uncovers the compressed stream; but
then when the air gives way the determined amount of water enters. (302.)
And so in the same way when the water occupies the depths of the bronze
vessel, as long as the narrow opening and passage is blocked up by human
flesh, the air outside striving eagerly to enter holds back the water
inside behind the gates of the resounding tube, keeping control of its
end, until she lets go with her hand. (306.) Then, on the other hand,
the very opposite takes place to what happened before; the determined
amount of water runs off as the air enters. Thus in the same way when
the soft blood, surging violently through the members, rushes back into
the interior, a swift stream of air comes in with hurrying wave, and
whenever it (the blood) leaps back, the air is breathed out again in
equal quantity.
313. With its nostrils seeking out the fragments of animals’ limbs, <as
many as the delicate exhalation from their feet was leaving behind in the
wood.>
314. So, then, all things have obtained their share of breathing and of
smelling.
315. (The ear) an offshoot of flesh.
316. And as when one with a journey through a stormy night in prospect
provides himself with a lamp and lights it at the bright-shining
fire—with lanterns that drive back every sort of wind, for they scatter
the breath of the winds as they blow—and the light darting out, inasmuch
as it is finer (than the winds), shines across the threshold with
untiring rays; so then elemental fire, shut up in membranes, it entraps
in fine coverings to be the round pupil, and the coverings protect it
against the deep water which flows about it, but the fire darting forth,
inasmuch as it is finer....
326. There is one vision coming from both (eyes).
327. (The heart) lies in seas of blood which darts in opposite
directions, and there most of all intelligence centres for men; for blood
about the heart is intelligence in the case of men.
330. For men’s wisdom increases with reference to what lies before them.
331. In so far as they change and become different, to this extent other
sorts of things are ever present for them to think about.
333. For it is by earth that we see earth, and by water water, and by air
glorious air; so, too, by fire we see destroying fire, and love by love,
and strife by baneful strife. For out of these (elements) all things are
fitted together and their form is fixed, and by these men think and feel
both pleasure and pain.
_Book III._
338. Would that in behalf of perishable beings thou, immortal Muse,
mightest take thought at all for our thought to come by reason of our
cares! Hear me now and be present again by my side, Kalliopeia, as I
utter noble discourse about the blessed gods.
342. Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but
miserable he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
344. It is not possible to draw near (to god) even with the eyes, or to
take hold of him with our hands, which in truth is the best highway of
persuasion into the mind of man; for he has no human head fitted to a
body, nor do two shoots branch out from the trunk, nor has he feet, nor
swift legs, nor hairy parts, but he is sacred and ineffable mind alone,
darting through the whole world with swift thoughts.
ON PURIFICATIONS.
352. O friends, ye who inhabit the great city of sacred Akragas up to the
acropolis, whose care is good deeds, who harbour strangers deserving of
respect, who know not how to do baseness, hail! I go about among you an
immortal god, no longer a mortal, honoured by all, as is fitting, crowned
with fillets and luxuriant garlands. With these on my head, so soon as I
come to flourishing cities I am reverenced by men and by women; and they
follow after me in countless numbers, inquiring of me what is the way to
gain, some in want of oracles, others of help in diseases, long time in
truth pierced with grievous pains, they seek to hear from me keen-edged
account of all sorts of things.
364. But why do I lay weight on these things, as though I were doing some
great thing, if I be superior to mortal, perishing men?
366. Friends, I know indeed when truth lies in the discourses that I
utter; but truly the entrance of assurance into the mind of man is
difficult and hindered by jealousy.
369. There is an utterance of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods,
eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths: whenever any one defiles his body
sinfully with bloody gore or perjures himself in regard to wrong-doing,
one of those spirits who are heir to long life, thrice ten thousand
seasons shall he wander apart from the blessed, being born meantime in
all sorts of mortal forms, changing one bitter path of life for another.
For mighty Air pursues him Seaward, and Sea spews him forth on the
threshold of Earth, and Earth casts him into the rays of the unwearying
Sun, and Sun into the eddies of Air; one receives him from the other, and
all hate him. One of these now am I too, a fugitive from the gods and a
wanderer, at the mercy of raging Strife.
383. For before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant,
and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea. 385. And I wept and shrieked
on beholding the unwonted land where are Murder and Wrath, and other
species of Fates, and wasting diseases, and putrefaction and fluxes.
388. In darkness they roam over the meadow of Ate.
389. Deprived of life.
390. From what honour and how great a degree of blessedness have I fallen
here on the earth to consort with mortal beings!
392. We enter beneath this over-roofed cave.
393. Where were Chthonie and far-seeing Heliope (_i.e._ Earth and Sun?),
bloody Contention and Harmony of sedate face, Beauty and Ugliness, Speed
and Loitering, lovely Truth and dark-eyed Obscurity, Birth and Death,
and Sleep and Waking, Motion and Stability, many-crowned Greatness and
Lowness, and Silence and Voice.
400. Alas, ye wretched, ye unblessed race of mortal beings, of what
strifes and of what groans were ye born!
402. She wraps about them a strange garment of flesh.
403. Man-surrounding earth.
404. For from being living he made them assume the form of death by a
change....
405. Nor had they any god Ares, nor Kydoimos (Uproar), nor king Zeus, nor
Kronos, nor Poseidon, but queen Kypris. Her they worshipped with hallowed
offerings, with painted figures, and perfumes of skilfully made odour,
and sacrifices of unmixed myrrh and fragrant frankincense, casting on the
ground libations from tawny bees. And her altar was not moistened with
pure blood of bulls, but it was the greatest defilement among men, to
deprive animals of life and to eat their goodly bodies.
415. And there was among them a man of unusual knowledge, and master
especially of all sorts of wise deeds, who in truth possessed greatest
wealth of mind; for whenever he reached out with all his mind, easily
he beheld each one of all the things that are, even for ten and twenty
generations of men.
421. For all were gentle and obedient toward men, both animals and birds,
and they burned with kindly love; and trees grew with leaves and fruit
ever on them, burdened with abundant fruit all the year.
425. This is not lawful for some and unlawful for others, but what is
lawful for all extends on continuously through the wide-ruling air and
the boundless light.
427. Will ye not cease from evil slaughter? See ye not that ye are
devouring each other in heedlessness of mind?
430. A father takes up his dear son who has changed his form and slays
him with a prayer, so great is his folly! They are borne along beseeching
the sacrificer; but he does not hear their cries of reproach, but slays
them and makes ready the evil feast. Then in the same manner son takes
father and daughters their mother, and devour the dear flesh when they
have deprived them of life.
436. Alas that no ruthless day destroyed me before I devised base deeds
of devouring with the lips!
438. Among beasts they become lions haunting the mountains, whose couch
is the ground, and among fair-foliaged trees they become laurels.
440. Refrain entirely from laurel leaves.
441. Miserable men, wholly miserable, restrain your hands from beans.
442. Compounding the water from five springs in unyielding brass, cleanse
the hands.
444. Fast from evil.
445. Accordingly ye are frantic with evils hard to bear, nor ever shall
ye ease your soul from bitter woes.
447. But at last are they prophets and hymn-writers and physicians and
chieftains among men dwelling on the earth; and from this they grow to be
gods, receiving the greatest honours, sharing the same hearth with the
other immortals, their table companions, free from human woes, beyond the
power of death and harm.
PASSAGES FROM PLATO RELATING TO EMPEDOKLES.
_Phaed._ 96 B. Is blood that with which we think, or air, or fire...?[83]
_Gorg._ 493 A. And perhaps we really are dead, as I once before heard
one of the wise men say: that now we are dead, and the body our tomb,
and that that part of the soul, it so happens, in which desires are, is
open to persuasion and moves upward and downward. And indeed a clever
man—perhaps some inhabitant of Sicily or Italy—speaking allegorically,
and taking the word from ‘credible’ (πιθανός) and ‘persuadable’
(πιστικός), called it a jar (πίθος). And those without intelligence he
called uninitiated, and that part of the soul of the uninitiated where
the desires are, he called its intemperateness, and said it was not
watertight, as a jar might be pierced with holes—using the simile because
of its insatiate desires.
_Meno_ 76 C. Do you say, with Empedokles, that there are certain
effluences from things?—Certainly.
And pores, into which and through which the effluences go?—Yes indeed.
And that some of the effluences match certain of the pores, and others
are smaller or larger?—It is true.
And there is such a thing as vision?—Yes.
And ... colour is the effluence of forms in agreement with vision and
perceptible by that sense?—It is.
_Sophist._ 242 D. And certain Ionian and Sicilian Muses agreed later
that it is safest to weave together both opinions and to say that Being
is many and one [πολλά τε καὶ ἕν], and that it is controlled by hate and
love. Borne apart it is always borne together, say the more severe of
the Muses. But the gentler concede that these things are always thus,
and they say, in part, that sometimes all is one and rendered loving by
Aphrodite, while at other times it is many and at enmity with itself by
reason of a sort of strife.
PASSAGES IN ARISTOTLE REFERRING TO EMPEDOKLES.
_Phys._ i. 3; 187 a 20. And others say that the opposites existing in the
unity are separated out of it, as Anaximandros says, and as those say who
hold that things are both one and many, as Empedokles and Anaxagoras.
i. 4; 188 a 18. But it is better to assume elements fewer in number and
limited, as Empedokles does.
ii. 4; 196 a 20. Empedokles says that the air is not always separated
upwards, but as it happens.
viii. 1; 250 b 27. Empedokles says that things are in motion part of the
time and again they are at rest; they are in motion when Love tends to
make one out of many, or Strife tends to make many out of one, and in the
intervening time they are at rest (Vv. 69-73).
viii. 1; 252 a 6. So it is necessary to consider this (motion) a first
principle, which it seems Empedokles means in saying that of necessity
Love and Strife control things and move them part of the time, and that
they are at rest during the intervening time.
_De Caelo_ 279 b 14. Some say that alternately at one time there is
coming into being, at another time there is perishing, and that this
always continues to be the case; so say Empedokles of Agrigentum and
Herakleitos of Ephesus.
ii. 1; 284 a 24. Neither can we assume that it is after this manner nor
that, getting a slower motion than its own downward momentum on account
of rotation, it still is preserved so long a time, as Empedokles says.
ii. 13; 295 a 15. But they seek the cause why it remains, and some say
after this manner, that its breadth or size is the cause; but others,
as Empedokles, that the movement of the heavens revolving in a circle
and moving more slowly, hinders the motion of the earth, like water in
vessels....
iii. 2; 301 a 14. It is not right to make genesis take place out of what
is separated and in motion. Wherefore Empedokles passes over genesis in
the case of Love; for he could not put the heaven together preparing it
out of parts that had been separated, and making the combination by means
of Love; for the order of the elements has been established out of parts
that had been separated, so that necessarily it arose out of what is one
and compounded.
iii. 2; 302 a 28. Empedokles says that fire and earth and associated
elements are the elements of bodies, and that all things are composed of
these.
iii. 6; 305 a 1. But if separation shall in some way be stopped, either
the body in which it is stopped will be indivisible, or being separable
it is one that will never be divided, as Empedokles seems to mean.
iv. 2; 309 a 19. Some who deny that a void exists, do not define
carefully light and heavy, as Anaxagoras and Empedokles.
_Gen. corr._ i. 1; 314 b 7. Wherefore Empedokles speaks after this
manner, saying that nothing comes into being, but there is only mixture
and separation of the mixed.
i. 1; 315 a 3. Empedokles seemed both to contradict things as they
appear, and to contradict himself. For at one time he says that no one of
the elements arises from another, but that all other things arise from
these; and at another time he brings all of nature together into one,
except Strife, and says that each thing arises from the one.
i. 8; 324 b 26. Some thought that each sense impression was received
through certain pores from the last and strongest agent which entered,
and they say that after this manner we see and hear and perceive by
all the other senses, and further that we see through air and water
and transparent substances because they have pores that are invisible
by reason of their littleness, and are close together in series; and
the more transparent substances have more pores. Many made definite
statements after this manner in regard to certain things, as did
Empedokles, not only in regard to active and passive bodies, but he also
says that those bodies are mingled, the pores of which agree with each
other....
i. 8; 325 a 34. From what is truly _one_ multiplicity could not arise,
nor yet could unity arise from what is truly manifold, for this is
impossible; but as Empedokles and some others say, beings are affected
through pores, so all change and all happening arises after this manner,
separation and destruction taking place through the void, and in like
manner growth, solid bodies coming in gradually. For it is almost
necessary for Empedokles to say as Leukippos does; for there are some
solid and indivisible bodies, unless pores are absolutely contiguous.
325 b 19. But as for Empedokles, it is evident that he holds to genesis
and destruction as far as the elements are concerned, but how the
aggregate mass of these arises and perishes, it is not evident, nor is
it possible for one to say who denies that there is an element of fire,
and in like manner an element of each other thing—as Plato wrote in the
Timaeos.
ii. 3; 330 b 19. And some say at once that there are four elements, as
Empedokles. But he combines them into two; for he sets all the rest over
against fire.
ii. 6; 333 b 20. Strife then does not separate the elements, but Love
separates those which in their origin are before god; and these are gods.
_Meteor._ 357 a 24. In like manner it would be absurd if any one, saying
that the sea is the sweat of the earth, thought he was saying anything
distinct and clear, as for instance Empedokles; for such a statement
might perhaps be sufficient for the purposes of poetry (for the metaphor
is poetical), but not at all for the knowledge of nature.
369 b 11. Some say that fire originates in the clouds; and Empedokles
says that this is what is encompassed by the rays of the sun.
_De anim._ i. 2; 404 b 7. As many as pay careful attention to the fact
that what has soul is in motion, these assume that soul is the most
important source of motion; and as many as consider that it knows and
perceives beings, these say that the first principle is soul, some making
more than one first principle and others making one, as Empedokles says
the first principle is the product of all the elements, and each of these
is soul, saying (Vv. 333-335).
i. 4; 408 a 14. And in like manner it is strange that soul should be the
cause of the mixture; for the mixture of the elements does not have the
same cause as flesh and bone. The result then will be that there are many
souls through the whole body, if all things arise out of the elements
that have been mingled together; and the cause of the mixture is harmony
and soul.
i. 5; 410 a 28. For it involves many perplexities to say, as Empedokles
does, that each thing is known by the material elements, and like by
like.... And it turns out that Empedokles regards god as most lacking in
the power of perception; for he alone does not know one of the elements,
Strife, and (hence) all perishable things; for each of these is from all
(the elements).
ii. 4; 415 b 28. And Empedokles was incorrect when he went on to say that
plants grew downwards with their roots together because the earth goes in
this direction naturally, and that they grew upwards because fire goes in
this direction.
ii. 7; 418 b 20. So it is evident that light is the presence of this
(fire). And Empedokles was wrong, and any one else who may have agreed
with him, in saying that the light moves and arises between earth and
what surrounds the earth, though it escapes our notice.
_De sens._ 441 a 4. It is necessary that the water in it should have
the form of a fluid that is invisible by reason of its smallness, as
Empedokles says.
446 a 26. Empedokles says that the light from the sun first enters the
intermediate space before it comes to vision or to the earth.
_De respir._ 477 a 32. Empedokles was incorrect in saying that the
warmest animals having the most fire were aquatic, avoiding the excess of
warmth in their nature, in order that since there was a lack of cold and
wet in them, they might be preserved by their position.
_Pneumat._ 482 a 29. With reference to breathing some do not say what
it is for, but only describe the manner in which it takes place, as
Empedokles and Demokritos.