Philosophy 103

Reader

(Fifth, Revised Edition)

CLASSROOM USE ONLY

Philosophy of Religion (Ph 103) Darren GustafsonPhilosophy Department, School of HumanitiesAteneo de Manila University www.xenclass.blogspot.com

xenclass@yahoogroups.com / afterthales@yahoo.ca

Course Curriculum

Course Description and ObjectivesThis seminar examines the effect of thinking about God in

ancient Greece. What happens when we think about God? The early Greeks initiated a revolution of the way we think and live that has shaped the world to this day. It is the basic premise of this course that their thinking emerged from a philosophy of religion. Examining their thinking about God will go a long way toward answering the question of what happens when we think about God today.

Xenophanes lived during the century before Socrates, one of the most explosive periods in the history of thinking. The transformation of thinking within this one generation still determines the way we think today. The early philosophers spoke or wrote in short, pithy sayings that continue to have a powerful effect on thinking that comes into contact with it. Even when we are not aware of it, their originary thinking determines our world through the effect it has had on world-shapers like Plato and Aristotle. Xenophanes belonged to what the Greeks called a ‘succession,’ critically continuing a tradition of thinking about the gods that extends from the earliest mythological poets to the classical philosophers. In fact, a critical theology stands at the genesis of their philosophical and scientific revolution.

Hope is the fundamental responsibility of world building. The building of a KOSMOS, whether of the material world, of a philosophical inheritance, or of a life story, is a fundamentally hopeful undertaking. What we will see is that when we think responsibly we will think both critically and credulously; faith and doubt are not antonyms for responsibility.

Participants who complete this seminar will be able to distinguish between the content and the effect of thinking about God. Self-critical thinking is constructive for a discourse of creative thinking with others.

Course Outline and Calendar Seminar One

November 10,

Introduction to Xenophanes and Philosophy of Religion

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2009November 12, 2009

November 17, 2009November 19, 2009

Introduction to Seminar Requirements and ArrangementsIntroduction to Xenophanes and Philosophy of Religion

Ibid.Ibid.

Seminar Two

November 24, 2009November 26, 2009

Due: 11/26/09

December 1, 2009December 3, 2009

Thinking about God in Classical Philosophy

Plato’s EuthyphroExercise on Plato

Reflection Paper: Take one of the fragments of Xenophanes, explain it, and relate how it corresponds to your thinking of God.

Aristotle’s MetaphysicsIbid.

Seminar Three

December 8, 2009December 10, 2009

December 15, 2009December 17, 2009

Due: 12/17/09

January 5, 2010January 7, 2010

The Ionian Challenge

Feast of the Immaculate Conception (School Holiday)The Ionian Challenge

Loyola Schools Christmas Mass and Fellowship (No Class)The Ionian Challenge (cont.)

Reading Paper: Choose a book that relates to the course content and write a reflection on it beginning with the line: “What happens when we (people in general) think about God is…”

CHRISTMAS BREAK

The Ionian Challenge (cont.)Review Session

January 12-14, 2010

MIDTERM EXAMINATION PERIOD

Midterm Oral Exam (20%)

Seminar Four

January 19, 2010

Myth and Philosophy

Homer, Iliad

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January 21, 2010

Due: 1/21/10

January 26, 2010January 28, 2010

February 2, 2010February 4, 2010

February 9, 2010February 11, 2010

Homer, Odyssey

Research Paper: Explain how one of the thinkers in the curriculum emerges (develops) from another.

Hesiod, TheogonyIbid.

Ibid.Ibid.

Aeschylus, Prometheus BoundIbid.

Seminar Five

February 16, 2010February 18, 2010

The Challenge of Practical Thinking

The EleaticsIbid./Review Period

February 23-25, 2010

FINAL EXAMINATION PERIOD (FOR SENIORS)

Final Oral Exam (30%)

March 2, 2010March 4, 2010

March 9, 2010March 11, 2010

March 16, 2010March 18, 2010

The Challenge of Practical Thinking (Cont.)

EmpedoclesIbid.

Anaxagoras/PlatoIbid.

Review PeriodIbid.

March 23-5, 2010FINAL EXAMINATION PERIOD

Final Oral Exam (30%)

Method and Aim of StudyI live my life in widening orbswhich spread out over the things of the world.Perhaps I can never achieve the last,but that will be my attempt.

—Rilke

This seminar offers a careful reading of Xenophanes’ fragments—which can be read in just a few minutes. However, an explication of the tradition that gives birth to his sayings and of the effect they have on subsequent

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thinking will take us in widening ‘orbs’ around this epicenter. The purpose of the seminar is not to acquire a broad range of information about the phenomena of religion, but to gain a depth of insight into the role it plays in our lives. The method of the seminar, then, is of constant recapitulations (‘orbs’) of Xenophanes’ core insights—moving always from the enigmatic toward the concrete nature of our relationship with the divine. The course outline is intended to provide order and an anticipation of the themes that emerge in our thinking of God, but it does not suggest a movement from one topic to another and toward a conclusion. Rather, outline items represent repetitions, and Xenophanes will be with us throughout the course. There is a strong sense in which we will do nothing but try to understand the fragments we begin the semester with.

The course is offered in seminar format, meaning that the primary texts and commentary (lectures and supplementary readings) are merely invitations for the participants to contribute the actual content of a philosophy of religion. The seminar does not suggest that Greek thinking is somehow normative for spirituality. In fact, the hope is that choosing a tradition that is no longer immediately familiar to us will give us the opportunity to observe our own spiritualities from a non-dogmatic perspective.

The observation of our spirituality, of our cultural and religious impulses, is not available in the course reader and is only nascent in the lectures. It is to be supplied primarily by the seminar participants. Insight into the implications and contextualization of the course material, then, is the principle grading criterion for contributions. (See the Grading System.) Contributions that help co-participants to interact appreciatively with the topic—relating it to our lives in the Philippines and before the Lord—will be incorporated into class discussions and the course reader.

Required Readings

Aeschylus. “Prometheus Bound.” From Three Greek Plays (91-143), translated with introductions by Edith Hamilton (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1937). OR Aeschylus. Persians. Seven Against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound (The Loeb Classical Library). Translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).

Aristotle. Selections from The Metaphysics. (Loeb) Translated by Hugh Tredennick (London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1961).

Homer. Book Six of The Odyssey of Homer (A Bantam Classic). A verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum (New York: Bantam Books, 1990).

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______. Books Fourteen and Fifteen of Homer’s The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Anchor Books. 1989.

Hesiod. The Theogony from the Online Medieval and Classical Library at http://omacl.org/Hesiod/theogony.html. OR Hesiod. Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia (The Loeb Classical Library). Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006).

McKirahan, Richard D. “Early Greek Moral Thought” from Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary (356-363). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. 1994.

Plato. Euthyphro. Translated by G.M.A. Grube in Plato: Complete Works. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by John M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, and Parmenides. Selected fragments from Richard McKirahan’s Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. 1994).

Suggested Readings

A collection of any of the Greek poets. Aeschylus. Oresteia. Translated and with an Introduction by

Richard Lattimore (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973).

Pindar: Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes. (The Loeb Classical Library) Edited and translated by William H. Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).

The Odes of Pindar. Translated by Richmond Lattimore (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1947).

Three Greek Plays, translated with introductions by Edith Hamilton (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1937).

Any book of sacred scripture: Any book of the Bible The Koran The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha/The Gospel of

Buddha (Paul Carus ed.) The Upanishads Bhagavad-Gita

Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays. Translated by Justin O’Brien (New York: Vintage Books, 1959).

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Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments. Edited by Yvonne Sherwood and Kevin Hart (New York: Routledge, 2005).

Derrida, Jacques. Acts of Religion. Edited and with an Introduction by Gil Anidjar (New York: Routledge, 2002).

______. The Gift of Death. Translated by David Willis (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995).

duBois, Page. Torture and Truth (New York: Routledge, 1991).

Eliot, Thomas Sterns. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (37-44) in Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, edited by Frank Kermode (London: Faber and Faber, 1975).

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. The Beginning of Knowledge. Translated by Rod Coltman. New York: Continuum, 2002.

______. The Beginning of Philosophy. Translated by Rod Coltman (New York: Continuum, 1998).

______. “The rehabilitation of authority and tradition” from Truth and Method (245-253). Translation edited by Garrett Barden and John Cumming (New York: Crossroad. 1982).

Gustafson, Darren. “Introduction to ‘Reading’ Thales: The Effect of his Thinking on Aristotle’s Metaphysics” (49-68) in The Loyola Schools Review: School of Humanities, Vol. 6 (2007).

Harrison, Jane Ellen. Ancient Art and Ritual (London: Oxford University Press, 1951).

Heidegger, Martin. Early Greek Thinking. Translated by David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi (New York: Harper and Row, 1975).

______. What is Called Thinking? Translated with an introduction by J. Glenn Gray (New York: Perennial, 2004).

Jaeger, Werner. The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers (UK: Oxford Press, 1948).

Kahn, Charles H. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An edition of the fragments with translation and commentary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

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Lao Tzu, Tao The Ching. (Shambhala Classics) Translated by John C.H. Wu (Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2005).

Levinas, Emmanuel. Of God who Comes to Mind. Translated by Bettina Bergo. Edited by Werner Hamacher and David E. Wellbery (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).

McKirahan, Richard D. Philosophy Before Socrates (USA: Hackett Publishing Co., 1994).

Møller, Vigdis Songe. Philosophy Without Women: The Birth of Sexism in Western Thought. Translated by Peter Cripps (New York: Continuum, 2002).

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Pre-Platonic Philosophers. Translated from the German and edited with an Introduction and Commentary by Greg Whitlock (Chicago: University of Illinois, 2006).

______. Twilight of the Idols (Penguin Classic). Translated by R.J. Hollingdale (London: Penguin Books, 1990).

Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth (Fourth Edition) with translations by Herbert M. Howe (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004).

Plato. The Death of Socrates: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo; Laws; or Republic in Plato: Complete Works. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by John M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997).

Robinson, John Mansley. An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy (USA: Houghton Miffin Co., 1968).

The Confessions of Saint Augustine. Translated by Edward B. Pusey (Yew York: Collier Books, 1961).

The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts by G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963).

The Pre-Socratics: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Alexander P.D. Mourelatos (New York: Anchor Books, 1974).

Wilbur, James B. and Harold J. Allen. The Worlds of the Early Greek Philosophers (New York: Prometheus Books, 1979).

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Course RequirementsA seminar course relies heavily on the contributions of its participants for its content. Each class begins with a graded opportunity for voluntary or assigned participants to recapitulate the discussions of the previous period, paying particular attention to the implications of the topic for us today. Keep good notes paying discrete attention to a) the text under discussion, b) the lecture material and (optionally) the supplementary readings, and c) the contributions of co-participants.

There will be in-class reading exercises and creative responses. A class reader is provided for required reading materials. Participants should attend sessions well prepared—with an annotated copy of the required reading and quality notes of the previous session.

There are three small (but very demanding) writing components of the seminar: an autobiographical encounter with a fragment of Xenophanes, a reading assignment integrating the content of the seminar with a chosen volume, and a research paper. Each writing assignment is restricted to 1-3 pages long. Please print your contributions on recycled paper, using a legible, 12 point font. Double space and follow the space limitations strictly. For your research paper, at least 3 non-internet sources are required. Please submit a copy of at least one key essay along with your paper. For this and replacement contributions, please submit in a manila envelope marked with your name in the upper, left-hand corner to avoid multiple parts of your submission being separated or lost.

The seminar is fundamentally open to replacing grades with supplementary participation. Replacement contributions, however, will not be assigned but are the responsibility of the participant to arrange with the lecturer. Your choice of media and content is as much your contribution to the seminar as is the quality of work you put into it. If, however, participants chose to replace a grade, the second grade will stand even if it is lower than the first.

Grading System

20% Contributions to class discussions and learning environment30% Exercises and reflection papers20% Mid-term oral exam30% Final oral exam

A (4)Excellent

Utility is the criterion of excellence. A contribution that helps other participants understand and internalize the course content is more than exemplary—it is educational.

B+ (3.5)Very Good

A well-executed contribution demonstrating insight and a comprehensive grasp of the subject matter.

B (3)Good

A competent contribution that articulates the key elements of the subject matter. However, the insight may

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be unclear or require further articulation.C+ (2.5)Above

Satisfactory

Demonstrates an understanding of the subject matter, but fails to bring it home to co-participants. Ideas may not be well integrated, and the insight may be either lacking or a poor match for the content.

C (2)Satisfactory

An adequate response to the assigned topic.

D (1)Poor

A poor contribution showing little preparation or understanding. May contain outright errors that obscure the issue at hand.

F (0)Failing

Does not demonstrate understanding, reflection, preparation, or thought. Plagiarism will receive an automatic and irreplaceable failing mark and will be reported. (The lecturer reserves the right to assign replacement contributions in the case of suspicion of plagiarism.)

Classroom PoliciesA seminar course relies heavily on the contributions of its participants for its content. Behavior that is destructive of a learning environment and the basic project of the seminar are inappropriate and the lecturer may ask you to leave the room, resulting in a recorded absence. Only 6 absences are allowed. Absence at the time of attendance is an absence. (Please inform the lecturer at the beginning of the semester if you are an honor student and plan to use your privilege of additional cuts.) Tardiness to an exam will mean the participant has only the remaining time to answer the question, and will be graded accordingly. An absence is an automatic F.

Papers are to be submitted in class, during the attendance. (Also, please send a soft copy of your contribution to my email address. Submission implies permission to use your contribution for the purposes of the seminar.) Please restrict your contributions to English.

ConsultationConsultation hours: 2:00-3:00 Tuesday and Thursday (or by appointment) in the Philosophy Department. It is best to let me know in advance if you would like to consult. If you assign a beadle to assist with communication, I can give my cell phone number to him/her, who will be expected to use discretion in contacting me. I’m generally quite accessible by email.

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Contents

Timeline of Ancient Greece 11Richard McKirahan, “Early Greek Moral Thought 12

Homer:Iliad XIV 19 … Iliad XV 35 … Odyssey VI 57

Hesiod: Theogony 68

Pindar:Olympia I 91 … Olympia IX 95 … Nemian VII 98

Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound 102

The Ionians:Selected Fragments of Thales 138 … Anaximander 142 … Anaximenes 144 … Xenophanes 146 … Heraclitus 150

The Eliatics:Selected Fragments of Parmenides 162 … Zeno 168 … Melissus 173

Selected Fragments of Empedocles 177Selected Fragments of Anaxagoras 194

Classical Philosophy:Plato, Euthyphro 200

Aristotle, From Metaphysics 215

H.G. Gadamer, “The rehabilitation of authority and tradition” 227

Student Reflection:Liezl Yap, “Perilous Journey” 235

Leslie Abad, “She whom they call Iris” 237Bianca Marie Agustin, “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust” 239

Student Research: Joyce Santos, “Xenophanes’ God” 240Raymund Gatmaitan, “One God” 243

Viva Gonzalez, “Knowing Xenophanes’ God” 247Benedict Lee, From Destructive Criticism to Proactive Thinking 241

Gigi Lapid, “Prometheus Bound and Greek Society” 251Charles Lee, “Redemptor or Malefactor?” 254

Phoebe Gan, “The Absolute Truth” 257

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Richard D. McKirahan

“Early Greek Moral Thought”1

ARETE and AGATHOS

These two basic concepts of Greek morality are closely related and not straightforwardly translatable into English. As an approximation, ARETE can be rendered “excellence” or “goodness” (sometimes “virtue”), and AGATHOS as “excellent” or “good.” The terms are related in that a thing or person is AGATHOS if and only if it has ARETE, and just because it has ARETE. The concepts apply to objects, conditions, and actions as well as to humans. They are connected with the concept of ERGON (plural, ERGA), which may be rendered as “function” or “characteristic activity.” A good (AGATHOS) person is one who performs human ERGA well, and similarly a good knife is one that performs the ERGON of a knife well. The ERGON of a knife is cutting, and an AGATHOS

knife is on that cuts well. Thus, the ARETE of a knife is the qualities, or characteristics, a knife must have in order to cut well. Likewise, if a human ERGON can be identified, an AGATHOS human is one who can and on appropriate occasions does perform that ERGON well, and human ARETE is the qualities, or characteristics, that enable him or her to do so. The classical discussion of these concepts occurs after our period, in Aristotle, but he is only making explicit ideas that go back to Homer and which throw light on much of the prephilosophical ethical thought of the Greeks.

This connection of concepts makes it automatic, virtually an analytic truth, that the goal of a person—any person—is to be or become AGATHOS. Even if that goal is unreachable for someone, the ARETE-AGATHOS standard still stands as an ideal against which to measure one’s successes and failures. However, there is room for debate over the nature of human ERGA, both whether there is a set of ERGA applicable to all humans and relevant to ARETE, and, supposing that there is such a set of ERGA, what those ERGA are. The existence of the ARETE-AGATHOS standard makes it vitally important to settle these issues, for otherwise human life is left adrift, with no standards of conduct.

Homer’s Legacy

In the Iliad, the heroic ideal is well known and widely accepted as the standard by which a warrior is to be measured. It consists of several attributes, some we would consider external and some internal to the person. Some are thought to form part of a person’s inherent nature, while

1 From Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary (356-363). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co. 1994.

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others can be acquired. The ideal Homeric hero is male and well born (the nobler, the better; the best have a god or goddess as a parent or ancestor). He is a ruler and is wealthy, beautiful, excellent at fighting, excellent at counsel, excellent in leadership, brave, strong, generous to friends and harsh to enemies, reverent to the gods, aware of his worth and of his position in society, and anxious to maintain and improve it. The expectation is that these qualities go together, and little attempt is made to analyze this ideal to determine whether, say, anyone could be a hero without being beautiful. The circumstances in which this ideal is typically expressed are the activities of war. Fighting is normally hand-to-hand combat in which two warriors fight to the death. The competitive virtues are paramount, especially courage. On the other hand, within the army the cooperative qualities of counsel and leadership have great importance. Counsel is given in circumstances where the leaders cooperate to decide on a course of action, and effective leadership requires behaving so as to merit the respect, loyalty, and obedience of those being led.

The Iliad, an epic of war, focuses on the warrior and ruling caste that occupies the highest male positions in Homeric society, but to a small extent in the Iliad and much more in the Odyssey, the poet shows us other aspects of the life of that semimythical world. There are virtues and appropriate modes of behavior not only for warriors and rulers, but also for wives, children, parents, servants, bards, and the lesser nobles who are of local importance but not to be ranked with the heroes of the Iliad. The cooperative and passive values of affection, hospitality, loyalty patience, and endurance receive almost as much attention as the competitive and active virtues of courage, strength, and cleverness.

The account just given picks out only a few features of the rich and varied world of the Homeric epics. The moral scene Homer presents is appropriate to the society it represents and quite alien to our own. It is the starting point for subsequent moral speculation that no one in the later Greek tradition could quite forget. The development of Greek moral thought through the Archaic and Classical periods can be seen as the gradual replacement of the competitive by the cooperative virtues as the primary virtues of conduct, and as the increasing recognition of the significance of people’s intentions as well as their actions.

Rapid change in Greek society in the Archaic and Classical periods called for new conceptions of the ideal human and the ideal human life and activities. The Archaic Age saw different kinds of rulers from the Homeric kings, and individual combat gave way to the united front of a phalanx of hoplites (heavy armed warriors). Even though the Homeric warrior-king was no longer a possible role in society, the qualities of good birth, beauty, courage, honor, and the abilities to give good counsel and to rule well remained. Nevertheless, the various strands of the Homeric heroic ideal began to unravel. In particular, good birth,

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wealth, and fighting ability no longer automatically went together. This sort of situation forced the issue: what are the best qualities we can possess? What constitutes human ARETE? The literary sources contain conflicting claims about the best life for a person, the best kind of person to be, and the relative merits of qualities thought to be ingredients of human happiness. In one way or another these different conceptions of human excellence have Homeric origins, though they diverge from it and from each other.

Lack of space makes it impossible to present the wealth of materials that bear on this subject. I will confine discussion to two representatives of the aristocratic tradition who wrote at the end of the Archaic Age. Pindar shows how the aristocratic ideal had survived and transformed, and how vital it remained as late as the early fifth century, and Theognis reveals how social, political, and economic reality was undermining that ideal.

Pindar

In the late sixth- and early fifth centuries, Pindar composed odes to celebrate victors in athletic competitions, including the Olympic games. His patrons, the victorious athletes, were wealthy, sometimes royal, and frequently aristocratic. Pindar champions an ideal these people would tend to adopt for their own, so his poetry is a valuable source for the aristocratic mentality of his time—a set of traditions and attitudes with which the democratic tendencies of the fifth century had to cope and which continued to exert pressure, if not always as an articulate voice, in the moral debates of the late fifth century.

Pindar unsurprisingly gives prominence to the athletic ideal with its emphasis on success. Victory at the games brings glory to a person for the rest of his life, also to his family, descendants, and city. Defeat is shameful, disgraceful. But the glory of victory (especially when spread abroad by the talents of a poet like Pindar) brings lasting fame and praise, two of the chief components of happiness, which is the supreme goal of life. Athletic competition was a form of divine worship and took place in such sanctuaries as Olympia and Delphi as part of religious festivals. Hence Pindar’s insistence that success in the games and in other fields is a mark of the gods’ favor and cannot he gained without their assistance. However, it also requires valor, effort, daring, strength, and wealth (which are also gifts of the gods). In fact, the gods control all human things and can give and take away happiness at will. Since humans are frail and their destiny is shaky, it is important to be reverent to the gods, who alone can make prosperity long-lasting. Hence, in evaluating persons, actions, and qualities, it is important to judge by what happens in the end. Despite the uncertainty of the future, Pindar is sure of the consequences of success: humans find good fortune hard to bear. It brings

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envy, slander, and mockery from others and tends to make the fortunate person proud, overconfident, and arrogant. The jealousy of other humans can be dealt with, but arrogance (HUBRIS) brings divine retribution. The gods bring down the proud. Therefore it is necessary to resist the impulses to go too far, and to be moderate in good fortune and know your limits as a human being.

There is no single passage that expresses all the elements of this complex system of values, but the following are representative:

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Wide is the strength of wealth when, mixed with stainless virtueand granted of destiny, mortal man leads it home, most dear companion….Even power granted of God is carried the better for wisdom…. This man is praised of the wise, I speak what men say.He ministers a mind that outruns his years; speech also; for daring he is the eagle of wide wings among birds;in games, strength, like a wall;among the Muses he goes lightfooted from birth; he has approved himself a subtle charioteer. To all spendors in his own land he has dared the entrance; now God, favoring, makes perfect his power, and hereafter, you blessed sons of Kronos, may you grant him in action as in deliberation such things to have; let no autumn storm blast of winds break the bloom.The great mind of Zeus guides the angel in men he loves. (Pindar, Pythians 5, tr. Lattimore)

18.3

The crucial strength is given of the gods to men;but two things only there are that minister to the brightest bloom of life as wealth blossoms:success and the good speech that a man hears of himself. Strive not to become Zeus; you have everything if destiny of such splendors befall you.Mortals must be content with mortality….

(Pindar, Isthmians 5, tr. Lattimore)

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Pindar was far from a moral philosopher. Instead of argument he uses mythological archetypes to support the values he promotes and the advice he offers. No doubt his moral precepts do not form a tidy system—perhaps not even a consistent one. Sometimes they are banal to the point of vacuousness: “Praise the good,” he says with all seriousness. But overall he recommends an aristocratic ideal of life appropriate for his time, a sophisticated, updated version of the Homeric ideal, in which noble birth, beauty wealth, strength, daring, and success in competitive situations (athletics more than war, but Pindar often mentions military exploits) are prominent, as are excellence at counsel and government. Even such aesthetic qualities as appreciation for and support of music, festivals, and other lovely enterprises are quite at home in the Homeric ideal (one thinks of the Phaeacians). What is new is the occurrence of such “quiet,” cooperative virtues as gentleness, righteousness, discretion, honesty, and modesty, as well as explicit advice to avoid excess and to be moderate. Nevertheless, in the world of Pindar’s victorious aristocrats, as in Homer’s elite warrior caste, the comfortable assumption is that all the desirable qualities hang together reasonably coherently and (with the gods’ will) can be attained in a lasting way.

Theognis

A person reading Pindar would hardly suspect that the heyday of the aristocracy would soon be over. Already in Athens, a century earlier, Solon’s political reforms (594) had severely limited traditional aristocratic rights and had given a political voice and role to a much larger segment of the community. While Pindar was writing his poetry, the Athenians adopted Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms (508), designed to put an end to the concentrations of power through which aristocratic families had dominated the Athenian political scene. Moreover, in sixth-century Athens under Peisistratus and his sons, and in a multitude of other POLEIS as well, a kind of monarchy called “tyranny” (The word TURANNOS originally meant “absolute ruler” or “monarch,” without any necessarily negative connotations; frequently these “tyrants” were enlightened rather than “tyrannical,” as we use the word) had wrested influence from the aristocratic families and had recognized the growing wealth and importance of the commercial classes.

The increase in wealth, and the shift in its distribution that had begun by the seventh century, led to profound changes in the social and political scenes in the sixth century, and forced a wedge in among the complex of qualities that traditionally constituted aristocratic ARETE. Pindar’s unified picture in which wealth, power, and noble birth tend to go together became ever less true to contemporary reality.

The aristocratic response to this changed situation receives its clearest expression in the poems attributed to Theognis and composed in

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the sixth and early fifth centuries. Even less than with Pindar can we find a consistent set of views advocated in these poems, but among the most frequently recurring themes are the view that money does not make the man, that many undeserving people are now rich and many deserving people (deserving because of their birth and social background) are now poor. It is noteworthy how Theognis plays on the different connotations of uses of the primary terms of value, AGATHOS and ARETE, and their opposites, KAFOS and KAKIA: morally good vs. evil, well born, noble vs. low born, and politically and socially powerful vs. powerless. Since the traditional positive attributes no longer regularly all went together, it was important to decide which are most important, indeed which are the essential ingredients of human ARETE.

18.4

We look for rams and asses and horses, Kyrnos,that are well bred, and a person wants to get offspring from good (AGATHOS) stock. But a noble man does not mind marryinga lowly (KAKOS) woman of a lowly (KAKOS) father, if her father gives him a lot of money.Nor does a woman refuse to be the wife of a lowly (KAKOS) man who is rich, but she prefers wealth to goodness (AGATHOS)….They honor money. And so a noble man marries into a lowly (KAKOS) family,and a lowly (KAKOS) man into a good (AGATHOS) one. Wealth has mixed the race.So do not be surprised, son of Polypais, that the race of the citizensis becoming obscure, since nobility is being mingled with the low (KAKOS). (Theognis, 183—192)

18.5

It is easier to beget and raise a child than to instill good thoughts in it. No one yet has devised a wayto make the fool wise and a bad (KAKOS) person good (AGATHOS)....If intelligence could be fashioned and put into a man,never would a bad (KAKOS) person come from a good (AGATHOS) father,obeying wise words. But never will he makea bad (KAKOS) man good (AGATHOS) by teaching.

(Theognis, lines 429-438)

18.6

Kyrnos, a good (AGATHOS) man keeps his good judgment always

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fixed.He has courage whether he is found among the bad (KAKOS) or the good (AGATHOS).But if god grants livelihood and wealth to a had (KAKOS) man, in his folly he is unable to hold back his bad (KAKOS) nature.

(Theognis, lines 3 19-322)

Homer

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The Iliad2

Book Fourteen: Beguilement on Mount Ida

Now Nestor heard that tumult while he drank, but finished drinking. Then he turned and saidto Asklêpios’ son:

“Consider now, Makháôn,what had best be done here. Battlecriesof young fighters are louder, near the ships.As for yourself, be easy, drink my wine,till Hékamêdê has a caldron warmedand bathes your clotted blood away. For my part,I’ll go outside and find a lookout point.”

He picked up in the hut a shield that lay there 10all aglow with bronze—one that belongedto a son of his, the horseman Thrasymêdês,who bore that day his father’s shield. Then Nestor chose a burly newly whetted spear, and stepping out he saw that grim day’s work:Akhaians driven back, at bay; elated Trojans pressing on; the wall torn down.

As when the open ocean rises in a leaden smooth ground swell, forerunner of high winds; a rocking swell, directionless, that neither rolls nor breaks 20until the blow comes on from Zeus: just so the old man pondered, with divided mind, whether to turn toward the Danáän mass or find and join Lord Marshal Agamémnon. Then he decided; it seemed best to him to join the son of Atreus.

In the line,soldiers meanwhile fought on to strip each other, metal upon their bodies clanging loud with sword blows and the double-bladed spears. 30

But now to Nestor’s side the princes came along the shipways, those who had been hit:

2 Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Anchor Books. 1989.

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Diomêdês, Odysseus, Agamémnon, leaving the rear where, distant from the fighting, ships were beached along the wash of surf— higher inland were those first dragged ashore around whose sterns the wall was built.

In rowsthey kept the ships drawn up; even that wide shore could not contain the fleet in one long line; they hauled them up, therefore, wave after wave, 40and filled the beach between two promontories. Now headed inland, eyes upon the mêlée, the princes came that way, leaning on spears, with aching hearts; and the advent of Nestor gave their hearts a new twinge. Agamémnonhailed him, saying:

“Nestor, son of Nêleus,pride of Akhaians! Why turn this way, seaward,away from the battle-danger? Now I fear their champion, Hektor, will make good his word, the threat he made in his harangue to Trojans, 50not to return to Ilion from the beachhead until he fired our ships and killed our men. So he proclaimed; now it is coming true. My god, it seems the rest of the Akhaians, like Akhilleus, hold a grudge against me! They have no will to fight, to save the ships.”

Lord Nestor of Gerênia replied:

“What you describe is all too clear. High-thundering Zeus himself could not now otherwise dispose the fight: those walls are overthrown 60we put our trust in as impregnable, a bulwark for the ships and for ourselves. The enemy have brought the battle down hard on the ships; you could not if you tried make out whether from left or right our troops are harried most and thrown into confusion. Men go down on every hand; their death-cries rise in air.

We must think what to do,if good can be achieved by thinking.

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I do not say that we should enter combat; 70hurt men cannot fight.”

And the Lord MarshalAgamémnon said:

“Since now they press the fightaround the ships’ sterns, neither wall nor moatmade any difference, though painful labor built them, and Danáäns dearly hoped they’d make a shield to save our ships and men— this must be somehow satisfactoryto the high mind of Zeus, that far from Argos Akhaians perish here without a name. I knew it when he favored us and saved us, 80I know it now, when he glorifies our enemies,treating them like gods! He tied our hands, he took the heart out of us.

Come, everyonedo as I say: haul down the line of ships nearest the sea to launch on the bright breakers, moor them afloat till starry night comes on and Trojans break off battle. Under cover of darkness we may launch the rest. There’s no disgrace in getting away from ruin, not by a night retirement. Better a man should leave the worst behind him than be caught.” 90

Odysseus, the great tactician, frownedand looked at him and answered:

“Son of Atreus,what kind of talk is this? Hell’s misery! I’d put you in command of some disordered rabble, not an army strong as our own. Our lot from youth to age was given us by Zeus: danger and war to wind upon the spindle of our years until we die to the last man. 100

Would you, then,quit and abandon forever the fine town of Troy that we have fought for all these years, taking our losses? Quiet! or some other Akhaians may get wind of this. No man

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who knew what judgment is in speech could everallow that thought to pass his lips—no manwho bore a staff, whom army corps obeyed, as Argives owe obedience to you.Contempt, no less, is what I feel for youafter the sneaking thing that you propose. 110While the two armies are in desperate combat,haul our ships to the sea? You’d givethe Trojans one more thing to glory over—.and they are winning out, god knows, already!As for ourselves, sheer ruin is what it means.While our long ships are hauled down, will the soldiers hold the line? Will they not look seawardand lose their appetite for battle? There, commander, is your way to wreck us all.”

Lord Marshal Agamémnon answered him: 120

“You hit hard, and the blow comes home, Odysseus.Let it be clear I would not urge the troops to launch, against their will and yours, not I. Whoever has a better plan should speak, young man or old; I would be glad to hear it.”

Now Diomêdês of the great warcryspoke up:

Here’s one. No need to go afield for it.If you are willing to be swayed, and are notirritated with me, the youngest here.

I, too,can claim a brave and noble father, Tydeus, 130whom funeral earth at Thebes has mounded over. To Portheus three excellent sons were born, who lived in Pleurôn and in Kálydôn— Agrios, Mélas, and the horseman Oineus, bravest of all and father of my father. Oineus remained there, while my wandering father settled in Argos. It was the will of Zeus and of the other gods.

He took Adrêstos’daughter as bride and founded a great house:grainlands enough he owned, and he owned orchards 140thick with trees, and herds and flocks aplenty.

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Beyond that, he was best of all Akhaiansin handling a spear: you must have heard this and know the truth of it. My lineage therefore is noble. If what I say’s well said you may not disregard it.

Let us gothis way to battle, wounded as we are; we have no choice. There in the field we maykeep clear of missiles, not to be hit again,but put heart in the rest. Just as before, 150they save themselves, and shirk the fight.”

To thisthe others listening hard gave their assent.They turned, and Agamémnon led them forward.

This was not lost on the god who shakes the earth, who now appeared as an old man and walked beside them, taking Agamémnon’s hand, saying to him in a clear voice rapidly:

“Son of Atreus, think how the fierce heart must sing now in Akhilleus’ breast, to see the slaughter and rout of the Akhaians! 160Compassion is not in him. Let him rot, then! Some god crush him! But the gods in bliss are not unalterably enraged with you. Somehow the hour will come when Trojan captains make the wide plain smoke with dust, in chariots racing from camp and ships back to the city!”

Launching himself upon the field of war, he broke into a shout nine or ten thousand men who yelled in battle might have made, meeting in shock of combat: from his lungs 170the powerful Earthshaker sent aloft a cry like that. In every Akhaian heart he put the nerve to fight and not be broken.

Now Lady Hêra of the Golden Chair had turned her eyes upon the war. She stood apart upon a snowcrest of Olympos and recognized her brother-in-law, her brother,striving in battle, breathing hard—a sightthat pleased her. Then she looked at Zeus, who rested

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high on the ridge of Ida bright with springs, 180and found him odious.

Her ladyshipof the wide eyes took thought how to distracther lord who bears the stormcloud. Her best plan, she thought, was this: to scent and adorn herselfand visit Ida, hoping hot desiremight rise in him—desire to lie with herand make love to her nakedness—that soshe might infuse warm slumber on his eyes and over his shrewd heart.

She entered thenthe chamber built for her by her own son, 190Héphaistos, who had fitted door to doorpost using a secret bolt no god could force. These shining doors the goddess closed behind her, and with ambrosia cleansed all stain away from her delectable skin. Then with fine oil, she smoothed herself, and this, her scented oil, unstoppered in the bronze-floored house of Zeus, cast fragrance over earth and heaven. Hêra, having anointed all her graceful body, and having combed her hair, plaited it shining 200in braids from her immortal head. That done, she chose a wondrous gown, worked by Athêna in downy linen with embroideries.She caught this at her breast with golden pins and girt it with a waistband, sewn all around with a hundred tassels.

Then she hungmulberry-colored pendants in her earlobes, and loveliness shone round her. A new headdress white as the sun she took to veil her glory, and on her smooth feet tied her beautiful sandals. 210Exquisite and adorned from head to foot she left her chamber. Beckoning Aphrodítê, she spoke to her apart from all the rest:

“Will you give heed to me, and do as I say, and not be difficult? Even though you are vexed that I give aid and comfort to Danáäns as you do to the Trojans.”

Aphrodítê,daughter of Zeus, replied:

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“Hêra, most honoredof goddesses, being Krónos’ own daughter, say what you have in mind! 220I am disposed to do it if I can,and if it is a thing that one may do.”

And Lady Hêra, deep in her beguilement,Answered:

“Lend me longing, lend me desire,By which you bring immortals lowas you do mortal men!

I am on my wayto kind Earth’s bourne to see Okéanos, from whom the gods arose, and Mother Tethys. In their great hall they nurtured me, their gift from Rhea, when Lord Zeus of the wide gaze 230put Krónos down, deep under earth and sea. I go to see them and compose their quarrel:estranged so long, they have not once made love since anger came between them. Could I coax them into their bed to give and take delight, I should be prized and dear to them forever.”

Aphrodítê , lover of smiling eyes,replied to her:

“It is not possible and not expedient, either, to deny you, who go to lie in the great arms of Zeus.” 240Now she unfastened from around her breast a pieced brocaded girdle. Her enchantments came from this: allurement of the eyes, hunger of longing, and the touch of lips that steals all wisdom from the coolest men. This she bestowed in Hêra’s hands and murmured:

“Take this girdle, keep it in your breast. Here are all suavities and charms of love.I do not think you will be ineffective in what you plan.” 250

Then wide-eyed Hêra smiled

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and smiling put the talisman in her breast.Aphrodítê entered her father’s house,but Hera glided from Olympos, passing Piéria and cherished Emathía, flashing above the snowy-crested hills of Thracian horsemen. Never touching down, she turned from Athos over the sea waves to Lemnos, to the stronghold of old Thoas. Here she fell in with Sleep, brother of Death, and took his hand and held it, saying warmly: 260

“Sleep, sovereign of gods and all mankind, if ever you gave heed to me before, comply again this time, and all my days I shall know well I am beholden. Lull to sleep for me the shining eyes of Zeusas soon as I lie down with him in love. Then I shall make a gift to you, a noble, golden, eternal chair: my bandy-legged son Hêphaistos by his craft will make it and fit it with a low footrest 270where you may place your feet while taking wine.”

But mild sweet Sleep replied:

“Most venerablegoddess, daughter of Krónos, great of old, among the gods who never die, I might easily lull another to sleep—yes, even the ebb and flow of cold Okéanos, the primal source of all that lives. But Zeus, the son of Krónos? No, not I. I could not venture near him, much less lull him, unless by his command. 280

One other timeyou taught me something, giving me a mission, when Hêraklês, the prodigious son of Zeus, had plundered Ilion and come away. That day indeed I cast my spellon the Father’s heart; I drifted dim about him, while you prepared rough sailing for the hero. In the open sea you stirred a gale that drove Hêraklês on Kos Island, far from friends. Then Zeus woke up and fell into a furyand hurled the gods about his hall, in quest 290

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of me above all. Out of heaven’s air into deep sea to be invisible foreverhe would have plunged me, had not Night preserved me, all-subduing Night, mistress of gods and men. I fled to her, and he for all his rage drew back, for fear of doing a displeasure to swift Night. A second time you ask me to perform something I may not.”

But to this she answered:“Why must you dwell on that unhappy day? 300Can you believe that Zeus who views the wide world will be as furious in defense of Trojansas for his own son, Hêraklês?

No, no.Come. I should add, my gift to you will be one of the younger Graces for a mistress, ever to be called yours.”

In eager pleasure,Sleep said:

“Swear by Styx’ corroding water!Place one hand on earth, grassland of herds, and dip your other hand in dazzling sea:all gods with Krónos in the abyss, attest 310that I shall marry one of the younger Graces, Pásithea, the one I have desired all my living days.”

Without demur,Hêra whose arms shone white as ivory took oath as he demanded. Each by name she called on all the powers of the abyss, on all the Titans. Then, when she had sworn, these two departed in the air from Lemnos, putting on veils of cloudrack, lightly running toward Ida, mother of beasts and bright with springs. 320At Lekton promontory, from the seathey veered inland and upland. At their passage treetops were in commotion underfoot. But Sleep soon halted and remained behind before he came in range of Zeus’s eyes. He mounted a tall pine, the tallest one

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on Ida, grown through mist to pierce the sky. Amid the evergreen boughs he bid and clung and seemed that mountain thrush of the clear tone, called “khalkis” by the gods, by men “kymindis.” 330

Hêra swept on to Gárgaron, Ida’s crest, and there Zeus, lord of cloud, saw her arrive. He gazed at her, and as he gazed desire veiled his mind like mist, as in those days when they had first slipped from their parents’ eyes to bed, to mingle by the hour in love.

He stood before her now and said:“What brings you

down from Olympos to this place? The chariot you ride is not in sight.”

The Lady Hêra answered him in guile: 340

“I go my way to the bourne of Earth, to see Okéanos, from whom the gods arose, and Mother Tethys. In their distant hall they nourished me and cared for me in childhood. Now I must see them and compose their strife. They live apart from one another’s bed, estranged so long, since anger came between them. As for my team, it stands at Ida’s base ready to take me over earth and sea. On your account I came to see you first, 350so that you will not rage at me for going in secret where Okéanos runs deep.”

The lord of cloud replied:

“But you may go therelater, Hêra. Come, lie down. We twomust give ourselves to love-making. Desirefor girl or goddess in so wild a flood never came over me! Not for Ixion’s bride who bore that peerless man, Peiríthoös; or Dánaë with her delicious legs, illustrious Perseus’ mother; or Eurôpa, 360daughter of Phoinix, world-renowned, who bore me Mínos and magnificent Rhadamánthys; Sêmêlê or Alkmênê, Theban ladies—

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one bore the rugged hero Hêraklês, the other Dionysos, joy of men— or Dêmêtêr, the queen, in her blond braids; or splendid Lêto; or yourself! No lust as sweet as this for you has ever taken me!”

To this the Lady Hêra in her guilereplied: 370

“Most formidable son of Krónos,how impetuous! Would you lie down here on Ida’s crest for all the world to see? Suppose one of the gods who never die perceived us here asleep and took the story to all the rest? I could not bear to walk directly from this love-bed to your hall, it would be so embarrassing.

But if you must, if this is what you wish, and near your heart, there is my own bedchamber. Your dear son, Hêphaistos, built it, and he fitted wellthe solid door and doorjamb. We should go 380to lie down there, since bed is now your pleasure.”

But the lord marshal of stormcloud said:

“No fearthis act will be observed by god or man,shall enshroud us in such golden cloud. Not even Hêlios could glimpse us through it, and his hot ray is finest at discerning.”

At this he took his wife in his embrace,and under them earth flowered delicate grassand clover wet with dew; then crocuses 390and solid beds of tender hyacinth came crowding upward from the ground. On these the two lay down and drew around them purest vapor of golden cloud; the droplets fell away in sunlight sparkling. Soon the Father, subjugated by love and sleep, lay still. Still as a stone on Gárgaron height he lay and slumbered with his lady in his arms.

The god of sleep went gliding to the beachhead

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bearing word to the god who shakes the earth. 400He halted at his side and swiftly said:

“Warm to your work now, comfort the Danáäns, even award them glory in the fight— for a while at any rate—while Zeus is sleeping, now that I’ve wrapped him in a night of sleep. Hêra beguiled him into making love.”

And he was gone into far lands of fame when he had stirred Poseidon to fight harder. The god now gained the line in a single bound and called out: 410

“Argives, shall we yield to Hektoronce again? And let him take the ships,let him win glory? He would have it sobecause Akhilleus lingers by his ships,anger in his heart.

Well, that great manneed not be missed too badly, if the rest of us rally each other to defend ourselves. Come, every man, and act on what I say:the army’s best and biggest body shields are those that we should wear, our heads encased in helms that flash on every side, our hands 420upon the longest spears! And then attack! I will myself go first. My life upon it, Hektor for all his valor cannot hold us!

Any fresh man who bears against his shoulder a light shield, give it now to a tired fighter,and slip his own arm in a heavier one.” The attentive soldiers acted on his words, while Diomêdês, Odysseus, and Agamémnon, wounded as they were, kept all in order.

Down the ranks they made exchange of gear, 430good gear to good men, poor to the inferior, and when hard bronze was fitted to their bodies all moved out. Poseidon took the lead, in his right fist a blade fine-edged as lightning that mortals may not parry in grievous war— for blinding fear makes men stand back from it. Hektor drew up the Trojan lines opposing,

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and now the blue-maned god of sea and Hektor brought to a dreadful pitch the clash of war, one giving heart to Trojans, one to Argives. 440Waves of the sea ran berserk toward the Argive huts and ships as the two armies closed with a great cry. No surge from open sea, whipped by a norther, buffets down on land with such a roar, nor does a forest fire in mountain valleys blazing up through woods, nor stormwind in the towering boughs of oaks when at its height it rages, make a roar as great as this, when Trojans and Akhaians hurled themselves at one another. 450

Hectordrove at Aías first with his great spear,as Aías had swung round at him. He hit himat that point where two belts crossed on his chest,one for his shield, one for his studded sword, and both together saved his skin. In ragebecause the missile left his hand in vain,Hektor fell back in ranks away from danger, but as he drew away Telamônian Aíaspicked up one of the wedging stones for shipsrolled out there, many, at the fighters’ feet, 460and smote him in the chest, above his shield-rim, near his throat. The impact spun him roundreeling like a spent top. As an oak tree under the stroke of Father Zeus goes down,root and branch, and deadly fumes of brimstone rise from it, and no man’s courage keeps him facing it if he sees it—Zeus’s bolt being rough indeed—so all Hektor’s élannow dropped in dust. He flung his spear, his shieldand helm sank down with him, his blazoned armor 480clanged about him

Yelling Akhaian soldiersran toward him, hoping to drag him off, and they made play with clumps of spears. But nonecould wound or hit the marshal of the Trojans,being forestalled by the Trojan peers, Aineías, Poulýdamas, and Agênor, Sarpêdôn, chief of Lykians, and Glaukos. None of the rest neglected him, but over himall held up their round shields. Fellow-soldiers

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lifted him in their arms to bear him off 490out of the grind of battle to his horses. These were waiting in the battle’s rearWith painted chariot and driver. Now toward Troy they carried Hektor, hoarsely groaning.Reaching the ford of Xánthos, the clear streamof eddying water that immortal Zeushad fathered, from the car they laid him downon the riverbank and splashed cool water on him.Taking a deep breath, opening his eyes wide,he got to his knees and spat dark blood, then backwardsank again as black night hooded him,stunned still by the hurled stone.

But the Argives,seeing Hektor leave the field, were swiftto step up their attacks upon the Trojans,taking new joy in battle. Out in front, the runner, Aías, son of Oïleus, lunged and wounded Sátnios Enópidês, whom by the banks of Satnióeis river a flawless naiad bore the herdsman, Enops. This Sátnios the famous son of Oïleus, coming in fast, speared in the flank. He tumbled, 500and then around him Trojans and Danáäns clashed in bitter combat. Poulýdamastook the lead, shaking his spear to guard him, and struck Arêïlýkos’ son, Prothoênor, square on the right shoulder, his big spear passing through. Into the dust he fell and clutched at earth with his spread hand. Then Poulýdamas gloried, shouting high:

“By god, this time the spearshaft from the hand 510of Pánthoös’ son leapt out to some effect. One of the Argives caught it in his flesh; I can see him now, using it for a crutch, as he stumps to the house of Death!”

His boasting broughtanguish to Argives, most of all to Aías, veteran son of Télamôn: beside him the dying man fell. Now with his shining spear he thrust at the withdrawing enemy, but he, Poulýdamas, with a sidewise leap avoided that dark fate. Another got it— 520

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Arkhélokhos, for the gods had planned his ruin. Just at the juncture of his neck and skull the blow fell on his topmost vertebra and cut both tendons through. Head, mouth, and nostrils hit the earth before his shins and knees. Now Aías in his turn to Poulýdamas shouted:

“Think now, Poulýdamas, tell me truly if this man was not worthy to be killedfor Prothoênor? as he seemed to me no coward nor of cowards’ kind, but brother 530to Lord Antênor, master of horse, or else his son, for he was very nearly like him.”

He said this knowing the answer well. And pain seized Trojan hearts. Standing above his brother, Akámas brought down Prómakhos, a Boiotian, as he was tugging at the dead man’s feet. Then gloating over him with a wild cry Akámas said:

“You Argive arrow boys,Greedy for the sound of your own voices,hardship and grief will not be ours alone! 540You’ll be cut down as he was! Only think, the way your Prómalchos has gone to sleep after my spear downed him—and no delay in the penalty for my brother’s death. See why a soldier prays that a kinsman left at home will fight for him?”

And this taunt hurt the Argives.Most of all, it angered Pênéleos and he attacked Akámas, who retired before his charge. Pênéleos, instead, brought down Ilioneus, a son of Phórbas, 550the sheepherder, whom of all Trojans Hermês favored most and honored with possessions, although Ilioneus’ mother bore the man that son alone.

Pênéleos drove his spearhead into the eye-socket underneath the brow,thrusting the eyeball out. The spearhead ran straight through the socket and the skull behind, and throwing out both hands he sat down backward.

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Pênéleos, drawing his long sword, chopped through the nape and set the severed helmeted head 560and trunk apart upon the field. The spear remained in the eye-socket. Lifting up the head by it as one would lift a poppy, he cried out to the Trojans, gloating grimly:

“Go tell Ilioneus’ father and his mother for me, Trojans, to mourn him in their hail. The wife of Prómakhos, Alegênor’s son, will not be gladdened by her husband’s step, that day when we Akhaians make home port in the ships from Troy.” 570

And the knees of all the Trojanswere shaken by a trembling as each onelooked for a way to escape breath-taking death.

Muses in your bright Olympian halls,tell me now what Akhaian most excelledin winning bloodstained spoils of war when the Earthshaker bent the battle line. Aías Telamônios cut downthe Mysian leader, Hýrtios Gyrtíadês; Antílokhos killed Mérmeros and Phálkês;Meríonês, Mórys and Hippotíôn; 580Teukros, Prothoön and Períphêtês.After that, Meneláos hit Hyperênor’s flank, and the spearhead spilt his guts like water. By the wound-slit, as by a doorway, life left him in haste, and darkness closed his eyes. But Aías the swift runner, son of Oïleus, killed more than any: none could chase as he could a soldier panicked in that god-sent rout.

Book Fifteen: The Lord of Storm

Running among the stakes, crossing the moat,

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many of them were cut down by Danáäns; the remnant reached the chariots and stood there, pale with fear, beaten.

And now ZeusOn Ida’s top by Hêra’s queenly sideawoke and rose in a single bound. He saw the Trojans and Akhaians—Trojans routed, pressed by Akhaians whom Poseidon joined; saw Hektor stretched out on the battlefield, brothers-in-arms around him, squatting down 10where he lay, faint and fighting hard for breath, vomiting blood. The man who knocked him out was not the weakest of Akhaians.

Watchingthe father of gods and men was moved to pity. He turned with a dark scowl and said to Hêra:

“Fine underhanded work, eternal bitch! putting Lord Hektor out of action, breaking his fighting men! I should not wonder if this time you will be the first to catch it, a whip across your shoulders for your pains! 20Do you forget swinging so high that day? I weighted both your feet with anvils, lashed both arms with golden cord you couldn’t break and there you dangled under open heaven amid white cloud. Some gods resented this, but none could reach your side or set you free. Any I caught I pitched headfirst over our rampart, half-dead, down to earth! Yet even so my heartache for the hero, 30Hêraklês, would not be shaken off. You and the north wind had connived, sent gales against that man, brewed up sea-perils for him, driven him over the salt waste to Kos Island.I set him free, I brought him back from all that toil to the bluegrass land of Argos.

These things I call to mind once more to see to it that you mend your crooked ways. Learn what you gain by lechery with me, tricking me into it! That’s why you came, 40apart from all the gods!”answering in a clear low tone, protesting:

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Now Hêra shuddered“Earth be my witness and the open sky, and oozing water of Styx—the gods can takeno oath more solemn or more terrifying—and by your august person, too, I swearby our sacred bed—how could I lightly swear by that?—no prompting word of mine induced the god who makes the mainland shaketo do harm to the Trojans and to Hektor, 50backing their enemies. It cannot be anything but his own heart that impels him. Seeing the tired Akhaians in retreat upon their own ships’ sterns, he pitied them. But I—I too—should counsel him to go where you command him, lord of darkening cloud.”

At this he smiled, the father of gods and men, and lightly came his words upon the air:

“Then in the time to come, my wide-eyed lady, supposing you should care to sit with me 60in harmony among the immortal gods, for all Poseidon’s will to the contrary, he must come round to meet your wish and mine. If what you say is honest, then rejoin the gods’ company now, and call for Iris, call for Apollo with his wondrous bow. Iris will go amid the mailed Akhaianswith my word to Poseidon: Quit the war,return to your own element. Apollomust then brace Hektor for the fight and breathe 70new valor in him, blot from his memorythe pangs that now wear out his spirit. Let him shatter the Akhaians into retreat,helpless, in panic, till they reach the shipsof Pêleus’ son, Akhilleus. Then that prince will send Patróklos, his great friend, to war, and Hektor in glory before Ilionby spear-cast will bring Patróklos down,though he destroy a host of men, my son, Sarpêdon, being among them. Aye, for this 80the Prince Akhilleus in high rage will kill heroic Hektor. From that moment I’ll turn the tide of battle on the beach

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decisively, once and for alluntil the Achaians capture Ilion, as Athêna planned and willed it. But until that killing I shall not remit my wrath. Nor shall I let another god take parton the Danáäns’ side—no, not before the heart’s desire of the son of Pêleus 90shall have been consummated. So I promised, so with a nod I swore, that day when Thetis touched my knees and begged me to give honor to Akhilleus, raider of cities.”

When he finished,Hêra took pains to follow his command:from Ida’s crests she flashed to high Olymposquick as a thought in a man’s mind.Far and wide a journeying man may know the earth and with his many desires may dream, “Now let me be in that place or that other!” 100Even so instantaneously Queen Hêra passed to steep Olympos. She appeared in the long hall of Zeus amid the immortals, who rose, lifting their cups to her.

She passed,ignoring all the rest; but took a cupfrom rose-checked Themis, who came running out to meet her, crying:

“Hêra,why have you come back? Oh, how dazed you look! Your husband must have given you a fright!”

To this the beautiful goddess with white arms 110replied:

“No need to ask, my lovely Themis. You know how harsh and arrogant he is.Preside now at our feast, here in the hail of the gods, and with the rest you’ll hear what cruelty he shows. Among mortals or gods, I rather think not everyone will share his satisfaction, although one still may feast and be at ease.”

The Lady Hêra finished and sat down,

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and all turned sullen in the hall of Zeus. 120Her lips were smiling, but the frown remainedunsmoothed upon her brow. Then she broke outin her bad temper:

“Oh, what mindless foolsto lay plans against Zeus! And yet we do,we think we can be near him, and restrain him, by pleading or by force. But there he sits apart from us, careless of us, forever telling us he is quite beyond us allin power and might, supreme among the gods! So each must take what trouble he may send. 130And this time grief’s at handfor Arês; yes, his son died in the fighting, dearest of men to him: Askálaphos. The strong god Arês claimed that man for son.”

Now Arês smote his thighs with open handsand groaned:

“You must not take it ill, Olympians, if I go down amid the Akhaian ships to avenge my son—and so I will, though fate will have me blasted by the bolt of Zeus to lie in bloody dust among the dead!” 140

He called to Terror and Rout to yoke his horses while he put on his shining gear. Now soon another greater and more bitter fury would have been roused in Zeus against the gods, had not Athêna, gravely fearing for them, left the chair she sat on, and come forward out of the forecourt. She removed the helm from Ares’ head, the great shield from his shoulder, and laid his spear down, lifted from his hand. Then she spoke to rebuke the angry god: 150

“You’ve lost your mind, mad one, this is your ruin! No use your having ears to listen with— your self-possession and your wits are gone. Have you not taken in what Hêra says, who just now came from Zeus? Do you desire to have your bellyful of trouble firstand find yourself again upon Olympos,

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rage as you will, brought back by force, moreover bringing a nightmare on the rest of us? In a flash he’ll turn from Trojans and Akhaians 160and create pandemonium on Olympos, laying hands on everyone alike, guilty or not. Therefore I call on you to drop your anger for your son. By now some better man than he in strength and skill has met his death in battle, or soon will. There is no saving the sons of all mankind.”

Then in his chair she seated burly Arês.Hêra now called Apollo from the hallwith Iris, messenger of the immortals. 170Lifting her voice, addressing both, she said:

“Zeus commands you with all speed to Ida. Once you are there and face him, you’ll perform whatever mission he may set for you.”

With this the Lady Hêra turned away and took her chair again, as off they soared toward Ida, bright with springs, mother of beasts. On Gárgaron height they found him at his ease, the broad-browed son of Krónos, garlanded by fragrant cloud. The two gods took their stand 180before him who is master of the storm— and he regarded them, unstirred by anger, seeing their prompt obedience to his lady. Then to Iris he said:

“Away with you,light foot, take my message to Poseidon, all of it; do not misreport it; say he must give up his part in war and battle, consort with gods or else go back to sea. But if he disobeys or disregards me, let him remember: for all his might 190he does not have it in him to oppose me.I am more powerful by far than he, and senior to him. He has forgotten this,claiming equality with me. All others shrink from that.”

Then running on the wind

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swift Iris carried out his order. Down from Ida’s hills she went to Ilion, as snow or hail flies cold from winter cloud, driven by north wind born in heights of air. So Iris flew in swiftness of desire, 200halting beside the Earthshaker to say:

“O girdler of the earth, sea-god, blue-maned, I bear a message from the lord of storm. You must give up the battle, must retire amid the gods, or else go back to sea. But if you disobey or disregard him, he warns you he will take a hand in war against you, coming here himself. You would do well to avoid that meeting, he advises, seeing he’s far more powerful than you 210and senior to you. You have overlooked this, claiming equality with him. All others shrink from that.”

His face grown dark with rage,the great Earthshaker said:

“The gall of him!Noble no doubt he is, but insolent, too, to threaten me with forcible restraint who am his peer in honor.

Sons of Krónosall of us are, all three whom Rhea bore, Zeus and I and the lord of those below. All things were split three ways, to each his honor, 220when we cast lots. Indeed it fell to me to abide forever in the grey sea water; Hadês received the dark mist at the world’s-end, and Zeus the open heaven of air and cloud. But Earth is common to all, so is Olympos. No one should think that I shall live one instant as he thinks best! No, let him hold his peaceand power in his heaven, in his portion, not try intimidating me— I will not have it—as though I were a coward. 230Better to roar and thunder at his own, the sons and daughters he himself has fathered! They are the ones who have to listen to him.”

Wind-swift Iris answered:

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“Shall I put itjust that way, god of the dark blue tresses, bearing this hostile message back to Zeus? Or will you make some change? All princely hearts are capable of changing. And, you know, the Furies take the part of elder brothers!”

Poseidon made reply: 240“Excellent Iris,

very well said; that is a point well taken;it is a fine thing when a messengerknows what is fitting.

But it irks mehis being so quarrelsome, railing at me who am his peer in destiny and rank. I yield, though—but I take it ill, by heaven. And there is more to say: with all my power I warn him, if without me and Athêna, Hêra and Hermes and the Lord Hêphaistos, he should make up his mind alone 250to spare steep Ilion, and will not sack it, will not give the Argives the upper hand, then he incurs our unappeasable anger.”

When he had said this, turning from the Akhaians, into the deep he plunged, and the soldiers missed him. Then, to Apollo, Zeus who gathers cloud said:

“Go, dear Phoibos, to the side of Hektor, now that the god who shakes the earth has goneinto the salt immortal sea. He shunnedour towering anger. Had he not, some others 260might have had lessons in the art of war— even the gods below, round fallen Krónos. But it is better far for boththat even though he hates it he give way before my almighty hands. Not without sweat would that affair have been concluded.

Well,take for yourself my tasseled shield of stormcloud, and shake it hard with lightning overhead to rout the Akhaian soldiers. God of archery, make Hektor your own special charge. 270

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Arouse his utmost valor till, in rout,the Akhaians reach the ships and Hellê’s waters.There I myself shall conjure word and actTo give once more a respite to Akhaians.”

Without demurring at his father’s words Apollo glided from the heights of Ida, like that swiftest of birds, the peregrine. He found Prince Hektor, Priam’s son, no longer supine but just now recovered, sitting up, able to see and know 280his friends’ faces around him; his hard panting and sweating had been eased. The mind of Zeus, master of cloud, reanimated him. And standing near the man, Apollo said:

“Hektor, why do you sit here, weak and sick, far from the rest? What has come over you?”

And Hektor of the shining helmet answered, whispering hoarsely:

“Excellency, who are you?A god? What god, to face and question me? Do you not know that near the Akhaian sterns 290where I had killed his friends, formidable Aías hit my chest with a great stone and knocked the fighting spirit out of me? In fact I thought this day I’d see the dead in the underworld—I thought I had breathed my last!”

Apollo, lord of archery, replied:

“Be of good heart. The god you see, from Ida, the Lord Zeus sent to fight with you in battle. I am Apollo of the golden sword;I rescued you before, you and your city. 300Up, then; tell your host of charioteers to charge the deepsea ships. I shall go first and cut a passage clean for chariot horses, putting Akhaian soldiery to rout.”

This inspired a surge of fighting spirit in the commander’s heart.

As when a stallion,

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long in the stall and full-fed at his trough, snaps his halter and goes cantering off across a field to splash in a clear stream, rearing his head aloft triumphantly 310with mane tossed on his shoulders, glorying in his own splendor, and with driving knees seeking familiar meadowland and pasture:just so Hektor, sure-footed and swift, sped on the chariots at the god’s command.

And the Akhaians? Think of hunting dogs and hunters tracking a wild goat or a stag to whom steep rock and dusky wood give cover, so the hunters are at a loss and by their cries arouse a whiskered lion 320full in their path, at which they all fall back, eager as they have been for prey: just so, Danáäns thronging in pursuit, and drawing blood with swords and double-bladed spears, when they caught sight of Hektor coming on toward their front rank, turned round in sudden terror,courage ebbing to their very feet.

But now they heard from Thoas, son of Andraimôn, bravest of the Aitolians, a tough manat spear-throwing and in close combat, too; 330and few Akhaians bested him in assembly when the young vied in argument:

“Bad luck”be cried, “this marvel that I see ahead:Hektor escaped from death, he’s on his feet. God knows, each one of us had hoped and prayedbe died from Aías’ blow! But no, some god protected him and saved him. This same Hektor broke the strength of many a Danáän, and now he will again. Without some help from Zeus who thunders in high heaven 340he could not lead this charge so furiously. Come, then, everyone do as I advise:the rank and file we’ll order to the rear,back to the ships. But we who count ourselves as champions in the army will stand fast. We may contain him if we face him firstwith ranked spears. Wild as he is, I think

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that in his heart be fears to mix with us.”

Assenting to this speech they acted on it. Those with Aías and Idómeneus, 350Teukros, Meríonês, the veteran Mégês, formed for close-order combat, calling first-rate spearmen to face Hektor and the Trojans. Meanwhile the rank and file fell back upon the Akhaian ships.

All in a masswith jutting spears the Trojans came, as Hektor strode in command. Apollo, leading him, was cloaked in a white cloud, and held the shield of ominous stormcloud, with its trailing fringe. The smith Hêphaistos gave this shield to Zeus 360to carry and strike fear in men. Apollo handled it now as he led on the Trojans. All in a mass the Argive captains stood, and a sharp cry rose from both sides; then arrows bounded from bowstrings; then from bold men’s hands a rain of spears came. Some stuck fast in agile fighters’ bodies; many between the ranks fell short of the white flesh and stood a-quiver, fixed in earth, still craving to be sated. As long as Phoibos held the shield of stormcloud 370motionless, from both sides missiles flew, men fell on both. But when he made it quake with lightning, staring Danáäns in the face, and gave, himself, a deafening battlecry, he stunned them all and they forgot their valor. As when a pair of wild beasts in the dusk stampedes a herd of cows or a flock of sheep, by a sudden rush, and no herdsman is near, so the Akhaians lost their nerve and panicked.Apollo sent the soul of rout among them, 380but glory to the Trojans and to Hektor.

Each man slew his man in the broken field:Hektor killed Stikhíos and Arkesílaös, one a Boiotian captain, and the other comrade of brave Menéstheus; then Aineísdispatched Medôn and Iasos: the first-named a bastard son of Oïleus, and half-brother of Aías: he had lived in Phýlakê in exile from his own land, having murdered

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a kinsman of his stepmother, Eriôpis. 390Iasos was a captain of Athenians and son, so called, of Sphêlos Boukólidês. Poulýdamas killed Mêkisteus—Ekhíos, his father, fell in the early battle line before Polítês—and heroic Agênor killed Kloníos. As Dêïokhos ran, Paris hit his shoulder from behind and drove the brazen spearhead through his chest.

While Trojans stripped these dead, Akhaians crowding into the ditch among the stakes 400were forced in a wild scramble across the wall.So Hektor with a great shout called his men:

“Sweep on the ships! Let bloodstained gear alone! The man I see on the wrong side of the wall,away from the ships, will die there by my hand. They won’t be lucky enough to burn his corpse—his women and his kin; wild dogs will drag himbefore our city.”

Swinging from the shoulder he whipped his horses on, and called the Trojansafter him into the enemy’s ragged ranks, 410and all together, guiding the chariot horses, gave a savage cry. Far in the lead Apollo kicked the embankment of the ditch into the middle and so made a causeway, wide as a spear-throw when a powerful man puts his back into throwing. Over this they poured in column, led on by Apollo holding the dusky splendid shield of cloud. As for the Akhaian rampart, in one sweep he leveled it, as a boy on the seashore 420wipes out a wall of sand he built in a child’s game: with feet and hands, for fun, he scatters it again. Just so, bright Phoibos, you threw down the Argive wall, so long and hard to build, and terrified the Argives. Backed up on the ships, they waited, crying out to each other, lifting prayerful hands to all the gods.

Gerênian Nestor,lord of the western approaches to Akhaia, stretching his hands out to the sky of stars, 430

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prayed:“Father Zeus, if someone long ago

in Argos of the grainfields offered up fat haunches of a cow or sheep in fire and begged you for a safe return from Troy, winning your promise and your nod, remember now, Olympian! Defend usagainst this pitiless day! Do not allow Akhaians to be crushed this way by Trojans!”

Fervently he prayed, and the lord of wisdom, thundered a great peal, hearing the old man’s prayer. 440And at that peal of Zeus’s thunder, Trojans thrilled with joy of battle, running harder after the Argives.

Like a surging wavethat comes inboard a ship when a gale blows—wind giving impetus to sea—the Trojans crossed the rampart with a mighty cry and whipped their chariots toward the sterns. Once there,they fought close-up with double-bladed spears,attackers from the chariots, defendershigh on the black hulls, thrusting down long pikes 450that lay aboard for sea-fights, double-length in fitted sections, shod with biting bronze.

As long as both sides fought around the rampartstill remote from the ships, Patróklos stayed inside the shelter with Eurýpylosto give him pleasure, talking, and to treat his aching wound with salve against the pain; but when he knew the Trojans had crossed over, knew by their cry the Danáäns were in rout, he groaned and smote his thighs with open hands, 460and miserably he said:

“Eurýpylos,I cannot linger with you here, much as you need me. The big fight begins. One of your men can keep you company, but I must go to Akhilleus in a hurry to make him join the battle. Who can say if with god’s help I may convince and move him? A friend’s persuasion is an excellent thing.” Even as he spoke, he strode out. The Akhaians meanwhile held position at the ships 470

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against the Trojan rush, but they could not repel the Trojans, even outnumbering them, nor could the Trojans break the Danáän line to penetrate amid the huts and ships. But as a chalkline in a builder’s hands— a man who learned his whole craft from Athêna— makes a deck-beam come out straight, just so the line of battle had been sharply drawn.

Fighting went on around the various ships. Hektor headed for Aías, and these two 480fought hard for a single ship; neither could Hektor dislodge his enemy and fire the ship,nor could the other force his attacker back— for Hektor had Apollo on his side. But Aías downed Kalêtôr, Klytios’ son, as he bore fire against the ships. He hit him full in the chest, and down with clanging arms he tumbled, as the torch fell from his hand. When Hektor saw his cousin fall before the black ship in the dust, he cried 490in a loud voice to Trojans and Lykians:

“Trojans, Lykians, Dardanoi, all soldiers, now is no time to yield even an inch here in the narrow ways! Defend Kalêtôr, or they will take his arms! He died fighting to win the ships!”

With this he aimed a cast of shining spear at Aías, but he missed him, aimed then a second cast at Lykophrôn, a son of Mastôr, and a squire to Aías, native of Kýthêra, but Aías’ guest 500on Sálamis, for he had killed a Kýthêran.Now Hektor cleft this man above the earwith his sharp spearhead as he stood by Aías.Down in the dust upon his back he fell,down from the ship’s stern, flopping, all undone.Then Aías shivered and called out to his brother:

“Teukros, old soul, our friend Mastoridês, our faithful friend, is dead. When he left Kýthêra and lived with us, we loved and honored him as much as our own parents. And now Hektor 510

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has killed the man. Where are your deadly arrows? Where is the tough bow that Apollo gave your?

Teukros took it all in, and on the run he came to join his brother. In his hand he held the strung bow and a quiver of arrows. Shooting, he made them flash upon the Trojans, and hit Kleitos, Peisênor’s brilliant son, companion of Poulýdamas Panthoïdês, as he held hard his reinsin trouble with his horses, trying to hold them 520close in where the wheeling lines were packed, to do his best for Hektor and the Trojans. Now in a flash his evil moment came, and no one by his strength of will could stop it:a quill of groaning pierced his neck behind. He dropped out of the car. The horses reared, then jerked the empty chariot backward rattling. Lord Poulýdamas noticed it at once and ran to catch the horses. These he gave to Astynóös, Protiáon’s son, 530commanding him to hold the chariot near and keep his eyes open. He himself went back to join the mêlée.

Teukros drew for Hektor helmed in bronze, and would have stopped the battle for the ships if that shot had dispatched him in his triumph. But Zeus perceived it, and he guarded Hektor— wrested that boon from Telamônian Teukros, who as he pulled the smooth bow snapped the string. The heavy-headed shaft went wide, the bow 540dropped from his hands, and with a shiver Teukros said to his brother:

“Damn the luck. Some godis cutting off our prospects in this fight. He forced the bow out of my hand and broke the new gut I had whipped on it this morning to stand the spring of many shafts.”

To thisTelamônian Aías answered:

“Well, old friend,

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just let the bow and sheaf of arrows lie, since a god wrecked them, spiting the Danáäns. Take up a long pike, get a shield, and fight 550the Trojans that way, make the soldiers fight. If the enemy is to take the ships, they’ll know they are in a battle. Let us hold on to joy of combat!”

Teukros put his bowinside his hut. He took his four-ply shield hard on his shoulder, pulled on a well-made helm, picked out a strong shaft shod with cutting bronze, and ran out, taking his stand at Aías’ side.

Hektor had seen that weaponry undone,and now he shouted to Trojans and Lykians: 560

“Trojans, Lykians, Dardanoi, all soldiers, friends, be men, take a fresh grip on courage here by the decked ships. I have just seen how Zeus crippled their champion’s archery! Easy to see how men get strength from Zeus:on the one hand, when he gives them glory, on the other, when he saps their enemies. Taking the heart out of the Argives now, he reinforces us. Fight for the ships as one man, all of you! And if one finds 570his death, his end, in some spear-thrust or cast, then that is that, and no ignoble death for a man defending his own land. He wins a peaceful hearth for wife and children later, his home and patrimony kept entire, if only the Akhaians sail for home.”

He put fresh heart in every man by this. But from the opposing line Aías called out to his companions:

“Argives, where is your pride?Isn’t it clear enough? Either we perish 580or else fight off this peril and are saved. If Hektor burns our ships, will you get homeon foot, do you think? Maybe you cannot hear him calling his whole army on, alreadymad to fire the ships? No invitation

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to dance, that shouting, but to a fight.No plan,

no cleverness can serve us now but this:to close with them and fight with all we have. Better to win life or to lose it fightingnow, once and for all, than to be bled 590to death by slow degrees in grinding waragainst these ships, by lesser men than we.”

This aroused and stiffened them. Then Hektor slaughtered Skhedíos, son of Perimêdês, chief of Phôkians, but Aías slaughtered Laódamas, a captain of infantry, Antênor’s brilliant son. And Poulýdamas killed the Kyllênian, Ótos, comrade-in-arms of Mégês and a captain of Epeians. Seeing this, Mégês rushed, but Poulýdamas 600dodged aside and the spear-thrust missed. Apollo would not allow the son of Pánthoös to perish in that mêlée. Mégês wounded Kroismos instead, full in the chest; and down he tumbled, thudding. Mégês stripped his gear. Against him then came Dólops, a good spearman,skilled in warfare, valorous, fathered by Lampós, best of men, a son of Laomédôn. Dólops at close quarters broke through the center of Mégês’ shield, 610but his close-woven battle jacket saved him, one that he wore all fitted with bronze plates, a cuirass Phyleus, his father, brought out of Ephyra, from the Sellêeis river. Marshal Euphêtês, host and friend, had given it to wear as a defense against attackers in war; this time it saved from mortal hurt the body of his son. Now that son, Mégês, thrust at the crown of Dólops’ helm. He broke the horsehair plume away, and down it fell, 620resplendent with fresh purple, in the dust. While Dólops kept his feet and went on fighting, hoping for victory, the formidable Meneláos came to Mégês’ aid, obliquely and unseen, and hit the Trojan’s shoulder from behind. The famished spearhead, driven hard, passed through his chest, and down headfirst he sprawled. The two Akhaians bent

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to strip his shoulders of his gear. Then Hektorcalled to Dólops’ kinsmen, first of all 630to Melánippos, Hiketáôn’s son, who pastured shambling cattle in the old days in Perkôté, Troy’s foes being far away, but when the ships of the Danáäns came he went again to Ilion, and grew distinguished among Trojans, lived with Priam on equal terms with Priam’s sons.

Now Hektorcalled to him, calling him by name, rebuked him, saying:

“Melánippos, are we slackening?Are you not moved at all by your cousin’s death? 640See how they make for Dólops’ armor! Go in after them! No fighting at a distance now, until we kill them—or they’ll storm Troy’s height and lay her waste with all her sons.”

With this he plunged ahead, and the godlike man, Melánippos, kept at his side.

Great Aíastried to put fighting spirit in the Argives:

“Friends,” he cried, “respect yourselves as men, respect each other in the moil of battle!Men with a sense of shame survive 650more often than they perish. Those who run have neither fighting power nor any honor.”

The men themselves wished to put up a fight and took his words to heart. Around the ships they formed a barrier of bronze. But Zeus rallied the Trojans. Then Lord Meneláos, clarion in war, said to Antílokhos:

“Antílokhos, of all the young Akhaians no one is faster on his feet than you, or tough as you in combat: you could make 660a sortie and take out some Trojan soldier.”

He himself hastened on, but roused the man, who ran out with his shining javelin poisedand scanned the battle line. Trojans gave way

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before the javelin-thrower, but his throw was not wasted. He hit proud Melánippos, Hiketáôn’s son, beside the nippleas he moved up to battle. Down he went slumping to earth, and darkness hid his eyes. Antílokhos broke forward like a hound 670on a stricken deer that a hunter met and shot on its way out of a thicket: even so, Antílokhos threw himself upon you to take your gear, Melánippos. But Hektor made for him on the run along the line, and fighter though he was, and fast, Antílokhos would not resist but fled him—as a beast that has done some depredation, killed a dog or cowherd near the cattle, slinks away before a crowd can gather. Nestor’s son 680ran off like that, while Hektor and the Trojans, shouting high, rained javelins after him. Once in the mass again, he turned and stood.

And now like lions, carnivores, the Trojans hurled themselves at the ships. They brought to pass what Zeus commanded, and he kept their valor steadily awake. He dazed the Argives, wresting glory away from them. That day the purpose of his heart was to conferthe glory on Hektor, Priam’s son, enabling him 690to cast bright tireless fire on the ships and so fulfill the special prayer of Thetis. Zeus the lord of wisdom awaited that, to see before his eyes the lightning glare of a ship ablaze: for from that moment on he had in mind reversal for the Trojans and glory for Danáäns. Knowing all this, he sent against the deepsea ships a man who longed to burn them: Priam’s son, Hektor, furious in arms as Arês 700raging, his spear flashing, or as fire that rages, devastating wooded hills.His mouth foamed with slaver, and his eyeswere flaming under dreadful brows, the helm upon his temples nodded terribly as he gave battle. From the upper air Lord Zeus himself defended him and gave him honor and power alone amid the host—

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for he would be diminished soon: a dayof wrath for him at Lord Akhilleus’ hands 710was being wrought even then by Pallas Athêna.

Hektor, attacking, tried to break the lines at that point where the Akhaian soldiery was thickest, and their gear the best. But not with all his ardor could he break them. They held hard, locked solid, man to man, like a sheer cliff of granite near the sea, abiding gale winds on their shrieking ways and surf that climbs the shingle with a roar:so the Danáäns bore the Trojan rush 720and kept their feet and would not flee. But Hektor ran with a flashing torch and tried them, first from one side, then the other, and he plunged the way a billow whipped up by a gale beneath dark scud descends upon a ship, and she is hidden stem to stern in foam, as a great gust of wind howls in the sail and sailors shake in dread; by a hair’s breadth are they delivered from their death at sea:just so Akhaian hearts were rent. And Hektor 730was like a pitiless lion coming down on cattle, gone to graze in a great meadow, hundreds of them, tended by a herdsman not yet skilled at fighting a wild beast to prevent the slaughter of a cow: poor fellow, either at the forefront of the herd or at the rear he keeps pace with his cattle, but into their midst the lion leaps to take one as all the rest stampede. Now the Akhaians, under attack by Hektor and Father Zeus, 740broke and ran like cattle. One man only Hektor killed: Períphêtês, a Mykênaian, son of Kopreus, who went back and forthannouncing labors that Eurýstheus set for brawny Hêraklês. A poorer man by far was Kopreus, and the son superior in every gift, as athlete and as soldier, noted for brains among Mykênaians. Now he afforded Hektor glory: twisting back, he tripped upon the body shield 750he bore full-length, shoulder to foot, a tower against all weapons. On the rim he tripped

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and, hindered, fell down backward, and his helm rang out around his temples as he fell. Hektor’s sharp eye perceived this. On the run he reached Períphêtês, halted at his side, and speared him through the chest, killing him there with all his friends nearby. They could not help him, bitterly as they grieved for him, their dread of Hektor being so great. 760

The Akhaians nowwere driven back within the line of ships, those that were first drawn inland: prow and stern enclosed them. Trojans poured into the shipways, forcing the Argives back from the first ships. Then by the huts they made a stand, massed there, and would not scatter through the camp, constrained by pride and fear, but ceaselessly called out to one another. Nestor of Gerênia, lord of the western approaches to Akhaia, implored the soldiers for their children’s sake: 770

“Be men, dear friends, respect yourselves as men before the others! All of you, remember children and wives, possessions, and your parents, whether they be alive or dead! I beg you, on their account, although they are not here, to hold your ground: no panic and no rout!”

So Nestor rallied them. Athêna now dispelled the nebulous haze before their eyes, and light burst shining on them, front and rear, from ships and from the battle. They saw clearly 780Hektor of the warcry and his soldiery,those in reserve who had not joined the fight and those in combat, storming the long ships.

Now the stout heart of Aías cared no longer to stay where others had withdrawn; he moved with long strides on the ships’ decks, making play with his long polished pike, the sections joined by rivets, long as twenty-two forearms. Think of an expert horseman, who has harnessed a double team together from his string 790and rides them from the plain to a big town along the public road, where many see him, men and women both; with perfect ease,

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he changes horses, leaping, at a gallop. That was Aías, going from deck to deck of many ships with his long stride, his shout rising to heaven, as in raging tones he ordered the Danáäns to defend them. Neither would Hektor stay amid the ruck of battle-jacketed Trojans. Like an eagle 800flashing down on a flock of long-winged birds who feed at a riverside—white geese or cranes or long-necked swans—so Hektor struck ahead and charged a ship with its black prow, for Zeus behind him drove him on with his great hand and cheered on soldiers with him.

Now againthere was a sharp fight near the ships: you’d say that iron men, untiring, clashed in battle, so fiercely they fought on. And to what end? There was no way to escape, the Akhaians thought, 810sure they would be destroyed. But every Trojan’s heart beat fast against his ribs with hope of firing ships and killing Akhaian soldiers. These were their secret thoughts as they gave battle.

Hektor gripped the stern of a deepsea ship, a fast sailer, a beauty, which had brought Prôtesílaos to Troy but would not bring him back to his own laud. Around this ship they slaughtered one another in close combat,Trojans and Akhaians. Neither side 820could stand a hail of arrows or javelins, but for like reasons moved toward one another, hewing with battle-ax and hatchet, wielding longsword and double-bladed spear. The swords were many and beautiful, black-sheathed and hilted, that fell to earth out of the hands of men or off their shoulders. Earth ran dark with blood. Once Hektor had the stern-post in his hands, he kept a deathgrip on the knob and gave command to the Trojans: 830

“Fire now! Bring it up,and all together raise a battle shout! Zeus gave this day to us as recompense for everything: now we may burn the ships that came against the gods’ will to our shore and caused us years of siege—through cowardice

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of our old counselors who held me back when I said ‘Battle at the ships’ sterns!’ They held back soldiers, too.

In those days, ah,if Zeus who views the wide world blocked our hearts, now it is he who cheers and sends us forward!” 840

At this they all attacked more furiously, and Aías could no longer hold. The missiles forced him back, he yielded a few paces, thinking his time had come, and left the deck of the trim ship for the seven-foot bench amidships. There he stood fast, alert, with his long pike to fend off any Trojan with a torch, and kept on shouting fiercely to Danáäns:

“Friends, Danáän soldiers, hands of Arês, take a fresh grip on courage! Fight like men! 850Can we rely on fresh reserves behind us? A compact wall, to shield our men from death? Not that, nor any town with towers where we might defend ourselves and find allies enough to turn the tide. No, here we are, on the coastal plain of Trojans under arms,nothing but open sea for our support, and far from our own country. Safety lies in our own hands, not going soft in battle.”

Saying this, he made a vicious lunge 860with his sharp-bladed pike. And any Trojan bound for the decked ships with a blazing torch for Hektor’s satisfaction would be hit by Aías, waiting there with his long pike. He knocked down twelve, close in, before the ships.

Odyssey VI3

So did the man of many trials give wayto weariness and sleep. But while he lay

3 The Odyssey of Homer (A Bantam Classic). A verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum (New York: Bantam Books, 1990).

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along the riverbank, Athena wentto visit the Phaeácians’ town and lands.Wide Hypereia once had been their home,but there they faced a domineering race,the Cyclops, at their borders: to escapesuch neighbors, the Phaeácians sailed away.Led by godlike Nausíthoüs, they foundan island far from all whose life is toil; 10and there they settled—on Schería’s shores.About the city he had built a wall,and he constructed homes, and for the godsbuilt shrines, and gave each man his share of land.By now Nausíthoüs, struck down by fate,had gone to Hades’ house. And in his placeAlcínoüs was king; the gods had givento him the gift of counseling with wisdom. Athena reached his house. In her concernfor brave Odysseus and his safe return, 20she headed for a chamber—rich, adorned— in which a young girl slept, a girl whose form and loveliness were worthy of a goddess:Nausícaa, daughter of Alcínoüs. Nearby, one to each side of the doorposts,two handmaids slept: the Graces gave to boththe gift of beauty. The bright doors were shut.But like a gust of air the goddess rushedto reach the girl’s bedside. And when she stoodclose to Nausícaa and spoke, she took 30the form of Dymas’ daughter (he was famed— a master sailor; she, about the sameage as Nausícaa, was her dear friend).And in that guise, the gray-eyed goddess said:

“Nausícaa, why did your mother bear A girl so indolent? Although you near your wedding day, you—heedless—do not carefor the resplendent clothes that you will wear and those that are to be your escorts’ share. Rich things can help you gain a name and fame; 40a handsome wedding day will bring delight to both your father and his honored wife. So just as soon as day breaks let us go to wash those wedding garments; and I, too, shall come, a friend to urge you on. Remember, you will not stay unwed for that much longer.

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For some time now, you have been sought by suitors who are the finest men of the Phaeácians, of families whose forebears are your own. But come, at dawn persuade your noble father 50to ready mules for you, provide a wagon to carry robes and sashes and bright woolens. And it is far more fitting, too, for you to ride than to go there on foot: the basins for washing are so distant from the city.”

That said, gray-eyed Athena made her way back to Olympus, which is said to be the gods’ own dwelling place, always serene:untroubled by the winds, untouched by rain, and free of snows; within that cloudless sky, 60the limpid air extends, bright light presides; there all the days of blessed gods are spent in joy. And there the gray-eyed goddess went after she gave the girl encouragement.

Now Dawn, the flowered one, was quick to come. She woke Nausícaa of the fine robes.The girl, astonished by her dream, went through the rooms, to find her parents. They were home. Her mother, with her women, sat beside the hearth; there she spun yarn whose purple dye 70was taken from the sea. Alcínoüswas standing at the threshold, just about to leave the house and join the noble lords,famous Phaeácians, at the council ground. His daughter, drawing closer to him, said:

“Papa, can’t you prepare a wagon—high, with sturdy wheels—a cart to carry my fine clothes for washing at the riverside?I have neglected all my finery.And surely your own clothes for the assembly 80of noble chiefs should be immaculate.And you have five sons living in these halls:though two are wed, the other three are still unwed, young men with zest—when they go dancing, they want their clothing to be clean and fresh. And I’m the one who should attend to this.”

These were her words. Before her father, she

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was too ashamed to speak of her own wedding. But understanding everything, he answered:

“Dear child, I’d not deny you anything. 90You’ll have your mules. Your wagon will be ready for you to leave at once—a wagon set on solid wheels and with a storage chest.”

That said, he called the servants; they obeyed. They readied the mule-wagon, and they led and yoked the mules to it. Nausícaa brought out the splendid garments from her room. She set them in the wagon; and her mother set every sort of food abundantlywithin a basket, tempting offerings, 100and then, into a goatskin flask, poured wine. And now Nausícaa climbed onto the cart. Her mother gave her flowing olive oil within a golden flask, that she and herhandmaids might smooth their bodies when they’d bathed. She took the whip and the bright reins; she struck the mules to start them up. As they surged forward,they clattered. And the young girl and her garments were on their way. Nausícaa was not alone; her handmaids went along as escort. 110

When they had reached the handsome river’s stream, where washing trenches never failed, where clothes, however soiled and stained, were cleansed, for sofresh and abundant was the waters’ flow, the girls unyoked the mules and drove them on, beside the eddies where the river churned, to graze the sweet grass on the banks. They took the clothes down from the wagon, in their arms, then plunged them down into the stream’s deep flow; without delay they trampled them again, 120again, within the washing trenches; each young girl competing with her friend, they beat those clothes to cleanliness. That done, they spread the stainless garments on the seaside beach where dashing waters washed the pebbles clean.

And after they had bathed and oiled themselves, they took their meal along the riverbank while waiting for the sun to dry the wash.

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When she and her handmaids were satisfied with their delightful food, each set aside 130the veil she wore: the young girls now played ball; and as they tossed the ball, it was white-armed Nausícaa who led their cadenced chant.And even as the archer Artemis moves on the cliffs of tall Täygetus or Erymánthus, glad in her pursuit of boars and speeding deer, and with her sportthe nymphs of field and forest, daughters of Zeus; and in her heart, Latóna then rejoices:her Artemis stands tall among all others, 140her head and brow held high, identified with ease, though all her comrades there are fair:just so, among her band of lovely friends, the chaste Nausícaa stood out, unwed.

But when the girl was ready to go home—about to yoke the mules and fold the clothes— gray-eyed Athena set her mind on still another stratagem, so that Odysseusmight come to see the gracious girl who then could lead him to the town of the Phaeácians. 150The daughter of the king, as she was tossingthe ball to one of her companions, missedher throw; the ball fell into a deep pool. The girls cried out. Their shout was loud. They woke Odysseus. And as he sat up, he thought:

“What misery is mine? What mortals must I meet in this new land that I now touch?Are they unfeeling beings—wild, unjust?Or do they welcome strangers—does their thought include fear of the gods? That cry I heard, 160the cry that captured me, was tender—like the voice of young girls—voice of nymphs who haunt the steepest mountain peaks, the springs that feed the rivers, and the green of grazing lands.Can men with human speech be here—close by?But I must try—must see with my own eyes.”

And now he burst out of the underbrush; with his stout hand he tore a leafy branch from that thick wood, to hide his nakedness. He moved out as a mountain lion would 170

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when—sure of his own strength, his eyes ablaze— through driving wind and rain, he stalks his prey, wild deer or sheep or oxen; he’ll attack cattle-fold, however tight the fencethat pens the herd—his hunger’s so intense. So did Odysseus seem as he prepared to burst into the band of fair-haired girls,though he was naked; he was ravenous. But he—his form was filthy, fouled with brine— struck them as horrible; and terrified, 180they scattered on the shore, one here, one there, along the sandpits jutting out to sea. The daughter of Alcínoüs was left alone: her spirit had received the gift of courage from Athena, who had freed the limbs of the young girl from fear and trembling.

She did not flinch or flee. She faced him firmly. He wondered what was best: Was he to clasp her knees, beseeching help from her, or keep his distance and, from there, present his plea 190with gentle words, entreating her to clothe his nakedness and guide him to the city? As he considered this, it seemed more seemly, more wise, to speak soft words but stay apart— and not to clasp her knees, lest her young heart be angry with him. And at once he used these words that were both gentle and astute:

“O Queen, I do implore: Are you divine or mortal? If you are a goddess—one of those who have vast heaven as their home— 200then I should liken you most closely to the daughter of great Zeus: you surely are an Artemis in form and face and stature. But if you are a mortal, an earth-dweller, then both your father and your noble motherare three times blessed, and three times blessed, your brothers:their hearts are surely always glad to see so fair a blossom entering the dance. But one whose heart is blessed above the rest is he who, wooing you with comely gifts, 210will lead you to his house, for I confess, my eyes have never seen so fair a mortal— neither a man nor woman: as I look

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at you, I am amazed. Just once, at Delos, beside Apollo’s altar, have I seena tender palm-shoot rise so gracefully(for I have gone to Delos, too—and manyfine followers were with me on that journey,the start of so much misery for me).And just as, when I saw that palm, my wonder 220piercing, lasting, for no trunk has everfrom the earth to match that tree, so, lady, I marvel at you, am amazed; my fearis deep—I plead but dare not clasp your knees. Yet I am crushed beneath a heavy grief. The winedark sea held me for nineteen days; but on the twentieth, just yesterday, I was at last set free from brutal waves— waves whipped by swift storm winds that carried me out from Ogygia, island in far seas, 230for all that time. A god has cast me here, that I might suffer still more misadventures:I do not think my trials are done; before the end, the gods will surely send still more. But, lady, pity me; I’ve suffered much; I come, a suppliant; you are the first with whom I plead; I know no others who can claim this land and city as their home. Show me your city, and give me some rag to throw about me—you may chance to have 240a wrapping from the clothes you carried here.And may the gods grant you what your heart wants most,a husband and a home, and may there beaccord between you both: there is no giftmore solid and more precious than such trust:a man and woman who conduct their housewith minds in deep accord, to enemiesbring grief, but to their friends bring gladness, and— above all—gain a good name for themselves.”

This was white-armed Nausícaa’s reply: 250“You, stranger, since you do not seem to be mad or malicious, know that only he— Olympian Zeus—allots felicityto men, to both the noble and the base, just as he wills. To you he gave this fate, and you must suffer it—in any case. But now, since you have come into our land,

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into our city, you’ll have clothing and whatever else befits a suppliant who, after much misfortune, found our shores. 260I’ll show our city to you, and you’ll hear the name our people bear: this town and land belong to the Phaeácians. I amthe daughter of King Alcínoüs; on him the power of the Phaeácians depends.”

That said, she urged the band of her fair friends:“Where are you rushing to? This is a man. Or do you think he is an enemy? There is not now, nor can there ever be, a mortal man so strong that he can reach 270our land as the Phaeácians’ adversary:we live apart from all, where strong seas foam— the very furthest limits of the world; no other mortals ever touch our soil. But this man is a luckless fellow, one who wandered here, and he deserves our care; the stranger and the beggar—both are sent by Zeus; and even small gifts win their thanks. Friends, give the stranger food and give him drink and bathe him in the stream where winds fall off, 280a sheltered stretch along the river’s course.”

These were her words. The young girls stopped their flight. Encouraging each other, they led onOdysseus, as Nausícaa had asked, down to a sheltered spot. They set fresh clothesbeside him there—a tunic and a cloak— and flowing oil within a flask of gold, inviting him to bathe in river water.Then good Odysseus spoke to the young girls:

Do stand apart and wait for me, that I 290myself may scrub my shoulders free of brine and smooth my skin with oil; by now, some time has passed since any oil has touched my flesh. I do not want to bathe before your eyes, to be a naked man encircled bya band of girls so young with such fair hair.”

So did Odysseus ask. Her young friends left to tell Nausícaa of his request.

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Then in the waters of the river, bright Odysseus scrubbed his body free of brine 300that soiled his sturdy shoulders and his spine. And from his head he wiped away the crust left by the restless sea. When he had washed all of his body and smoothed down his flesh with ample olive oil, Odysseus dressed. And after he put on the clothing she— the unwed girl—had given him, Athena,the gray-eyed goddess, made him more robustand taller; and she gave him thicker hair,which flowed down from his head in curls and clusters 310that seemed much like the hyacinth in flower.Just as a craftsman who has learned his secrets from both the gray-eyed goddess and Hepháestusframes silver with fine gold and thus createsa work with greater plenitude and graceso did the goddess now enhance with gracethe head and shoulders of Odysseus. Then by the sea he sat apart, a man handsome and radiant. Nausícaa admired him. She told her fair-haired friends: 320

“Listen to what I say. Without the will of all the gods whose home is high Olympus, this man would not have come to the Phaeácians. Before he seemed to me so mean, so shabby; but now wide heaven’s gods could be his kin. Would that my husband were a man like him, who lived—and would remain—here in Schería. But come, friends, bring the stranger food and drink.”

They heard her words. They did not make him wait:the man of many trials now drank and ate. 330And when he broke his fast, had his first taste of food in so long, he was ravenous.

Nausícaa now had something else in mind. She stowed the folded clothes within the cart, then yoked the stout-hoofed mules. And—quick to mount— she put Odysseus on the alert:

“Stand ready, stranger: I’m about to driveback to my town, my home. I’ll be your guide to my wise father’s house; there you will find

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the finest men of the Phaeácians. 340But you—I know you’ll understand—might best do this: As long as we are passing through the meadows and the fields that farmers till, walk quickly with my handmaids, right behind my mules and wagon. I shall lead and drive.But let us, just as soon as we draw nearThe city, separate. To either sideof that tall wall which rings the city liesa splendid port. A narrow entrance stripruns near the sea; along that road, curved ships 350are drawn up: every shipman has his spot.There, too, around Poseidon’s handsome shrine, is an assembly place, a space marked offby stones, hauled there and set into the ground. And there, in those ship-berths, our men repaircables and sails and tackle for black ships, and there the oars are shaped and filed and thinned. For the Phaeácians need no bows or quivers:they care for masts and oars and shapely ships; with these they cross the gray sea joyously. 360Along the road men gather. Many chatter insidiously. I’d avoid such talk.I want no one to scoff: among the crowd,some men are truly insolent—and thus,I fear that some rude fellow, meeting us,might say: ‘This stranger whom Nausícaa’s brought,this man so grand, so handsome—who is he?Where did she find him? He will surely be her husband! She may well have gathered insome castaway whose ship has gone astray, 370whose people live far off—for there are none whose home is close to us. Or he may bea god whom she implored so fervently that he, in answer to her pleas, came downfrom heaven—and he’s hers forever now.At least she’s found a husband, even ifit is a foreigner that she sought out:better that way, for she has surely scorned the many men—so noble—who have been her suitors here, her own Phaeácians.’ 380So they will talk. And I shall be ashamed.And were another in my place, I’d blameher, too, and cast my shafts in the same way:a girl who, though her father and her mother

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are living, has not asked for their consentand walks with one whom she has yet to wed.Stranger, if you would gain a crew and ship to take you home again and need the quick assistance of my father, then do this:Beside the road, you’ll find Athena’s forest, 390splendid grove of poplars. Set inside it, a spring, surrounded by a meadow, surges. My father’s park and fruitful vineyard lienearby, in hailing distance of the city. Sit there and wait—just long enough for me to enter town and reach my father’s house. And when you judge I’m well inside, set out, walk into town, and ask what is bestto reach the house of good Alcínoüs.You’ll recognize it easily enough 400(even a child could guide you there), for none of the Phaeácians’ homes can match that palace. Once you are there and past the courtyard, cross the great hall quickly, till you reach my mother. She sits before the hearth by firelight, leaning against a pillar, spinning yarn whose purple dye, drawn from the sea, is quite astonishing. Her handmaids sit behind her; and next to her, at that same pillar, leans my father’s throne. Like an immortal, he 410sits, drinking wine. But pass beyond his seat and throw your arms around my mother’s knees,for she can speed the day of your return.For if her heart inclines to favor you, then you indeed may hope to see your friends and reach your well-built home, your fathers’ land.”

That said, she struck the mules with her bright whip; and they were quick to leave the riverbank. Their trot and run were smooth, and she kept check upon their pace: she reined them in, so that 420Odysseus and her maids might find it easy to follow her on foot; she plied the lash with good sense, sparingly. As the sun set, they reached the fair grove sacred to Athena. Odysseus halted there. At once he prayed to her, the daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus:

“May you—Athena Atritóna—hear me.

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If, before this, you did not hear my pleas when I was shipwrecked—battered by the mightyPoseidon—may you hear me now. Allow 430this stranger here on the Phaeácians’ isle to find compassion, to be welcomed well.”

This was his prayer. Athena heard his pleas.And yet she did not show herself directly:her father’s brother had to be respected—and he did not relent: he raged againstdivine Odysseus until the end,until the exile found his own dear land.

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The Theogony4

Hesiod

(ll. 1-25) From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse’s Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing5

Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counselor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me – the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis:

(ll. 26-28) `Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things.’

(ll. 29-35) So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvelous thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were aforetime; and they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are eternally, but ever to sing of themselves both first and last. But why all this about oak or stone?6

(ll. 36-52) Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and that shall be and that were aforetime with consenting voice. Unwearying flows the sweet sound from their lips, and the house of their father Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound,

4 From the Online Medieval and Classical Library at http://omacl.org/Hesiod/theogony.html.5 The epithet probably indicates coquet-tishness.6 A proverbial saying meaning, ‘why enlarge on irrelevant topics?’

and the homes of the immortals. And they uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide Heaven begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things. Then, next, the goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their strain, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power. And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within Olympus, – the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.

(ll. 53-74) Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the hills of Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals. And when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces and Himerus (Desire) live in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering their lovely voice. Then went they to Olympus, delighting in their sweet voice, with heavenly song, and the dark earth resounded about them as they chanted, and a lovely sound rose up beneath their feet as they went to their father. And he was reigning in heaven, himself holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt, when he had overcome by might his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly to the immortals their portions and declared their privileges.

(ll. 75-103) These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympus, nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope,7 who is the chiefest of them all, for she attends on worshipful princes: whomsoever of heaven-nourished princes the daughters of great Zeus honor, and behold him at his birth, they pour sweet dew upon his tongue, and from his lips flow gracious words. All the people look towards him while he settles causes with true judgments: and he, speaking surely, would soon make wise end even of a great quarrel; for therefore are there princes wise in heart, because when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words. And when he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence, and he is conspicuous amongst the assembled: such is the holy gift of the Muses to men. For it is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are

7 ‘She of the noble voice’: Calliope is queen of Epic poetry.71

singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth. For though a man have sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.

(ll. 104-115) Hail, children of Zeus! Grant lovely song and celebrate the holy race of the deathless gods who are for ever, those that were born of Earth and starry Heaven and gloomy Night and them that briny Sea did rear. Tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honors amongst them, and also how at the first they took many-folded Olympus. These things declare to me from the beginning, ye Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus, and tell me which of them first came to be.(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all8 the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether9 and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.

8 Earth, in the cosmology of Hesiod, is a disk surrounded by the river Oceanus and floating upon a waste of waters. It is called the foundation of all (the qualification `the deathless ones...’ etc. is an interpolation), because not only trees, men, and animals, but even the hills and seas (ll. 129, 131) are supported by it.9 Aether is the bright, untainted upper atmosphere, as distinguished from Aer, the lower atmosphere of the earth.

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(ll. 139-146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges,10 who gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. And they were surnamed Cyclopes (Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works.

(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyes, presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first.

And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:

(ll. 164-166) `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.’

(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother:

(ll. 170-172) `Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things.’

(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot.

(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her.11

10 Brontes is the Thunderer; Steropes, the Lightener; and Arges, the Vivid One.11 The myth accounts for the separation of Heaven and Earth. In Egyptian cosmology Nut (the Sky) is thrust and held apart from her brother Geb (the Earth) by their father Shu, who corresponds to the Greek Atlas.

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Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father’s members and cast them away to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae12 all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes13 because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honor she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.

(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom be begot himself great Heaven used to call Titans (Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.

(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos,14 who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from

12 Nymphs of the ash-trees, as Dryads are nymphs of the oak trees. Cp. note on “Works and Days”, l. 145.13 `Member-loving’: the title is perhaps only a perversion of the regular PHILOMEIDES (laughter-loving).14 Cletho (the Spinner) is she who spins the thread of man’s life; Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots) assigns to each man his destiny; Atropos (She who cannot be turned) is the `Fury with the abhorred shears.’

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their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.

(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when anyone willfully swears a false oath.

(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her.

(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of Ocean the perfect river, were born children,15 passing lovely amongst goddesses, Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite, and Eudora, and Thetis, Galene and Glauce, Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and Pasithea, and Erato, and rosy-armed Eunice, and gracious Melite, and Eulimene, and Agaue, Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nisaea, and Actaea, and Protomedea, Doris, Panopea, and comely Galatea, and lovely Hippothoe, and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Cymodoce who with Cymatolege16 and Amphitrite easily calms the waves upon the misty sea and the blasts of raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione, and rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea, Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form, and Psamathe of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe, Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes17 who has the nature of her deathless father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in excellent crafts.

(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-flowing Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they dart along.

15 Many of the names which follow express various qualities or aspects of the sea: thus Galene is `Calm’, Cymothoe is the `Wave-swift’, Pherusa and Dynamene are `She who speeds (ships)’ and `She who has power’.16 The `Wave-receiver’ and the `Wave-stiller’.17 `The Unerring’ or `Truthful’; cp. l. 235.

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(ll. 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phoreys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One18

in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands. Now Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.

(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.

(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful

18 I.e. Poseidon.76

blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay; but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength of stout Heracles overcame him.

(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bare her youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto and Phoreys.

(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.

(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters19 who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping -- to this charge Zeus appointed them -- Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and Electra, and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe and handsome Polydora, Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and Europa, Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and Asia and charming Calypso, Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe, and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys; but there are many besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses. And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their names it is hard for a mortal man to tell, but people know those by which they severally dwell.

19 Goettling notes that some of these nymphs derive their names from lands over which they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris, Ianeira (`Lady of the Ionians’), but that most are called after some quality which their streams possessed: thus Xanthe is the `Brown’ or `Turbid’, Amphirho is the `Surrounding’ river, Ianthe is `She who delights’, and Ocyrrhoe is the `Swift-flowing’.

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(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven.

(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom.

(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds, brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, and Notus, -- a goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigenia20 bare the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.

(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the deathless daughter of Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian Lightener called all the deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods. And he declared that he who was without office and rights as is just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honored her, and gave her very great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he performed fully unto them all.

But he himself mightily reigns and rules.

(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus.

Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry heaven,

20 i.e. Eos, the `Early-born’.78

and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. Also, because she is an only child, the goddess receives not less honor, but much more still, for Zeus honors her. Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgment, and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will. Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So, then. albeit her mother’s only child,21 she is honored amongst all the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honors.

(ll. 453-491) But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia,22 Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken. These great Cronos swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was, through the contriving of great Zeus.23 Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized

21 Van Lennep explains that Hecate, having no brothers to support her claim, might have been slighted.22 The goddess of the hearth (the Roman “Vesta”), and so of the house. Cp. “Homeric Hymns” v.22 ff.; xxxix.1 ff.

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Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up. Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honors, himself to reign over the deathless gods.

(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men.24 And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.

(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius

23 The variant reading `of his father’ (sc. Heaven) rests on inferior MS. authority and is probably an alteration due to the difficulty stated by a Scholiast: `How could Zeus, being not yet begotten, plot against his father?’ The phrase is, however, part of the prophecy. The whole line may well be spurious, and is rejected by many.24 Pausanias (x. 24.6) saw near the tomb of Neoptolemus `a stone of no great size’, which the Delphians anointed every day with oil, and which he says was supposed to be the stone given to Cronos.

and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honored his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him:

(ll. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!’

(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick:

(ll. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.’ So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly vexed and said to him:

(ll. 559-560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!’

(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian25 race of mortal men who live on the earth. But the noble son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk. And Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God made himself and worked with his own hands as a favor to Zeus his father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it.

(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men.

(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause,

25 A Scholiast explains: `Either because they (men) sprang from the Melian nymphs (cp. l. 187); or because, when they were born (?), they cast themselves under the ash-trees, that is, the trees.’ The reference may be to the origin of men from ash-trees: cp. “Works and Days”, l. 145 and note.

and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.

(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he knew many a wile.

(ll. 617-643) But when first their father was vexed in his heart with Obriareus and Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness and great size: and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But the son of Cronos and the other deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Cronos, brought them up again to the light at Earth’s advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in stubborn war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with Cronos, from Olympus. So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three with all things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods spoke amongst them:

(ll. 644-653) `Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the Titans in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our counsels.’

(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus answered him again: `Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves

we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of Cronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titans in hard battle.’

(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Cronos together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom Zeus brought up to the light from Erebus beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry.

(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the bold flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about. All the land seethed, and Ocean’s streams and the unfruitful sea. The hot vapor lapped round the earthborn Titans: flame unspeakable rose to the bright upper air: the flashing glare of the thunder-stone and lightning blinded their eyes for all that there were strong. Astounding heat seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together; for such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Zeus, and carried the clangor and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts. An horrible uproar of

terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and fought continually in cruel war.

(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and Gyes insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus. For a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis.

(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.

It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods.

(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus26 stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door.

And the house never holds them both within; but always one is without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and waits until the time for her journeying come; and the one holds all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud.

26 sc. Atlas, the Shu of Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line 177.

(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods.

(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both is ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomsoever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.

(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing Ocean.27 She lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. Rarely does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed Iris, come to her with a message over the sea’s wide back.

But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea’s wide back, and then falls into the main;28 but the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus pours a libation of her water is forsworn, lies breathless until a full year is completed, and never comes near to taste ambrosia and nectar, but lies spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness, another penance and an harder follows after the first. For nine years he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils of their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he

27 Oceanus is here regarded as a continuous stream enclosing the earth and the seas, and so as flowing back upon himself.28 The conception of Oceanus is here different: he has nine streams which encircle the earth and the flow out into the `main’ which appears to be the waste of waters on which, according to early Greek and Hebrew cosmology, the disk-like earth floated.

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comes again to join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of Olympus. Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and primeval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place.

(ll. 807-819) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of the dark earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.

And there are shining gates and an immoveable threshold of bronze having unending roots and it is grown of itself.29 And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos. But the glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Ocean’s foundations, even Cottus and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring Earth-Shaker made his son-in-law, giving him Cymopolea his daughter to wed.

(ll. 820-868) But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew an hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvelous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at anothers, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a thing past help would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign over mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to perceive it. But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean’s streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about, at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife. So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped form Olympus and struck him,

29 I.e. the threshold is of `native’ metal, and not artificial.87

and burned all the marvelous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunder-stricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount,30 when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men’s art in channeled31 crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is softened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus.32 Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. And in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus.

(ll. 869-880) And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, except Notus and Boreas and clear Zephyr. These are a god-sent kind, and a great blessing to men; but the others blow fitfully upon the seas. Some rush upon the misty sea and work great havoc among men with their evil, raging blasts; for varying with the season they blow, scattering ships and destroying sailors. And men who meet these upon the sea have no help against the mischief. Others again over the boundless, flowering earth spoil the fair fields of men who dwell below, filling them with dust and cruel uproar.

(ll. 881-885) But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honors with the Titans, they pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them, by Earth’s prompting. So he divided their dignities amongst them.

(ll. 886-900) Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first, and she was wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to bring forth the goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as Earth and starry Heaven advised. For they advised him so, to the end that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, first the maiden bright-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men. But Zeus put her into his own belly first, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil.

30 According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him as buried under Aetna, and Tzetzes reads Aetna in this passage.31 The epithet (which means literally `well-bored’) seems to refer to the spout of the crucible.32 The fire god. There is no reference to volcanic action: iron was smelted on Mount Ida; cp. “Epigrams of Homer”, ix. 2-4.

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(ll. 901-906) Next he married bright Themis who bare the Horae (Hours), and Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), and blooming Eirene (Peace), who mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae (Fates) to whom wise Zeus gave the greatest honor, Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have.

(ll. 907-911) And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bare him three fair-cheeked Charites (Graces), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows.

(ll. 912-914) Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bare white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.

(ll. 915-917) And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine gold-crowned Muses were born who delight in feasts and the pleasures of song.

(ll. 918-920) And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bare Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.

(ll. 921-923) Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia.

(ll. 924-929) But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia,33 the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But Hera without union with Zeus – for she was very angry and quarreled with her mate -- bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.

(ll. 929a-929t)34 But Hera was very angry and quarreled with her mate. And because of this strife she bare without union with Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of Heaven in crafts. But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera....

((LACUNA))

33 i.e. Athena, who was born `on the banks of the river Trito’ (cp. l. 929l).34 Restored by Peppmuller. The nineteen following lines from another recension of lines 889-900, 924-9 are quoted by Chrysippus (in Galen).

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....deceiving Metis (Thought) although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athene: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of is head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus, even Metis, Athena’s mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess (Athena) received that35 whereby she excelled in strength all the deathless ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the host-scaring weapon of Athena. And with it (Zeus) gave her birth, arrayed in arms of war.

(ll. 930-933) And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an awful god.

(ll. 933-937) Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and Fear, terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.

(ll. 938-939) And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed.

(ll. 940-942) And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus, -- a mortal woman an immortal son. And now they both are gods.

(ll. 943-944) And Alemena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.

(ll. 945-946) And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.

(ll. 947-949) And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos made her deathless and unageing for him.

(ll. 950-955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled Alemena, when he had finished his grievous toils, made Hebe the child of

35 Sc. the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it disagrees with l. 929q and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.

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great Zeus and gold-shod Hera his shy wife in snowy Olympus. Happy he! For he has finished his great works and lives amongst the dying gods, untroubled and unaging all his days.

(ll. 956-962) And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bare to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios who shows light to men, took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subject to him in love through golden Aphrodite and bare him neat-ankled Medea.

(ll. 963-968) And now farewell, you dwellers on Olympus and you islands and continents and thou briny sea within. Now sing the company of goddesses, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, -- even those deathless one who lay with mortal men and bare children like unto gods.

(ll. 969-974) Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Crete, and bare Plutus, a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the sea’s wide back, and him who finds him and into whose hands he comes he makes rich, bestowing great wealth upon him.

(ll. 975-978) And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bare to Cadmus Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned Thebe.

(ll. 979-983) And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe was joined in the love of rich Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and bare a son who was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen.

(ll. 984-991) And Eos bare to Tithonus brazen-crested Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bare a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit.

(ll. 993-1002) And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away from Aeetes the daughter of Aeetes the heaven-nurtured king, when he had finished the many grievous labors which the great king, over bearing Pelias, that outrageous and presumptuous doer of violence, put upon him. But when the son of Aeson had finished them, he came to Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift ship, and made

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her his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason, shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus was fulfilled.

(ll. 1003-1007) But of the daughters of Nereus, the Old man of the Sea, Psamathe the fair goddess, was loved by Aeacus through golden Aphrodite and bare Phocus. And the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men.

(ll. 1008-1010) And Cytherea with the beautiful crown was joined in sweet love with the hero Anchises and bare Aeneas on the peaks of Ida with its many wooded glens.

(ll. 1011-1016) And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite. And they ruled over the famous Tyrenians, very far off in a recess of the holy islands.

(ll. 1017-1018) And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.

(ll. 1019-1020) These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto gods.

(ll. 1021-1022) But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.

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Pindar

Olympia I36

FOR HIERON OF SYRACUSEWINNER, SINGLE-HORSE RACE, 476 B.C.

Best is water, while gold, like fire blazing in the night, shines preeminent amid lordly wealth. But if you wish to singof athletic games, my heart, look no further than the sunfor another star shining more warmly by day through the empty sky,nor let us proclaim a contest greater than Olympia. From there comes the famous hymn that encompasses the thoughts of wise men, who have come in celebration of Kronos’ son to the richand blessed hearth of Hieron,

who wields the rightful scepter in flock-richSicily. He culls the summits of all achievementsand is also glorifiedin the finest songs,such as those we men often perform in play about the friendly table. Come, take the Dorian lyre from its peg,if the splendor of Pisa and of Pherenikos has indeed enthralled your mind with sweetest considerations,when he sped beside the Alpheos,giving his limbs ungoaded in the race,and joined to victorious power his master,

Syracuse’s horse-loving king. Fame shines for him in the colony of brave men founded by Lydian Pelops, with whom mighty Earthholder Poseidon fell in love, after Klotho pulled him from the pure cauldron, distinguished by his shoulder gleaming with ivory. Yes, wonders are many, but then too, I think, in men’s talk stories are embellished beyond the true account and deceive by means of elaborate lies.

For Charis, who fashions all things pleasant for mortals, by bestowing honor makes even what is unbelievable

36 Pindar: Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes. (The Loeb Classical Library) Edited and translated by William H. Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).

often believed;yet days to come are the wisest witnesses.It is proper for a man to speak well of the gods, for less is the blame.Son of Tantalos, of you I shall say, contrary to my predecessors,that when your father invited the gods to his most orderly feast and to his friendly Sipylosgiving them a banquet in return for theirs, then it was that the Lord of the Splendid Trident seized you,

his mind overcome by desire, and with golden steeds conveyed you to the highest home of widely honored Zeus,where at a later time Ganymede came as well for the same service to Zeus.But when you disappeared, and despite much searching no men returned you to your mother,one of the envious neighbors immediately said in secret that into water boiling rapidly on the firethey cut up your limbs with a knife,and for the final course distributed your flesharound the tables and ate it.

But for my part, I cannot call any of the blessed gods a glutton—I stand back:impoverishment is often the lot of slanderers. If in fact the wardens of Olympos honored any mortal man, Tantalos was that one. He, however, could not digest his great good fortune, and because of his greed he won an overwhelming punishment in the form of a massive rock which the Father suspended above him; in his constant eagerness to cast it away from his head he is banished from joy.

He has this helpless existence of constant weariness, the fourth toil along with three others, because he stole from the deathless gods the nectar and ambrosia with which they had made him immortal, and gave them to the companions who drank with him. But if any man hopes to hide any deed from a god, he is mistaken. And so, the immortals cast his son back once again among the shortlived race of men. And toward the age of youthful bloom,when downy hair began covering his darkened chin,

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he took thought of the marriage that was open to all,

to winning famous Hippodameia from her father, the Pisan. He approached the gray sea alone at night and called upon the deep-thunderingLord of the Fine Trident, who appeared right by his feet.He said to him, “If the loving gifts of Kypris count at all for gratitude, Poseidon,come! hold back the bronze spear of Oinomaos and speed me in the swiftest of chariotsto Elis and bring me to victorious power, for having killed thirteen suitors he puts off the marriage

of his daughter. Great risk does not take hold of a cowardly man. But since men must die, why would anyone sit in darkness and coddle a nameless old age to no use, deprived of all noble deeds? No! that contest shall be mineto undertake; you grant the success I desire.” Thus he spoke, and wielded no unfulfilled words. The god honored him with the gift of a golden chariot and winged horses that never tire.

He defeated mighty Oinomaos and won the maiden as his wife.He fathered six sons, leaders eager for achievements. And now he partakesof splendid blood sacrificesas he reclines by the course of the Alpheos, having his much-attended tomb beside the altar thronged by visiting strangers. And far shines that fame of the Olympic festivals gained in the racecourses of Pelops, where competition is held for swiftness of feet and boldly laboring feats of strength.And for the rest of his life the victor enjoys a honey-sweet calm,

so much as games can provide it. But the good that comes each dayis greatest for every mortal. My duty is to crown that man with an equestrian tunein Aeolic song.For I am confident that there is no other host both more expert in noble pursuits and more lordly in poweralive today to embellish in famous folds of hymns. A god acting as guardian makes this his concern:

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to devise means, Hieron, for youraspirations, and unless he should suddenly depart, I hope to celebrate an even sweeter success

with a speeding chariot, having found a helpful road of wordswhen coming to Kronos’ sunny hill. And now for me the Muse tends the strongest weapon in defense:others are great in various ways, but the summit is crownedby kings. Look no further.May you walk on high for the time that is yours, and may I join victors whenever they winand be foremost in wisdom among Hellenes everywhere.

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Olympia IX37

The Archilochos songcried aloud at Olympia, the victor hailed in his glory three times overwas enough by the Kronian hill to lead in triumph Epharmostos in revelry with his beloved companions. But now shower from the Muses’ bows that range into wide distance,Zeus, lord of the light in the red thunderbolt, and with even such arrowsthe solemn headland of Elis that the hero Lydian Pelops of old won, fairest bridal dower of Hippodameia.

Cast a winged shaft of delightto Pytho likewise; you will find words that falter not to the groundas you throb the lyre for a man and a wrestler from famed Opous. Praise the land and her son. Themis and the lady of salvation, Eunomia, her daughter, the glorious, keep it for their own; he blossoms in exploits, Kastalia, beside your springand by Alpheus river, to make the garlands in their bloom lift upthe mother of Lokrian men, land of trees shining.

And I, lighting a city beloved with blaze of whirling song, swifter than the proud horse or winged ship on the sea will carry the message, if with hand blessed I garden this secret close of the Graces.It is they who minister delightful things. If men are brave, or wise, it is by the divinity

in them; how else could Herakles’ hands have shaken the club against the tridentwhen by Pylos’ gate Poseidon stood over against him, and Phoibos strode on him with the silver bow in his hands poised;neither the death-god Hades rested the staff wherewith he marshals mortal bodies of men perished down the hollow street. But, my lips, cast this story from us.For to revile the gods

37 The Odes of Pindar. Translated by Richmond Lattimore (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1947).

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is hateful learning, and to vaunt against season carries

an underweb of madness.Speak not idly such things; let be war and all discord apart from the immortals. Rather to Protogeneia’s city bring our speech, where, by decree of Zeus of the rippling thunder,Deukalion and Pyrrha, coming down from Parnassos, founded their house at the first and with no act of love establisheda stone generation to be their folk. These were named people thereafter. Wake for them the high strain of song, and praise old wine, but the blossoms of poetry

that is young. For they say the black earth was awash under the weight of water; but by Zeus’ means, of a sudden the ebb-tide drained the flood. And from these came your ancestors, men with brazen shields, traced back at the outsetto Iapeton’s seed, Sons of his daughters by the great sons of Kronos, kings in the land for all timeuntil the lord of Olympos,ravishing from the Epeian land Opous’ daughter, lay with hersecretly on Mainalian slopes; and thereafter he brought her to Lokros, lest age, overtaking, doom himto be childless. The bride carried the mighty seed; and the hero was glad to see the son for his fostering. He named him after his mother’s sire, to be called Opous, a man surpassing in stature and action, and gave him the city and the people to govern.

There came to him stranger-guests from Argos and Thebes, Arkadians and Pisatans.But beyond all newcomers he honored Aktor’s son and Aigina’sMenoitios; he whose child, brought with the sons of Atreus, in the plain of Teuthras stood his ground alone with Achilles when Telephos, bending back the rest of the valiant Danaäns, hurled them against their own beached ships.Thus was made plain for anywith wit to see how strong the heart of Patroklos; and Thetis’ son ordained thereafter that never

in grim battle should Patroklos be

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marshaled apart from his own man-wrecking spear’s place. May I find words now to win through riding the car of the Musesto the occasion. May daring and compassing power come upon me. I went, in virtue of proxeny, to stand by Lampromachos in his garlands of Isthmos, where both men won

on a single day their events.And twice thereafter delight of victory came to him at the gatesof Korinth, as in the Nemean valley to Epharmostos. He likewise at Argos won glory among men, and as a boy at Athens; in Marathon, torn from beardless antagonists, he stood the onset of older men for the silver vessels. He threw these in his speed and craftwith no fall scored against him and walked through the ring to loud acclamationin the pride of his youth, splendid, and with achievement of splendor.

Before the Parrhasians assembled, he appeared, a wonder, at the festival of Zeus Lykaios; as when he won the cloak, warm medicine of cold winds, at Pellene; the tomb of Iolaos witnesses to his shining glory, as Eleusis the sea-borne. Best by nature is best; but many have striven before now to win by talents acquiredthrough art the glory.But the thing unblessed by God is none the worse for silence, always. There are ways

that surpass others. But no one discipline sustainsus all. And skills are steep things to win. As you bring the games’ prize, be bold to cry aloudthis man that is blessed by nature, strong of hand, nimble, with eyes of valor, who at your feast, Aias, son of Oileus, has wreathed your altar in victory.

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Nemian VII38

FOR SOGENES OF AIGINAWINNER, BOYS’ PENTATHLON

Eleithuia, enthroned beside the deep-thinking Fates,daughter of mighty Hera, hear me, giver of birth to children. Without youwe behold neither light nor the darkness of night,nor are we allotted your sister, splendid-limbed Hebe.39

Yet we do not all draw breath for equal ends, for different things constrain each man in destiny’s yoke. But by your grace Thearion’s son, Sogenes, is made famous in songbecause he was distinguished for his excellence among pentathletes.

For he lives in the song-loving city of spear-clashingAiakidai, and they most eagerly cherish a spirit 10 that has been tested in competition.If a man succeeds in an exploit, he casts a honey-mindedcause40 into the Muses’ streams, for great deeds of valorremain in deep darkness when they lack hymns.We know of a mirror for noble deeds in only one way,if, by the grace of Mnemosyne with the shining crown,one finds a recompense for his labors in poetry’s famous songs.

Wise men know well the wind to comeon the third day and are not harmed by greed for gain,for rich and poor travel to the tombof death. I believe that Odysseus’ story 20has become greater than his actual suffering because of Homer’s sweet verse,

for upon his fictions and soaring craftrests great majesty, and his skill deceives with misleading tales. The great majorityof men have a blind heart, for if they could have seen the truth, mighty Aias, in anger over the arms,would not have planted in his chestthe smooth sword. Except for Achilles, in battle he was the best

38 Pindar. (The Loeb Classical Library)39 Goddess of Youth.40 Aitian, i.e., a pleasing theme for song.

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whom the favoring breezes of the straight-blowing Zephyr conducted to the city Ilos in swift ships, to return his wife

to fair-haired Menelaos. But to all alike comes 30the wave of Hades, and it falls upon the obscure and the famous,41 yet honor belongs to thosewhose fairy story a god exalts after they die.As a helper, then, I have come to the great navelof the broad-bosomed earth. For in Pytho’s holy groundlies Neoptolemos, after he sacked Priam’s city,where the Danaans also toiled. When he sailed away,he missed Skyros,42 but, after wandering, he and his men reached Ephyra.43

In Molossia44 he was king for a shorttime, but his offspring have forever heldthat privilege of his. He then went to visit the god, 40bringing with him items from the finest spoils of Troy.There, when he became involved in a quarrel over sacrificial meats, a man struck him with a sword.

The hospitable Delphians were exceedingly grieved,but he had paid his debt to destiny, for it was necessary that within that most ancient precinctone of the royal Aiakidai remain ever afterbeside the god’s well-walled temple, to dwell thereas a rightful overseer of processions honoring heroes with many sacrifices.When it comes to his just renown, three words will suffice:no lying witness presides over his accomplishments.Aigina, I am emboldened to say 50 that for the splendid achievements

of your offspring and Zeus’ there is a royal road of wordsstretching from your home; but rest is sweet in every endeavor and even honeyand Aphrodite’s delightful flowers can be cloying.By nature each of us is allotted a life that sets him apart:one person has this, another that, and it is impossible

41 Or upon the unexpected and expecting (pese d’ adoke-ton en kai dokeonta). 42 The island where he was raised.43 The capital of Thesprotia, a district of Epiros.44 A district of Epiros.

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for one man to succeed in winning complete happiness:I cannot name any to whom Fate has given such a prizethat lasts. But, Thearion, to you she gives fitting measure of prosperity,

and although you have won boldness for noble deeds,she does not harm your mind’s understanding. 60I am a guest-friend. Keeping away dark blame,like streams of water I shall bring genuine famewith my praises to the man who is my friend, for that is the proper reward for good men.

If any Achaian man is nearby, one dwelling beyond the Ionian Sea, he will not blame me; I also trust in my host’s hospitality, and among his townsmenmy gaze is bright, since I have not been excessive,but have removed everything forced from my path. May time to comeapproach favorably. One who knows me will proclaimif I come saying a crooked utterance out of tune.Sogenes from the clan of the Euxenidai, I swear 70that I have not stepped up to the line and sent my tongue

speeding like a bronze-cheeked javelin, which releasesthe strong neck from wrestling without sweat, before the body falls under the blazing sun.45

If there was hard work, greater is the delight that follows.Forgive me. If in excessive elation I cried out, to a victor,at least, I am not averse to paying a debt of honor.Weaving crowns is easy. Strike up the prelude. The Muse,you know, binds together gold and white ivorywith the lily flower she has taken from under the dew of the sea.

But, after mentioning Zeus, set in motion 80the famous sound of hymns for Nemea,softly. It is fitting to sing of the kind of the godson this holy ground with a gentlevoice, for they say that through the mother who received his seed he begat Aiakos

to be ruler of cities in my illustrious land

45 The pentathlon could be won with enough victories in earlier events such as the javelin throw, thereby obviating the deciding wrestling match in the heat of the day.

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and, Herakles, to be your kindly guest-friend and brother. If man has any enjoymentof his fellow man, I would say that a neighbor who lovedhis neighbor with fixed purpose is a joy to him wortheverything. And if a god should also uphold this principle,then with your help, subduer of the Giants, 90Sogenes might wish, as he cherishes a spirit of tendernessfor his father, to live joyfully on the well-built sacred street of his forefathers;

for, like the yoke of a four-horse chariot,he has his home in your precincts on either hand as he goes forth.46 Blessed one,it is fitting for you to win over Hera’s husbandand the gray-eyed virgin, for you are often able to givemortals defense against desperate difficulties.I pray that you may match a steadfast lifeto their youth and splendid old age and weave itto a happy end, and that 100 their children’s children may always have such

honor as they now enjoy and even greater hereafter.My heart will never saythat it has treated Neoptolemos with unyielding words, but to plow the same ruts three or four timesis pointless, like someone yapping at children, “Corinth belongs to Zeus.”

Prometheus Bound

Aeschylus47

46 Sogenes had his home between two precincts dedicated to Herakles, like the pole that runs between the yokes on a four-horse chariot.

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(PROMETHEUS by tradition was fastened to a peak of the Caucasus.)

FORCEFar have we come to this far spot of earth, this narrow Scythian land, a desert all untrodden. God of the forge and fire, yours the task the Father laid upon you.To this high-piercing, head-long rock in adamantine chains that none can break bind him—him here, who dared all things. Your flaming flower he stole to give to men, fire, the master craftsman, through whose power all things are wrought, and for such error now he must repay the gods; be taught to yield to Zeus’ lordship and to ceasefrom his man-loving way.

HEPHESTUSForce, Violence, what Zeus enjoined on youhas here an end. Your task is done. But as for me, I am not bold to bind a god, a kinsman, to this stormy crag. Yet I must needs be bold.His load is heavy who dares disobey the Father’s word.O high-souled child of Justice, the wise counselor, against my will as against yours I nail you fast in brazen fetters never to be loosedto this rock peak, where no man ever comes, where never voice or face of mortal you will see. The shining splendor of the sun shall wither you. Welcome to you will be the night when with her mantle star-inwrought she hides the light of day.And welcome then in turn the sun to melt the frost the dawn has left behind.Forever shall the intolerable present grind you down,and he who will release you is not born. Such fruit you reap for your man-loving way. A god yourself, you did not dread God’s anger, but gave to mortals honor not their due, and therefore you must guard this joyless rock— no rest, no sleep, no moment’s respite.Groans shall your speech be, lamentation

47 From Three Greek Plays (91-143), translated with introductions by Edith Hamilton (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1937).

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your only words—all uselessly. Zeus has no mind to pity. He is harsh, like upstarts always.

FORCEWell then, why this delay and foolish talk? A god whom gods hate is abominable.

HEPHESTUSThe tie of blood has a strange power, and old acquaintance too.

FORCEAnd so say I—but don’t you think that disobedience to the Father’s words might have still stranger power?

HEPHESTUSYou’re rough, as always. Pity is not in you.

FORCEMuch good is pity here. Why all this pother that helps him not a whit?

HEPHESTUSO skill of hand now hateful to me.

FORCEWhy blame your skill? These troubles here were never caused by it. That’s simple truth.

HEPHESTUSYet would it were another’s and not mine.

FORCETrouble is everywhere except in heaven. No one is free but Zeus.

HEPHESTUSI know—I’ve not a word to say.

FORCECome then. Make haste. On with his fetters. What if the Father sees you lingering?

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HEPHESTUSThe chains are ready here if he should look.

FORCESeize his hands and master him.Now to your hammer. Pin him to the rocks.

HEPHESTUSAll done, and quick work too.

FORCEStill harder. Tighter. Never loose your hold. For he is good at finding a way out where there is none.

HEPHESTUSThis arm at least he will not ever free.

FORCEBuckle the other fast, and let him learn with all his cunning he’s a fool to Zeus.

HEPHESTUSNo one but he, poor wretch, can blame my work.

FORCEDrive stoutly now your wedge straight through his breast,the stubborn jaw of steel that cannot break.

HEPHESTUSAlas, Prometheus, I grieve for your pain.

FORCEYou shirk your task and grieve for those Zeus hates? Take care; you may need pity for yourself.

HEPHESTUSYou see a sight eyes should not look upon.

FORCEI see one who has got what he deserves.But come. The girdle now around his waist.

HEPHESTUS

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What must be shall be done. No need to urge me.

FORCEI will and louder too. Down with you now.Make fast his legs in rings. Use all your strength.

HEPHESTUSDone and small trouble.

FORCENow for his feet. Drive the nails through the flesh. The judge is stern who passes on our work.

HEPHESTUSYour tongue and face match well.

FORCEWhy, you poor weakling. Are you one to cast a savage temper in another’s face?

HEPHESTUSOh, let us go. Chains hold him, hand and foot.

FORCERun riot now, you there upon the rocks.Go steal from gods to give their goods to men— to men whose life is but a little day. What will they do to lift these woes from you? Forethought your name means, falsely named. Forethought you lack and need now for yourself if you would slip through fetters wrought like these.

(Exeunt FORCE, VIOLENCE, HEPHESTUS.)

PROMETHEUSO air of heaven and swift-winged winds, O running river waters,O never numbered laughter of sea waves, Earth, mother of all, Eye of the sun, all seeing, on you I call.Behold what I, a god, endure from gods. See in what tortures I must struggle through countless years of time. This shame, these bonds, are put upon me by the new ruler of the gods.Sorrow enough in what is here and what is still to come.It wrings groans from me.

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When shall the end be, the appointed end? And yet why ask?All, all I knew before, all that should be. Nothing, no pang of pain that I did not foresee.Bear without struggle what must be. Necessity is strong and ends our strife. But silence is intolerable here. So too is speech.I am fast bound, I must endure.I gave to mortals gifts.I hunted out the secret source of fire.I filled a reed therewith,fire, the teacher of all arts to men,the great way through.These are the crimes that I must pay for,pinned to a rock beneath the open sky.But what is here? What comes?What sound, what fragrance, brushed me with faint wings,of deities or mortals or of both? Has someone found a way to this far peak to view my agony? What else?Look at me then, in chains, a god who failed,the enemy of Zeus, whom all gods hate,all that go in and out of Zeus’ hall. The reason is that I loved men too well.Oh, birds are moving near me. The air murmurs with swift and sweeping wings.Whatever comes to me is terrible.

(Enter CHORUS. They are sea nymphs. It is clear from what follows that a winged car brings them on to the stage.)

LEADER OF CHORUSOh, be not terrified, for friends are here, each eager to be first, on swift wings flying to your rock. I prayed my father long before he let me come.The rushing winds have sped me on.A noise of ringing brass went through the sea-caves, and for all a maiden’s fears it drove me forth, so swift, I did not put my sandals on, but in my winged car I came to you.

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PROMETHEUSTo see this sight— Daughters of fertile Tethys, children of Ocean who forever flows unresting round earth’s shores, behold me, and my bonds that bind me fast upon the rocky height of this cleft mountain side, keeping my watch of pain.

A SEA NYMPHI look upon you and a mist of tears, of grief and terror, rises as I see your body withering upon the rocks, in shameful fetters.For a new helmsman steers Olympus. By new laws Zeus is ruling without law. He has put down the mighty ones of old.

PROMETHEUSOh, had I been sent deep, deep into earth, to that black boundless place where go the dead, though cruel chains should hold me fast forever, I should be hid from sight of gods and men. But now I am a plaything for the winds. My enemies exult—and I endure.

ANOTHER NYMPHWhat god so hard of heart to look on these things gladly?Who, but Zeus only, would not suffer with you? He is malignant always and his mind unbending. All the sons of heavenhe drives beneath his yoke. Nor will he make an end until his heart is sated or until someone, somehow, shall seize his sovereignty— if that could be.

PROMETHEUSAnd yet—and yet—all tortured though I am, fast fettered here, he shall have need of me, the lord of heaven, to show to him the strange design by which he shall be stripped of throne and scepter. But he will never win me over

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with honeyed spell of soft, persuading words, nor will I ever cower beneath his threats to tell him what he seeks. First he must free me from this savage prison and pay for all my pain.

ANOTHEROh, you are bold. In bitter agony you will not yield.These are such words as only free men speak. Piercing terror stings my heart.I fear because of what has come to you. Where are you fated to put in to shore and find a haven from this troubled sea?Prayers cannot move, persuasions cannot turn, the heart of Kronos’ son.

PROMETHEUSI know that he is savage. He keeps his righteousness at home.But yet some time he shall be mild of mood, when he is broken.He will smooth his stubborn temper, and run to meet me.Then peace will come and love between us two.

LEADERReveal the whole to us. Tell us your tale.What guilt does Zeus imputeto torture you in shame and bitterness?Teach us, if you may speak.

PROMETHEUSTo speak is pain, but silence too is pain, and everywhere is wretchedness. When first the gods began to quarrel and faction rose among them, some wishing to throw Kronos out of heaven,others opposed, pressing the opposite, that Zeus should never rule the gods, then I, giving wise counsel to the Titans, children of Earth and Heaven, could not prevail.My way out was a shrewd one, they despised it, and in their arrogant minds they thought to conquer

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with ease, by their own strength.But Justice, she who is my mother, told me— Earth she is sometimes called, whose form is one, whose name is many— she told me, and not once alone, the future, how it should be brought to pass, that neither violence nor strength of arm but only subtle craft could win. I made all clear to them.They scorned to look my way.The best then left me was to stand with Zeus in all good will, my mother with me, and, through my counsel, the black underworld covered, and hides within its secret depths Kronos the aged and his host.Such good the ruler of the gods had from me, and with such evil he has paid me back. There is a sickness that infects all tyrants, they cannot trust their friends.But you have asked a question I would answer:What is my crime that I am tortured for? Zeus had no sooner seized his father’s throne than he was giving to each god a post and ordering his kingdom, but mortals in their misery he took no thought for.His wish was they should perish and he would then beget another race.And there were none to cross his will save I. I dared it, I saved men.Therefore I am bowed down in torment, grievous to suffer, pitiful to see.I pitied mortals,I never thought to meet with this. Ruthlessly punished here I aman infamy to Zeus.

LEADERIron of heart or wrought from rock is hewho does not suffer in your misery.Oh, that these eyes had never looked upon it.I see it and my heart is wrung.

PROMETHEUSA friend must feel I am a thing to pity.

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LEADERDid you perhaps go even further still?

PROMETHEUSI made men cease to live with death in sight.

LEADERWhat potion did you find to cure this sickness?

PROMETHEUSBlind hopes I caused to dwell in them.

ANOTHER SEA NYMPHGreat good to men that gift.

PROMETHEUSTo it I added the good gift of fire.

ANOTHERAnd now the creatures of a dayhave flaming fire?

PROMETHEUSYes, and learn many crafts therefrom.

LEADERFor deeds like these Zeus holds you guilty, and tortures you with never ease from pain? Is no end to your anguish set before You?

PROMETHEUSNone other except when it pleases him.

LEADERIt pleases him? What hope there? You must see you missed your mark. I tell you this with pain to give you pain.But let that pass. Seek your deliverance.

PROMETHEUSYour feet are free.Chains bind mine fast.Advice is easy for the fortunate.All that has come I knew full well.

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Of my own will I shot the arrow that fell short,of my own will.Nothing do I deny.I helped men and found trouble for myself. I knew—and yet not all.I did hot think to waste away hung high in air upon a lonely rock. But now, I pray you, no more pityfor what I suffer here. Come, leave your car, and learn the fate that steals upon me, all, to the very end.Hear me, oh, hear me. Share my pain. Remember, trouble may wander far and widebut it is always near.

LEADERYou cry to willing ears, Prometheus.Lightly I leave my swiftly speeding carand the pure ways of air where go the birds.I stand upon this stony ground.I ask to hear your troubles to the end.

(Enter OCEAN riding on a four-footed bird. The CHORUS draw back, and he does not see them.)

OCEANWell, here at last, an end to a long journey. I’ve made my way to you, Prometheus. This bird of mine is swift of wing but I can guide him by my will, without a bridle.Now you must know, I’m grieved at your misfortunes.Of course I must be, I’m your kinsman. And that apart, there’s no one I think more of. And you’ll find out the truth of what I’m saying. It isn’t in me to talk flattery.Come: tell me just what must be done to help you, and never say that you’ve a firmer friend than you will find in me.

PROMETHEUSOho! What’s here? You? Come to see my troubles? How did you dare to leave your ocean river, your rock caves, hollowed by the sea, and stand upon the iron mother earth?

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Was it to see what has befallen me, because you grieve with me?Then see this sight: here is the friend of Zeus,who helped to make him master. This twisted body is his handiwork.

OCEANI see, Prometheus. I do wish you’d take some good advice.I know you’re very clever, but real self-knowledge—that you haven’t got.New fashions have come in with this new ruler. Why can’t you change your own to suit? Don’t talk like that—so rude and irritating. Zeus isn’t so far off but he might hear, and what would happen then would make these troublesseem child’s play.You’re miserable. Then do control your temper and find some remedy.Of course you think you know all that I’m saying. You certainly should know the harmthat blustering has brought you.But you’re not humbled yet. You won’t give in. You’re looking for more trouble.Just learn, one thing from me:Don’t kick against the pricks.You see he’s savage—why not? He’s a tyrant. He doesn’t have to hand in his accounts. Well, now I’m going straight to try if I can free you from this wretched business. Do you keep still. No more of this rash talking. Haven’t you yet learned with all your wisdom the mischief that a foolish tongue can make?

PROMETHEUSWisdom? The praise for that is yours alone, who shared and dared with me and yet were able to shun all blame.But—let be now. Give not a thought more to me. You never would persuade him.He is not easy to win over. Be cautious. Keep a sharp look out, or on your way back you may come to harm.

OCEANYou counsel others better than yourself,

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to judge by what I hear and what I see. But I won’t let you turn me off.I really want to serve you. And I am proud, yes, proud to say I know that Zeus will let you go just as a favor done to me.

PROMETHEUSI thank you for the good will you would show me. But spare your pains. Your trouble would be wasted. The effort, if indeed you wish to make it, could never help me.Now you are out of harm’s way. Stay there. Because I am unfortunate myself I would not wish that others too should be. Not so. Even here the lot of Atlas, of my brother, weighs on me. In the western country he stands, and on his shoulders is the pillar that holds apart the earth and sky, a load not easy to be borne.Pity too filled my heart when once I saw swift Typhon overpowered. Child of the Earth was he, who lived in caves in the Cilician land, a flaming monster with a hundred heads, who rose up against all the gods. Death whistled from his fearful jaws. His eyes flashed glaring fire.I thought he would have wrecked God’s sovereignty.But to him came the sleepless bolt of Zeus, down from the sky, thunder with breath of flame, and all his high boasts were struck dumb.Into his very heart the fire burned. His strength was turned to ashes. And now he lies a useless thing, a sprawling body, near the narrow sea-wayby Aetna, underneath the mountain’s roots. High on the peak the god of fire sits, welding the molten iron in his forge, whence sometimes there will burst rivers red hot, consuming with fierce jaws the level fields of Sicily, lovely with fruits.And that is Typhon’s anger boiling up, his darts of flame none may abide,

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of fire-breathing spray, scorched to a cinder though he is by Zeus’ bolt.But you are no man’s fool; you have no need to learn from me. Keep yourself safe,as you well know the way.And I will drain my cup to the last drop, until Zeus shall abate his insolence of rage.

OCEANAnd yet you know the saying, when anger reaches fever heat wise words are a physician.

PROMETHEUSNot when the heart is full to bursting.Wait for the crisis; then the balm will soothe.

OCEANBut if one were discreet as well as daring—? You don’t see danger then? Advise me.

PROMETHEUSI see your trouble wasted,and you good-natured to the point of folly.

OCEANThat’s a complaint I don’t mind catching. Let be: I’ll choose to seem a foolif I can be a loyal friend.

PROMETHEUSBut he will lay to me all that you do.

OCEANThere you have said what needs must send me home.

PROMETHEUSJust so. All your lamenting over me will not have got you then an enemy.

OCEANMeaning—the new possessor of the throne?

PROMETHEUSBe on your guard. See that you do not vex him.

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OCEANYour case, Prometheus, may well teach me—

PROMETHEUSOff with you. Go—and keep your present mind.

OCEANYou urge one who is eager to be gone.For my four-footed bird is restlessto skim with wings the level ways of air.He’ll be well pleased to rest in his home stable.

(Exit OCEAN. The CHORUS now come forward.)

CHORUSI mourn for you, Prometheus.Desolation is upon you.My face is wet with weeping.Tears fall as waters which run continually.The floods overflow me.Terrible are the deeds of Zeus.He rules by laws that are his own.High is his spear above the others,turned against the gods of old.All the land now groans aloud,mourning for the honor of the heroes of your race.Stately were they, honored ever in the days of long ago.Holy Asia is hard by.Those that dwell there suffer in your trouble, great and sore.In the Colchian land maidens live,fearless in fight. Scythia has a battle throng, the farthest place of earth is theirs, where marsh grass grows around Maeotis lake. Arabia’s flower is a warrior host; high on a cliff their fortress stands, Caucasus towers near; men fierce as the fire, like the roar of the fire they shout when the sharp spears clash. All suffer with you in your trouble, great and sore. Another Titan too, Earth mourns, bound in shame and iron bonds. I saw him, Atlas the god. He bears on his back forever the cruel strength of the crushing world

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and the vault of the sky. He groans beneath them. The foaming sea-surge roars in answer,the deep laments, the black place of death far down in earth is moved exceedingly,and the pure-flowing river waters grieve for him in his piteous pain.

PROMETHEUSNeither in insolence nor yet in stubbornness have I kept silence.It is thought that eats my heart, seeing myself thus outraged. Who else but I, but I myself, gave these new gods their honors?Enough of that. I speak to you who know.Hear rather all that mortals suffered.Once they were fools. I gave them power to think.Through me they won their minds.I have no blame for them. All I would tell youis my good will and my good gifts to them.Seeing they did not see, nor hearing hear.Like dreams they led a random life. They had no houses built to face the sun,of bricks or well-wrought wood,but like the tiny ant who has her home in sunless crannies deep down in the earth, they lived in caverns.The signs that speak of winter’s coming, of flower-faced spring, of summer’s heat with mellowing fruits, were all unknown to them. From me they learned the stars that tell the seasons, their risings and their settings hard to mark. And number, that most excellent device, I taught to them, and letters joined in words. I gave to them the mother of all arts, hard working memory. I, too, first brought beneath the yoke great beasts to serve the plow, to toil in mortals’ stead. Up to the chariot I led the horse that loves the rein, the glory of the rich man in his pride. None else but I first found the seaman’s car, sail-winged, sea-driven. Such ways to help I showed them, I who have

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no wisdom now to help myself.

LEADERYou suffer shame as a physician must who cannot heal himself. You who cured others now are all astray, distraught of mind and faint of heart, and find no medicine to soothe your sickness.

PROMETHEUSListen, and you shall find more cause for wonder.Best of all gifts I gave them was the gift of healing.For if one fell into a maladythere was no drug to cure, no draught, or soothing ointment.For want of these men wasted to a shadow until I showed them how to use the kindly herbs that keep from us disease. The ways of divination I marked out for them, and they are many; how to know the waking vision from the idle dream; to read the sounds hard to discern; the signs met on the road; the flight of birds, eagles and vultures, those that bring good or ill luck in their kind, their way of life, their loves and hates and council meetings. And of those inward parts that tell the future, the smoothness and the color and fair shape that please the gods. And how to wrap the flesh in fat and the long thigh bone, for the altar fire in honor to the gods. So did I lead them on to knowledgeof the dark and riddling art. The fire omens, too, were dim to them until I made them see.Deep within the earth are hidden precious things for men, brass and iron, gold and silver.Would any say he brought these forth to light until I showed the way?No one, except to make an idle boast. All arts, all goods, have come to men from me.

LEADER

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Do not care now for mortals but take thought for yourself, O evil-fated.I have good hope that still loosed from your bonds you shall be strong as Zeus.

PROMETHEUSNot thus—not yet—is fate’s appointed end, fate that brings all to pass.I must be bowed by age-long pain and grief. So only will my bonds be loosed.All skill, all cunning, is as foolishness before necessity.

A SEA NYMPHWho is the helmsman of necessity?

PROMETHEUSFate, threefold, Retribution, unforgetting.

ANOTHERAnd Zeus is not so strong?

PROMETHEUSHe cannot shun what is foredoomed.

ANOTHERAnd is he not foredoomed to rule forever?

PROMETHEUSNo word of that. Ask me no further.

ANOTHERSome solemn secret hides behind your silence.

PROMETHEUSThink of another theme. It is not yet the time to speak of this.It must be wrapped in darkness, so alone I shall some time be saved from shame and grief and bondage.

CHORUSZeus orders all things.May he never set his might against purpose of mine, like a wrestler in the match.May I ever be found where feast the holy gods,

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and the oxen are slain, where ceaselessly flows the pathway of Ocean, my father.May the words of my lips forever be free from sin.May this abide with me and not depart like melting snow.Long life is sweet when there is hope and hope is confident.And it is sweet when glad thoughts make the heart grow strong,and there is joy.But you, crushed by a thousand griefs,I look upon you and I shudder. You did not tremble before Zeus.You gave your worship where you would, to men, a gift too great for mortals, a thankless favor.What help for you there? What defense in those whose life is but from morning unto evening? Have you not seen?Their little strength is feebleness, fast bound in darkness, like a dream.The will of man shall never break the harmony of God. This I have learned beholding your destruction. Once I spoke different words to you from those now on my lips. A song flew to me.I stood beside your bridal bed, I sang the wedding hymn, glad in your marriage. And with fair gifts persuading her, you led to share your couch Hesione, child of the sea.

(Enter IO.)

IOWhat, land—what creatures here?This, that I see—A form storm-beaten,bound to the rock.Did you do wrong?Is this your punishment?You perish here.

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Where am I? Speak to a wretched wanderer. Oh! Oh! he stings again—the gadfly—oh, miserable! But you must know he’s not a gadfly. He’s Argus, son of Earth, the herdsman. He has a thousand eyes. I see him. Off! Keep him away! No, he comes on. His eyes can see all ways at once. He’s dead but no grave holds him. He comes straight up from hell. He is the huntsman, and I his wretched quarry. He drives me all along the long sea strand. I may not stop for food or drink. He has a shepherd’s pipe, arced with beeswax joined. Its sound is like the locust’s shrilling, a drowsy note—that will not let me sleep. Oh, misery. Oh, misery. Where is it leading me, my wandering—far wandering. What ever did I do, how ever did I sin, that you have yoked me to calamity, O son of Kronos, that you madden a wretched woman driven mad by the gadfly of fear. Oh, burn me in fire or hide me in earth or fling me as food to the beasts of the sea.Master, grant me my prayer. Enough—I have been tried enough—my wandering—long wandering. Yet I have found no place to leave my misery.—I am a girl who speak to you, but horns are on my head.

PROMETHEUSLike one caught in an eddy, whirling round and round,the, gadfly drives you.I know you, girl. You are Inachus’ daughter. You made the god’s heart hot with love,

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and Hera hates you. She it iswho drives you on this flight that never stops.

IOHow is it that you speak my father’s name? Who are you? Tell me for my misery. Who are you, sufferer, that speak the truth to one who suffers?You know the sickness God has put upon me, that stings and maddens me and drives me on and wastes my life away. I am a beast, a starving beast, that frenzied runs with clumsy leaps and bounds, oh, shame, mastered by Hera’s malice. Who among the wretched suffer as I do? Give me a sign, you there. Tell to me clearlythe pain still before me.Is help to be found?A medicine to cure me?Speak, if you know.

PROMETHEUSI will and in plain words,as friend should talk to friend.—You see Prometheus, who gave mortals fire.

IOYou, he who succored the whole race of men? You, that Prometheus, the daring, the enduring?Why do you suffer here?

PROMETHEUSJust now I told the tale—

IOBut will you not still give to me a boon?

PROMETHEUSAsk what you will. I know all you would learn.

IOThen tell me who has bound you to this rock.

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PROMETHEUSZeus was the mind that planned. The hand that did the deed the god of fire.

IOWhat was the wrong that you are punished for?

PROMETHEUSNo more. Enough for me.

IOBut you will tell the term set to my wandering?My misery is great. When shall it end?

PROMETHEUSHere not to know is best.

IOI ask you not to hide what I must suffer.

PROMETHEUSI do so in no grudging spirit.

IOWhy then delay to tell me all?

PROMETHEUSNot through ill will. I would not terrify you.

IOSpare me not more than I would spare myself.

PROMETHEUSIf you constrain me I must speak. Hear then—

LEADERNot yet. Yield to my pleasure too.For I would hear from her own lipswhat is the deadly fate, the sicknessthat is upon her. Let her say—then teach herthe trials still to come.

PROMETHEUSIf you would please the maidens, Io—they are your father’s sisters,

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and when the heart is sorrowful, to speakto those who will let fall a tearis time well spent.

IOI do not know how to distrust you.You shall hear all. And yet— I am ashamed to speak, to tell of that god-driven storm that struck me, changed me, ruined me. How shall I tell you who it was? How ever to my maiden chamber visions came by night, persuading me with gentle words:“Oh happy, happy girl, Why are you all too long a maid when you might marry with the highest? The arrow of desire has pierced Zeus. For you he is on fire.With you it is his will to capture love. Would you, child, fly from Zeus’ bed? Go forth to Lerna, to the meadows deep in grass. There is a sheep-fold there, an ox-stall, too, that holds your father’s oxen—so shall Zeus find release from his desire.” Always, each night, such dreams possessed me.I was unhappy and at last I dared to tell my father of these visions. He sent to Pytho and far Dodona man after man to ask the oracle what he must say or do to please the gods.But all brought answers back of shifting meaning,hard to discern, like golden coins unmarked.At last a clear word came. It fell upon him like lightning from the sky. It told himto thrust me from his house and from his country, to wander to the farthest bounds of earthlike some poor dumb beast set apart for sacrifice, whom no man will restrain.And if my father would not, Zeus would send his thunder-bolt with eyes of flame to endhis race, all, everyone.He could not but obey such words from the dark oracle. He drove me out.He shut his doors to me—against his will

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as against mine. Zeus had him bridled. He drove him as he would. Straightway I was distorted, mind and body. A beast—with horns—look at me—stung by a fly, who madly leaps and bounds. And so I ran and found myself besidethe waters, sweet to drink, of Kerchneia and Lerna’s well-spring.Beside me went the herdsman Argus, the violent of heart, the earth-born, watching my footsteps with his hundred eyes.But death came to him, swift and unforeseen.Plagued by a gadfly then, the scourge of God, I am driven on from land to land. So for what has been. But what still remains of anguish for me, tell me.Do not in pity soothe me with false tales. Words strung together by a lie are like a foul disease.

LEADEROh, shame. Oh, tale of shame.Never, oh never, would I have believed that my ears would hear words such as these, of strange meaning. Evil to see and evil to hear, misery, defilement, and terror. They pierce my heart with a two-edged sword. A fate like that—I shudder to look upon Io.

PROMETHEUSYou are too ready with your tears and fears. Wait for the end.

LEADERSpeak. Tell us, for when one lies sick, to face with clear eyes all the pain to come is sweet.

PROMETHEUSWhat first you asked was granted easily, to hear from her own lips her trials. But for the rest, learn now the sufferings she still must suffer, this young creature, at Hera’s hands. Child of Inachus, keep in your heart my words, so you shall know where the road ends. First to the sunrise,

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over furrows never plowed, where wandering Scythianslive in huts of wattles made, raised high on wheels smooth-rolling. Bows they have, and they shoot far. Turn from them.Keep to the shore washed by the moaning sea. Off to the left live the Chalybians, workers of iron. There be on your guard. A rough people they, who like not strangers. Here rolls a river called the Insolent, true to its name. You cannot find a ford until you reach the Caucasus itself, highest of mountains. From beneath its brow the mighty river rushes. You must cross the summit, neighbor to the stars. Then by the southward road, until you reach the warring Amazons, men-haters, who one day will found a city by the Thermodon, where Salmydessus thrustsa fierce jaw out into the sea that sailors hate, stepmother of ships.And they will bring you on your way right gladly to the Cimmerian isthmus, by a shallow lake, Maeotis, at the narrows.Here you must cross with courage. And men shall tell forever of your passing. The strait shall be named for you, Bosporus, Ford of the Cow. There leave the plains of Europe, and enter Asia, the great Continent.—Now does he seem to you, this ruler of the gods, evil, to all, in all things?A god desired a mortal—drove her forth to wander thus.A bitter lover you have found, O girl, for all that I have told you is not yet the prelude even.

IOOh, wretched, wretched.

PROMETHEUSYou cry aloud for this? What thenwhen you have learned the rest?

LEADER

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You will not tell her of more trouble?

PROMETHEUSA storm-swept sea of grief and ruin.

IOWhat gain to me is life? Oh, now to fling myselfdown from this rock peak to the earth below,and find release there from my trouble.Better to die once than to sufferthrough all the days of life.

PROMETHEUSHardly would you endure my trial,whose fate it is not ever to find deaththat ends all pain. For me there is no enduntil Zeus falls from power.

IOZeus fall from power?

PROMETHEUSYou would rejoice, I think, to see that happen?

IOHow could I not, who suffer at his hands?

PROMETHEUSKnow then that it shall surely be.

IOBut who will strip the tyrant of his scepter?

PROMETHEUSHe will himself and his own empty mind.

IOHow? Tell me, if it is not wrong to ask.

PROMETHEUSHe will make a marriage that will vex him.

IOGoddess or mortal, if it may be spoken?

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PROMETHEUSIt may not be. Seek not to know.

IOHis wife shall drive him from his throne?

PROMETHEUSHer child shall be more than his father’s match.

IOAnd is there no way of escape for him?

PROMETHEUSNo way indeed, unless my bonds are loosed.

IOBut who can loose them against Zeus’ will?

PROMETHEUSA son of yours—so fate decrees.

IOWhat words are these? A child of mine shall free you?

PROMETHEUSTen generations first must pass and then three more.

IOYour prophecy grows dim through generations.

PROMETHEUSSo let it be. Seek not to know your trials.

IODo not hold out a boon and then withdraw it.

PROMETHEUSOne boon of two I will bestow upon you.

IOAnd they are? Speak. Give me the choice.

PROMETHEUSI give it you: the hardships still before you,

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or his name who shall free me. Choose.

LEADEROf these give one to her, but give to me a grace as well—I am not quite unworthy. Tell her where she must wander, and to me tell who shall free you. It is my heart’s desire.

PROMETHEUSAnd to your eagerness I yield. Hear, Io, first, of your far-driven journey. And bear in mind my words, inscribe them upon the tablets of your heart. When you have crossed the stream that bounds the continents, turn to the East where flame the footsteps of the sun, and passalong the sounding sea to Cisthene. Here on the plain live Phorcys’ children, three, all maidens, very old, and shaped like swans, who have one eye and one tooth to the three. No ray of sun looks ever on that country, nor ever moon by night. Here too their sisters dwell. And they are three, the Gorgons, winged, with hair of snakes, hateful to mortals. Whom no man shall behold and draw again the breath of life. They garrison that place. And yet another evil sight, the hounds of Zeus, who never bark, griffins with beaks like birds. The one-eyed Arimaspi too, the riders, who live beside a stream that flows with gold, a way of wealth. From all these turn aside. Far off there is a land where black men live, close to the sources of the sun, whence springs a sun-scorched river. When you reach it, go with all care along the banks up to the great descent, where from the mountains the holy Nile pours forth its waters pleasant to drink from. It will be your guide to the Nile land, the Delta. A long exile is fated for you and your children here. If what I speak seems dark and hard to know, ask me again and learn all clearly.For I have time to spare and more than I could wish.

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LEADERIf in your story of her fatal journey there is yet somewhat left to tell her,speak now. If not, give then to us the grace we asked. You will remember.

PROMETHEUSThe whole term of her roaming has been told. But I will show she has not heard in vain, and tell her what she suffered coming hither, in proof my words are true.A moving multitude of sorrows were there, too many to recount, but at the end you came to where the levels of Molossa surround the lofty ridge of Dodona, seat of God’s oracle.A wonder past belief is there, oak trees that speak. They spoke, not darkly but in shining words, calling you Zeus’ glorious spouse.The frenzy seized you then. You fled along the sea-road washed by the great inlet, named for God’s mother. Up and down you wandered,storm-tossed. And in the time to come that sea shall have its name from you, Ionian, that men shall not forget your journey. This is my proof to you my mind can see farther than meets the eye.From here the tale I tell is for you all, and of the future, leaving now the past. There is a city, Canobus, at the land’s end, where the Nile empties, on new river soil. There Zeus at last shall make you sane again, stroking you with a hand you will not fear. And from this touch alone you will conceiveand bear a son, a swarthy man, whose harvest shall be reaped on many fields, all that are washed by the wide-watered Nile. In the fifth generation from him, fifty sisters will fly from marriage with their near of kin, who, hawks in close pursuit of doves, a-quiver with passionate desire, shall find that death waits for the hunters on the wedding night. God will refuse to them the virgin bodies. Argos will be the maidens’ refuge, to their suitors a slaughter dealt by women’s hands,

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bold in the watches of the night. The wife shall kill her husband, dipping her two-edged sword in blood.O Cyprian goddess, thus may you come to my foes. One girl, bound by love’s spell, will change her purpose, and she will not killthe man she lay beside, but choose the name of coward rather than be stained with blood. In Argos she will bear a kingly child—a story overlong if all were told.Know this, that from that seed will spring one glorious with the bow, bold-hearted, and he shall set me free.This is the oracle my mother told me, Justice, who is of old, Earth’s daughter.But how and where would be too long a tale, nor would you profit.

IOOh, misery. Oh, misery. A frenzy tears me.Madness strikes my mind. I burn. A frantic sting— an arrow never forged with fire.My heart is beating at its walls in terror. My eyes are whirling wheels. Away. Away. A raging wind of fury sweeps through me.My tongue has lost its power. My words are like a turbid stream, wild waves that dash against a surging sea, the black sea of madness.

(Exit Io.)

CHORUSWise, wise was he, who first weighed this in thought and gave it utterance:Marriage within one’s own degree is best, not with one whom wealth has spoiled, nor yet with one made arrogant by birth. Such as these he must not seek who lives upon the labor of his hands. Fate, dread deity, may you never, oh, never behold me

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sharing the bed of Zeus. May none of the dwellers in heaven draw near to me ever. Terrors take hold of me seeing her maidenhood turning from love of man, torn by Hera’s hate, driven in misery.For me, I would not shun marriage nor fear it, so it were with my equal.But the love of the greater gods, from whose eyes none can hide, may that never be mine. To war with a god-lover is not war, it is despair.For what could I do, or where could I fly from the cunning of Zeus?

PROMETHEUSIn very truth shall Zeus, for all his stubborn pride, be humbled, such a marriage he will maketo cast him down from throne and power. And he shall be no more remembered. The curse his father put on him shall be fulfilled.The curse that he cursed him with as he fell from his age-long throne.The way from such trouble no one of the gods can show him save I.These things I know and how they shall come to pass.So let him sit enthroned in confidence, trust to his crashing thunder high in air, shake in his hands his fire-breathing dart. Surely these shall be no defense, but he will fall, in shame unbearable. Even now he makes ready against himself one who shall wrestle with him and prevail, a wonder of wonders, who will finda flame that is swifter than lightning, a crash to silence the thunder, who will break into pieces the sea-god’s spear, the bane of the ocean that shakes the earth. Before this evil Zeus shall be bowed down. He will learn how far apart are a king and a slave.

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LEADERThese words of menace on your tongue speak surely only your desire.

PROMETHEUSThey speak that which shall surely be— and also my desire.

LEADERAnd we must look to see Zeus mastered?

PROMETHEUSYes, and beneath a yoke more cruel than this I bear.

LEADERYou have no fear to utter words like these?

PROMETHEUSI am immortal—and I have no fear.

ANOTHER SEA NYMPHBut agony still worse he might inflict—

PROMETHEUSSo let him do. All that must come I know.

ANOTHERThe wise bow to the inescapable.

PROMETHEUSBe wise then. Worship power.Cringe before each who wields it. To me Zeus counts as less than nothing. Let him work his will, show forth his power for his brief day, his little moment of lording it in heaven.—But see. There comes a courier from Zeus, a lackey in his new lord’s livery. Some curious news is surely on his lips.

(Enter HERMES.)

HERMESYou trickster there, you biter bitten, sinner against the gods, man-lover, thief of fire,

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my message is to you.The great father gives you here his orders:Reveal this marriage that you boast of, by which he shall be hurled from power. And, mark you, not in riddles, each fact clearly.—Don’t make me take a double journey, Prometheus. You can see Zeus isn’t going to be made kinder by this sort of thing.

PROMETHEUSBig words and insolent. They well become you, O lackey of the gods.Young—young—your thrones just won, you think you live in citadels grief cannot reach. Two dynasties I have seen fall from heaven, and I shall see the third fall fastest, most shamefully of all.Is it your thought to see me tremble and crouch before your upstart gods?Not so—not such a one am I.Make your way back. You will not learn from me.

HERMESAh, so? Still stubborn? Yet this willfulness has anchored you fast in these troubled waters.

PROMETHEUSAnd yet I would not change my lot with yours, O lackey.

HERMESBetter no doubt to be slave to a rock than be the Father’s trusted herald.

PROMETHEUSI must be insolent when I must speak to insolence.

HERMESYou are proud, it seems, of what has come to you.

PROMETHEUSI proud? May such pride bethe portion of my foes.—I count you of them.

HERMES

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You blame me also for your sufferings?

PROMETHEUSIn one word, all gods are my enemies. They had good from me. They return me evil.

HERMESI heard you were quite mad.

PROMETHEUSYes, I am mad, if to abhor such foes is madness.

HERMESYou would be insufferable, Prometheus, if you were not so wretched.

PROMETHEUSAlas!

HERMESAlas? That is a word Zeus does not understand.

PROMETHEUSTime shall teach it him, gray time, that teaches all things.

HERMESIt has not taught you wisdom yet.

PROMETHEUSNo, or I had not wrangled with a slave.

HERMESIt seems that you will tell the Father nothing.

PROMETHEUSPaying the debt of kindness that I owe him?

HERMESYou mock at me as though I were a child.

PROMETHEUSA child you are or what else has less sense if you expect to learn from me.There is no torture and no trick of skill,there is no force, which can compel my speech,

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until Zeus wills to loose these deadly bonds. So let him hurl his blazing bolt, and with the white wings of the snow,with thunder and with earthquake, confound the reeling world. None of all this will bend my willto tell him at whose hands he needs must fall.

HERMESI urge you, pause and think if this will help you.

PROMETHEUSI thought long since of all. I planned for all.

HERMESSubmit, you fool. Submit. In agony learn wisdom.

PROMETHEUSGo and persuade the sea wave not to break. You will persuade me no more easily. I am no frightened woman, terrified at Zeus’ purpose. Do you think to see me ape women’s ways, stretch out my hands to him I hate, and pray him for release? A world apart am I from prayer for pity.

HERMESThen all I say is said in vain. Nothing will move you, no entreaty soften your heart.Like a young colt new-bridled, you have the bit between your teeth, and rear and fight against the rein. But all this vehemence is feeble bombast. A fool, bankrupt of all but obstinacy, is the poorest thing on earth. Oh, if you will not hear me, yet consider the storm that threatens you from whichyou cannot fly, a great third wave of evil. Thunder and flame of lightning will rend this jagged peak. You shall b buried deep, held by a splintered rock.After long length of time you will return to see the light, but Zeus’ winged hound, an eagle red with blood,

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shall come a guest unbidden to your banquet. All day long he will tear to rags your body, great rents within the flesh, feasting in fury on the blackened liver. Look for no ending to this agony until a god will freely suffer for you, will take on him your pain, and in your stead descend to where the sun is turned to darkness, the black depths of death. Take thought: this is no empty boast but utter truth. Zeus does not lie. Each word shall be fulfilled. Pause and consider. Never think self-will is better than wise counsel.

LEADERTo us the words he speaks are not amiss.He bids you let your self-will go and seek good counsel. Yield.For to the wise a failure is disgrace.

PROMETHEUSThese tidings that the fellow shouts at me were known to me long since.A foe to suffer at the hands of foes is nothing shameful.Then let the twisting flame of forked fire be hurled upon me. Let the very air be rent, by thunder-crash.Savage winds convulse the sky, hurricanes shake the earth from its foundations, the waves of the sea rise up and drown the stars, and let me be swept down to hell, caught in the cruel whirlpool of Necessity. He cannot kill me.

HERMESWhy, these are ravings you may hear from madmen.His case is clear. Frenzy can go no further.You maids who pity him, depart, be swift.The thunder peals and it is merciless.Would you too be struck down?

LEADERSpeak other words, another counsel,

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if you would win me to obey. Now, in this place, to urge that I should be a coward is intolerable. I choose with him to suffer what must be. Not to stand by a friend—there is no evil I count more hateful.I spit it from my mouth.

HERMESRemember well I warned you, when you are swept away in utter ruin.Blame then yourselves, not fate, nor ever say that Zeus delivered youto a hurt you had not thought to see.With open eyes, not suddenly, not secretly, into the net of utter ruin whence there is no escape,you fall by your own folly.

(Exit HERMES.)

PROMETHEUSAn end to words. Deeds now. The world is shaken. The deep and secret way of thunder is rent apart.Fiery wreaths of lightning flash. Whirlwinds toss the swirling dust. The blasts of all the winds are battling in the air, and sky and sea are one.On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble.O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.

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Thales48

i.

“We have no writings by Thales, and we do not know whether he was in the habit of writing. Diogenes Laertius (I.23, 34, 35) speaks of two hundred verses on astronomy, and some maxims, such as ‘It is not the many words that have most meaning’” (HI 173).

ii.

“He advised the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to form a political union with a centrally located common governing council [Herodotus, Histories 1.170], advice which if taken might have made the Ionian cities better able to resist Persian expansion” (McKirahan 23).

iii.

“In an oft-told but historically improbable story, King Croesus of Lydia asked Thales for help in transporting his army across the river Halys, and Thales divided the river, making it passable by diverting its course upstream from the army’s position, so that some or all the water flowed behind the camp, rejoining the original river bed downstream” (McKirahan 23).

iv.

“Herodotus...tells us (I.75) that, according to the narratives of the Greeks, when Croesus went to battle against Cyrus and had difficulty in passing over the river Halys, Thales, who accompanied the army, diverted the river by a trench, which he made in the form of a crescent behind the camp, so that it could be forded” (Hegel, HI 171).

v.

“[H]e fixed that the year, as solar year, should have 365 days” (HI 173). vi.

“[J]udging from the anecdote, which Diogenes (I.24, 27) retails from a certain Hieronymus.... Thales taught the Egyptians to measure the height

48 All fragments are from Richard D. McKirahan Jr.’s Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary unless otherwise stated. Students are encouraged to consult McKirahan for additional commentary on the fragments we will read in class.

of their pyramids by shadow--by taking the relation borne by the height of a man to his shadow. The terms of the proportion are: as the shadow of a man is to the height of a man, so is the shadow of a pyramid to its height” (HI 172).

vii.

“He is credited with the theorem that triangles with one side and the two adjacent angles equal are congruent, for ‘he must have used this theorem to show the distance of ships at sea the way he did’” (Eudemis…Euclid…McKirahan 25).

viii.

“[A] circle is bisected by its diameter” (Eudemus, cited in Proclus, Commentary on the first book of Euclid’s Elements (157-11 (=DK 11A20), McKirahan 26).

ix.

“Diogenes...says...of Thales (I.27), ‘The world is animated and full of demons’” (HI 183).

x.

“Thales…seems to suppose that the soul is in a sense the cause of movement, since he says that a stone [i.e., the Magnesian stone or magnet] has a soul because it causes movement to iron”

(Aristotle, On the Soul 405a20-21).

xi.

Plutarch (De plac. phil. I.7) says, ‘He called God the Intelligence (νους) of the world.’ But all the ancients, and particularly Aristotle, ascribe this expression unanimously to Anaxagoras as the one who first said that the νους is the principle of things” (HI 183).

4.1

Once while Thales was gazing upwards while doing astronomy, he fell into a well. A clever and delightful Thracian serving-girl is said to have made fun of him, since he was eager to know the things of the heavens but failed to notice what was in front of him and right next to his feet. (Plato, Theaetetus 174)

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4.2

The story goes that when they found fault with him for his poverty, supposing that philosophy is useless, he learned from his astronomy that there would be a large crop of olives. Then, while it was still winter, he obtained a little money and made deposits on all the olive presses both in Miletus and Chios. Since no one bid against him, he rented them cheaply. When the right time came, suddenly many tried to get the presses all at once, and he rented them out on whatever terms he wished, and so made a great deal of money. In this way he proved that philosophers can easily be wealthy if they desire, but this is not what they are interested in. (Aristotle, Politics 1.11 1259a9-18)

4.3

As they were having equal success in the war, it happened that in the sixth year, when a battle was being fought, the day suddenly became night. Thales of Miletus had foretold to the Ionians that this loss of daylight would occur, setting as a limit the very year in which the change occurred. (Herodotus, Histories 1.74)

4.4

Causes are spoken of in four ways, of which...one is matter.... Let us take as associates in our task our predecessors who considered the things that are and philosophized about the truth. For it is clear that they too speak of certain principles and causes. Therefore it will be useful to our present inquiry to survey them, for either we will find some other kind of cause or we will be more confident in the ones now being discussed.

(Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3 983a26-b6)

4.5

Of those who first pursued philosophy, the majority believed that the only principles of all things are principles in the form of matter. For that of which all existing things are composed and that out of which they originally come into being and that into which they finally perish, the substance persisting but changing in its attributes, this they state is the element and principle of things that are.... For there must be one or more than one nature out of which the rest come to be, while it is preserved.

(Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3 983b6-18)

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4.6

However, not all agree about the number and form of such a principle, but Thales, the founder of this kind of philosophy, declares it to be water. (This is why he indicated that the earth rests on water.) Maybe he got this idea from seeing that the nourishment of all things is moist, and that the hot itself comes to be from this and lives on this (the principle of all things is that from which they come to be)--getting this idea from this consideration and also because the seeds of all things have a moist nature; and water is the principle of the nature of moist things.

(Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3 983b18-27)

4.7

Aristotle speaks quite strongly against this view, which was prevalent perhaps because the Egyptians recounted it in mythological form and Thales perhaps imported the doctrine from there. (Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heaven 522.16-18)

4.8

Some believe that very ancient people, long before the present generation, who first speculated about the gods, also made this supposition about nature. For they made Ocean and Tethys parents of coming to be and said that the oath of the gods was water, which they called Styx. For the most ancient is the most honored, and the most honored thing is what is used to swear by.

(Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3 983b27-33 (continuation of 4.6))

4.9

Some declare that it [the soul] is mixed in the whole [universe], and perhaps this is why Thales thought all things are full of gods. (Aristotle, On the Soul 1.5 411a7-8)

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Anaximander

5.1

He was the first to discover the gnomon and set one up on the sundials at Sparta…indicating the solstices and equinoxes, and he constructed hour-markers. (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 2.1)

5.2

I laugh when I consider that before now many have drawn maps of the world, but no one has set it out in a reasonable way. They draw Okeanos [the river Ocean] flowing round the earth, which is round as if made by a compass, and they make Asia equal to Europe.

(Herodotus, Histories 4.36)

5.3

Of those who declared that the ARCHE is one, moving and APEIRON, Anaximander…said that the APEIRON was the ARCHE and element of things that are, and he was the first to introduce this name for the ARCHE. In addition he said that motion is eternal, in which it occurs that the heavens come to be. He says that the ARCHE is neither water nor any other of the things called elements, but some other nature which is APEIRON, out of which come to be all the heavens and the worlds in them. This is eternal and ageless and surrounds all the worlds.

(Theophrastus; collated by McKirahan)

5.4

The infinite [APEIRON] body cannot be one and simple…if it is conceived, as some say, as that which is aside from the elements, and from which they generate the elements….For some make the infinite this [i.e., something aside from the elements], rather than air or water, to keep the others from being destroyed by the one of them that is infinite. For they contain oppositions with regard to one another, for example, air is cold, water wet, fire hot. If one of them were infinite, the rest would already have been destroyed. But as it is, they declare that the thing from which all come into being is different. (Aristotle, Physics 3.3 204b22-29)

5.5

This does not have an ARCHE, but seems to be the ARCHE of the rest, and to contain all things and steer all things, as all declare who do not fashion other causes from the infinite…and this is divine. For it is

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deathless and indestructible, as Anaximander says and most of the natural philosophers. (Aristotle, Physics 3.4 203b10-15)

5.13

Some, like Anaximander…declare that the earth is at rest on account of its similarity. For it is no more fitting for what is established at the center and equally related to the extremes to move up rather than down or sidewise. And it is impossible for it to make a move simultaneously in opposite directions. Therefore, it is at rest of necessity.

(Aristotle, On the Heaven 2.13 295b11-16)

5.19

The things that are perish into the things out of which they come to be, according to necessity, for they pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice in accordance with the ordering of time, as he says in rather poetical language. (Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 24.18-21)

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Anaximenes

6.1

Anaximenes…like Anaximander, declares that the underlying nature is one and APEIRON, but not indeterminate as Anaximander held, but definite, saying that it is air. It differs in rarity and density according to the substances <it becomes>. Becoming finer it comes to be fire; being condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, and when still further condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones, and the rest come to be out of these. He too makes motion eternal and says that change also comes to be through it. (Theophrastus, quoted by Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 24.26-25.1)

6.2

Anaximenes…said that the principle is unlimited [APEIRON] air, out of which come to be things that are coming to be, things that have come to be, and things that will be, and gods and divine things. The rest come to be out of the products of this. The form of air is the following: when it is most even, it is invisible, but it is revealed by the cold and the hot and the wet, and movement. It is always moving, for all the things that undergo change would not change unless it was moving. For when it becomes condensed and finer, it appears different. For when it is dissolved into what is finer, it comes to be fire, and on the other hand air comes to be winds when it becomes condensed. Cloud results from air through felting,49 and water when it happens to a greater degree. When condensed still more it becomes earth and when it reaches the absolutely densest stage it becomes stones. (Hippolytus, Refutation 1.7.1-3)

6.3

Or. as Anaximenes of old believed, let us leave neither the cold nor the hot in the category of substance, but <hold them to be> common attributes of matter which come as the results of its changes. For he declares that matter which is contracted and condensed is cold, whereas what is fine and “loose” (calling it this way with this very word) is hot. As a result he claimed that it is not said unreasonably that a person releases both hot and cold from his mouth. For the breath becomes cold

49 McKirahan’s footnote on p. 48: “Felting is ‘the production of nonwoven fabric by the application of heat, moisture and mechanical action, causing the interlocking or matting of fibers’ (Encyclopedia Britanica, 15th ed., s.v. felting). The term here is extended to describe another process in which the product is denser than, and so has different properties from, the ingredients.”

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when compressed and condensed by the lips, and when the mouth is relaxed, the escaping breath becomes warm through the rareness. (Plutarch, The Principle of Cold 7 947F)

6.4

A person who blows out air does not move the air all at once, but blows through a narrow opening of the lips, and so he breathes out just a little air but moves much of the air outside his body, in which the warmth from his boy is not apparent because of its small amount.

(pseudo-Aristotle, Problems 34.7 964a13-16)

6.5

Anaximenes determined that air is a god and that it comes to be and is without measure, infinite and always in motion.

(Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 1.10.26)

6.6

Just as our soul, being air, holds us together and controls us, so do breath and air surround the whole KOSMOS.

Xenophanes

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7.1

Already there are sixty-seven yearstossing my thought throughout the land of Greece.From my birth there were twenty-five in addition to these,if I know how to speak truly about these matters.

7.2

Give us no fights with Titans, no, nor Giantsnor Centaurs—the forgeries of our fathers—nor civil brawls, in which no advantage is.But always to be mindful of the gods is good.50

50 This fragment comes at the end of a longer poem (perhaps) attributable to Xenophanes. The following is Paul Feyerabend’s translation in the Kenyon Review (1987, Volume 9, Number 4), “Reason, Xenophanes and the Homeric Gods,” 13:

Clean is the floor, clean are the hands and the cups; and the garlandsfreshly now woven, are put on the heads by the boy.Redolent balsam preserved in the phial is brought by another,exquisite pleasure lies waiting for us in the bowl;and a different wine, with the promise not ever to bring disappointment,soft tasting and sweet to the smell stands here in the jar.And in the center the incense dispenses the holy perfume;cool water is there, full of sweetness and clear to the eye.Behold the goldyellow loaves and, on the magnificent tables,overflowing abundance of cheese and rich honey.And in the center an altar fully covered with flowersand festive songs sounding all over the house.But first it is proper for well disposed men to the god to pay tributewith words which are pure and stories that fit the occasion;then, after the common libations and the prayer for strength to act wisely(the most important concern, preceding all others)it is not hybris to fill the body with drink—provided only the old ones need later a slave to get home.And I praise the man who, having imbibed, can still rememberhow much he achieved and how he followed the virtues.Let him not tell us of battles conducted by Titans and Giantsor even Centaurs—the fantasies of our fathers;or of civic dissension—not useful are these events..But one should always pay respect to the gods.

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7.3

Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all deeds which among men are a reproach and a disgrace: thieving, adultery, and deceiving one another.

7.4

Mortals believe that the gods are bornand have human clothing, voice and form.

7.5

Ethiopians say that their gods are flat-nosed and dark,Thracians that theirs are blue-eyed and red-haired.

7.6

If oxen and horses and lions had handsand were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men,horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horsesand oxen to look like oxen, and each would make the gods’ bodies have the same shape as they themselves had.

7.7

Xenophanes used to say that those who say that the gods are born are just as impious as those who say that they die, since in both ways it follows that there is a time when the gods do not exist. (Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.23 1399b6-9)7.8

It is unholy for any of the gods to have a master.

7.9

He always remains in the same place, moving not at all, nor is it fitting for him to go to different places at different times.

7.10

God is one, greatest among gods and men,not at all like mortals in body or thought.

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7.11

All of him sees, all of him thinks, all of him hears.

7.12

But without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind.

7.13

Some declared the universe to be a single substance…not supposing that what is is one, like some of the natural philosophers, and generating <the universe> out of the one as out of matter, but speaking differently, people say it is unchangeable…Xenophanes, who was the first of these to preach monism…made nothing clear…but looking off to the whole heaven he declared that the one is god. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.5 986b10-25)

7.14

She whom they call Iris, this thing too is cloud,purple and red and yellow to behold.

7.15

Xenophanes says that the things on boats which shine like stars,which some call the Dioscuri [sons of Zeus],are little clouds which shine as a result of motion.

7.16

All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.

7.17

Sea is the source of water and the source of wind.For not without the great ocean would there come to bein clouds the force of wind blowing out from within,nor the streams of rivers nor the rain water of the upper sky,but great ocean is the sire of clouds and winds and rivers.

7.18

Xenophanes declared that the sea is salty because many mixtures flow together in it….He believes that earth is being mixed into the sea and over time it is being dissolved by the moisture, saying that he has the

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following kinds of proofs, that sea shells are found in the middle of the earth and in mountains, and the impression of fish and seals have been found in Syracuse in quarries, and the impression of a laurel leaf in the depth of the stone in Paros, and on Malta flat shapes of all marine life. He says these things occurred when all things were covered with mud long ago and the impressions were dried in the mud. And humans are destroyed when earth is carried down into the sea and becomes mud, and then there is another beginning of coming to be, and this change occurs in all the world orders. (Hyppolytus, Refutation 1.14.5-6).

7.19

No man has seen nor will anyone knowthe truth about the gods and all the things I speak of.For even if a person should in fact say what is absolutely the case,nevertheless he himself does not know, but belief is fashioned over all things.

7.20

Let things be believed as resembling the truth.

7.21

By no means did the gods reveal all things to mortals from the beginning,but in time, by searching, they discover better.

7.22

If god had not created yellow honey,they would say that figs are far sweeter.

9.1

Once he [Xenophanes] passed by as a puppy was being beaten,the story goes, and in pity said these words:“Stop, don’t beat him, since it is the soul of a man, a friend of mine,which I recognized when I heard it crying.”

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Heraclitus51

IAlthough this account holds forever, men ever fail to comprehend, both before hearing it and once they have heard. Although all things come to pass in accordance with the account, men are like the untried when they try such words and works as I set forth, distinguishing each according to its nature and telling how it is. But other men are oblivious of what they do awake, just as they are forgetful of what they do asleep.

IINot comprehending, they hear like the deaf. The saying is their witness: absent while present.

IIIAlthough the account is shared, most men live as though their thinking were a private possession.

IVMost men do not think things in the way they encounter them, nor do they recognize what they experience, but believe their own opinions

VMen forget where the way leads . . .and they are at odds with that with which they most constantly associate. And what they meet with every day seems strange to them. . . We should not act and speak like men asleep.

VIThe world of the waking is one and shared, but the sleeping turn aside each into his private world.

VIIHe who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored.

VIIISeekers of gold dig up much earth and find little.

IXMen who love wisdom must be good inquirers into many things indeed.

X

51 Translation and numbering of the fragments here belong to Charles H. Kahn, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus.

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Nature loves to hide.

XILet us not concur casually about the most important matters.

XIIIn taking the poets as testimony for things unknown, they are citing authorities that cannot be trusted.

XIIIWe should not listen like children to their parents.

XIVWhatever comes from sight, hearing, learning from experience: this I prefer.

XVEyes are surer witnesses than ears.

XVIEyes and ears are poor witnesses for men if their souls do not understand the language.

XVIINot knowing how to listen, neither can they speak.

XVIIIMuch learning does not teach understanding. For it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and also Xenophanes and Hecataeus.

XIXThe teacher of most is Hesiod. It is him they know as knowing most, who did not recognize day and night: they are one.

XXHesiod counted some days as good, others as bad, because he did not recognize that the nature of day is one and the same.

XXIHomer deserves to be expelled from the competition and beaten with a staff – and Archilochus too!

XXII

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Men are deceived in the recognition of what is obvious, like Homer who was wisest of all the Greeks. For he was deceived by boys killing lice, who said: what we see and catch we leave behind; what we neither see nor catch we carry away.

XXIIIHomer was an astronomer.

XXIVThales practiced astrology.

XXVPythagoras son of Mnesarchus pursued inquiry further than all other men and, choosing what he liked from these compositions, made a wisdom of his own: much learning, artful knavery.

XXVIPythagoras was the prince of imposters.

XXVIIOf all those whose accounts I have heard, none has gone so far as this: to recognize what is wise, set apart from all.

XXVIIII went in search of myself.

XXIXIt belongs to all men to know themselves and to think well.

XXXSpeaking with understanding they must hold fast to what is shared by all, as a city holds to its 1aw, and even more firmly. For all human laws are nourished by a divine one. It prevails as it will and suffices for all and is more than enough.

XXXIThinking is shared by all.

XXXIIThinking well is the greatest excellence and wisdom: to act and speak what is true, perceiving things according to their nature.

XXXIII

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The lord whose oracle is in Delphi neither declares nor conceals, but gives a sign.

XXXIVThe Sibyl with raving mouth utters things mirthless and unadorned and unperfumed, and her voice carries through a thousand years because of the god who speaks through her.

XXXVYou will not find out the limits of the soul by going, even if you travel over every way, so deep is its report.

XXXVIIt is wise, listening not to me but to the report, to agree that all things are one.

XXXVIIThe ordering, the same for all, no god nor man has made, but it ever was and is and will be: fire everliving, kindled in measures and in measures going out.

XXXVIIIThe reversals of fire: first sea; but of sea half is earth, half lightning storm.

XXXIXSea pours out <from earth>, and it measures up to the same amount it was before becoming earth.

XLAll things are requital for fire, and fire for all things, as goods for gold and gold for goods.

XLIThe death of fire is birth for air, and the death of air is birth for water.

XLIIThe sun overseer and sentinel of cycles, for determining the changes and the seasons which bring all things to birth.

XLIIIA

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There is a Great\Year, whose winter is a great flood and whose summer is a world conflagration. In these alternating periods the world is now going up in flames, now turning to water. The cycle consists of 10,800 years.

XLIIIBThere is a certain order and fixed time for the change of the cosmos in accordance with some fated necessity.

XLIVThe sun will not transgress his measures. If he does, the Furies, ministers of Justice, will find him out.

XLVThe limits of Dawn and Evening is the Bear; and, opposite the Bear, the Warder of luminous Zeus.

XLVIIf there were no sun, it would be night.

XLVIIThe sun is the size of a human foot.

XLVIIIAThe sun is new every day.

XLVIIIBThe sun is extinguished in old age, but rekindled again.

XLIXCold warms up, warm cools off, moist parches, dry dampens.

LAs they step into the same rivers, other and still other waters flow upon them.

LIOne cannot step twice into the same river, nor can one grasp my mortal substance in a stable condition, but it scatters and again gathers; it forms and dissolves, and approaches and departs.

LIIIt rests by changing.

LIII

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It is weariness to toil at the same tasks and be always beginning.

LIVThe wise is one, knowing the plan by which it steers all things through all.

LVHuman nature has no set purpose, but the divine has.

LVIThe most beautiful of apes is ugly in comparison with the race of man; the wisest of men seems an ape in comparison to a god.

LVIIA man is found foolish by a god, as a child by a man.

LVIIIHuman opinions are toys for children.

LIXWhat wit or understanding do they have? They believe the poets of the people and take the mob as their teacher, not knowing that ‘the many are worthless’, good men are few.

LXA fool loves to get excited on any account.

LXIDogs bark at those they do not recognize.

LXIIIn Priene lived Bias son of Teutames, who is of more account than the rest.

LXIIIOne man is ten thousand, if he is the best.

LXIVWhat the Ephesians deserve is to be hanged to the last man, every one of them, and leave the city to the boys, since they drove out their best man, Hermodorus, saying ‘Let no one be the best among us; if he is, let him be so elsewhere and among others.’

LXV

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The people must fight for the law as for their city wall.

LXVIIt is law also to obey the counsel of one.

LXVIIIt is not better for human beings to get all they want. It is disease that makes health sweet and good, hunger satiety, weariness rest.

LXVIIIFor god all things are fair and good and just, but men have taken some things as unjust, others as just.

LXIXIf it were not for these things, they would not have known the name of justice.

LXXThe sea is the purest and foulest water: for fish drinkable and life sustaining; for men undrinkable and deadly.

LXXIAsses prefer garbage to gold.

LXXIISwine delight in mire more than clean water; chickens bathe in dust.

LXXIIIDoctors who cut and burn and torture their patients in every way complain that they do not receive the reward they deserve.

LXXIVThe path of the carding wheels is straight and crooked.

LXXVThe counter-thrust brings together, and from tones at variance comes perfect attunement, and all things come to pass through conflict.

LXXVIAll beasts are driven by blows.

LXXVII

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Even the potion separates unless it is stirred.

LXXVIIIThey do not comprehend how a thing agrees at variance with itself; it is an attunement turning back on itself, like that of the bow and the lyre.

LXXIXThe name of the bow is life; its work is death.52

LXXXThe hidden attunement is better than the obvious one.

LXXXIHomer was wrong when he said ‘Would that Conflict might vanish from among gods and men!’ (Iliad XVIII.107). For there would be no attunement without high and low notes nor any animals without male and female, both of which are opposites.

LXXXIIOne must realize that war is shared and Conflict is Justice, and that all things come to pass (and are ordained?) in accordance with conflict.

LXXXIIIWar is father of all and king of all; and some he has shown as gods, others men; some he has made slaves, others free.

LXXXIVWhat awaits men at death they do not expect or even imagine.

LXXXVThe great man is eminent in imagining things, and on this he hangs his reputation for knowing it all.

LXXXVIIncredibility escapes recognition.

LXXXVIIJustice will catch up with those who invent lies and those who swear to them.

LXXXVIIICorpses should be thrown out quicker than dung.

52 The old word for ‘bow’ (biós) differs from the word ‘life’ (bíos) only by the accent.

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LXXXIXDeath is all things we see awake; all we see asleep is sleep.

XCA man strikes a light for himself in the night, when his sight is quenched. Living, he touches the dead in his sleep; waking, he touches the sleeper

XCIMen asleep are laborers and co-workers in what takes place in the world.

XCIIImmortals are mortal, mortals immortal, living the others’ death, dead in the others’ life.

XCIIIThe same...: living and dead, and the waking and the sleeping, and young and old. For these transposed are those, and those transposed again are these.

XCIVLifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.

XCVA generation is thirty years, in which time the progenitor has engendered one who generates. The cycle of life lies in this interval. when nature returns from human seed-time to seed-time.

XCVIGreater deaths are allotted greater destinies.

XCVIIThe best choose one thing in exchange for all, everflowing fame among mortals; but most men have sated themselves like cattle.

XCVIIIOnce born they want to live and have their portions; and they leave children behind born to become their dooms.

XCIXThe beginning and the end are shared in the circumference of a circle.

CGods and men honor those who fall in battle.

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CITo the soul belongs a report that increases itself.

CIIFor souls it is death to become water, for water it is death to become earth; out of earth water arises, out of water.

CIIIThe way up and down is one and the same.

CIVOne must quench violence quicker than a blazing fire.

CVIt is hard to fight against passion; for whatever it wants it buys at the expense of soul.

CVIA man when drunk is led by a beardless boy, stumbling, not perceiving where he is going, having his soul moist.

CVIIIt is better to hide one’s folly; but that is difficult in one’s cups and at ease.

CVIIIIt is delight, not death, for souls to become moist.

CIXA gleam of light is the dry soul, wisest and best.

CX…to rise up (?) and become wakeful watchers of living men and corpses.

CXISouls smell things in Hades.

CXIIIf all things turned to smoke, the nostrils would sort them out.

CXIII

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The soul is an exhalation that perceives; it is different from the body, and always flowing.

CXIVMan’s character is his fate.

CXVThe mysteries current among men initiate them into impiety.

CXVIIf it were not Dionysus for whom they march in procession and chant the hymn to the phallus, their action would be most shameless. But Hades and Dionysus are the same, him for whom they rave and celebrate Lenaia.

CXVIIThey are purified in vain with blood, those polluted with blood, as if someone who stepped in mud should try to wash himself with mud. Anyone who noticed him doing this would think he was mad. And they pray to these images as if they were chatting with houses, not recognizing what gods or even heroes are like.

CXVIIIThe wise is one alone, unwilling and willing to be spoken of by the name of Zeus.

CXIXThe thunderbolt pilots all things.

CXX(Fire is?) need and satiety.

CXXIFire coming on will discern and catch up with all things.

CXXIIHow will one hide from that which never sets?

CXXIIIThe god: day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger. It alters, as when mingled with perfumes, it gets named according to the pleasure of each one.

CXXIV

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Graspings: wholes and not wholes, convergent divergent, consonant dissonant, from all things one and from one thing all.

CXXVThe fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings.

Parmenides

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11.1

The mares which carry me as far as my spirit ever aspiredwere escorting me, when they brought me and proceeded along the renowned roadof the goddess, which [or, who] brings a knowing mortal to all cities one by one.On this path I was being brought, on it wise mares were bringing me,straining the chariot, and maidens were guiding the way. 5The axle in the center of the wheel was shrilling forth the bright sound of a musical pipe,ablaze, for it was being driven forward by two rounded wheels at either end, as the daughters of the Sunwere hastening to escort <me> after leaving the house of Night for the light, having pushed back the veils from their heads with their hands. 10There are the gates of the roads of Night and Day,and a lintel and a stone threshold contain them.High in the sky they are filled by huge doorsof which avenging Justice holds the keys that fit them.The maidens beguiled her with soft words 15and skillfully persuaded her to push back the bar for themquickly from the gates. They madea gaping gap of the doors when they opened them,swinging in turn in their sockets the bronze postsfastened with bolts and rivets. There, straight through them then,the maidens held the chariot and horses on the broad road. 21And the goddess received me kindly, took myright hand in hers, and addressed me with these words:Young man, accompanied by immortal charioteers, who reach my house by the horses which bring you, 25welcome—since it was not an evil destiny that sent you forth to travelthis road (for indeed it is far from the beaten path of humans), but Right and Justice. There is need for you to learn all things—both the unshaken heart of persuasive [or, well-rounded] Truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true reliance. 30But nevertheless you will learn these too—that the things that appearmust genuinely be, being always, indeed, all things.

11.2

Come now, I will tell you—and bring away my story safely when you have heard it— the only ways of inquiry there are to think:

164

the one, that it is and that it is not possible for it not to be, is the path of Persuasion (for it attends upon Truth),the other, that it is not and that it is necessary for it not to be,this I point out to you to be a path completely unlearnable,for neither may you know that which is not (for it is not to be accomplished) nor may you declare it.

11.3

…For the same thing is [or, is there] for thinking and for being [or, For thinking and being are the same.]

11.4

But gaze upon things which although absent are securely present in thought.For you will not cut off what is from clinging to what is,neither being scattered everywhere in every way throughout the KOSMOSnor being brought together.

11.5

For me, where I am to begin from is the same [literally, common],for to there I will come back again.

11.6

That which is there to be spoken and thought of must be. For it is possible for it to be, but not possible for nothing to be. I bid you consider this. For I bar your way from this first way of inquiry, but next from the way on which mortals knowing nothing,two-headed, wander. For helplessnessin their breasts guides their wandering mind. But they are carried onequally deaf and blind amazed hordes without judgment,for whom both to be and not to be are judged the same andnot the same, and the path of all is backward-turning.

11.7

For in no way may this prevail, that things that are not are. But you, bar your thought from this way of inquiry, and do not let habit born from much experience compel you along this way

165

to direct your sightless eye and sounding ear and tongue, but judge by reason the heavily contested refutation spoken by me.

11.8

There is still left a single storyof a way, that it is. On this way there are signsexceedingly many—that being ungenerated it is also imperishable,whole and of a single kind and unshaken and complete.Nor was it ever nor will it be, since it is now, all together, 5one, continuous. For what birth will you seek for it?How and from where did it grow? I will not permit you to sayOr to think <that it grew> from what is not; for it is not to be said or thoughtthat it is not. What necessity would have stirred it upto grow later rather than earlier, beginning from nothing? 10Thus it must either fully be or not.Nor will the force of conviction ever permit anything to come to befrom what is not, besides it [i.e., besides what is not]. For this reason, justice has permitted it [i.e., what is]neither to come to be nor to perish, relaxing her shackles,but holds <it> fast. But the decision about these matters lies in this:it is or it is not. But it has been decided, as is necessary, 16to let go the one way as unthinkable and nameless (for it is not a true way) and that the other is and is real. How could what is be in the future? How could it come to be? For if it came into being, it is not, nor <is it> if it is ever going to be.In this way, coming to be has been extinguished and destruction is unheard of. 21Nor is it divided, since it all is alike; nor is it any more in any way, which would keep it from holding together,or any less, but it is all full of what is. Therefore, it is all continuous, for what is draws near to what is.But unchanging in the limits of great bonds, 26it is, without start or finish, since coming to be and destruction were banished far away and true conviction drove them off. Remaining the same in the same and by itself it lies and so stays there fixed; for mighty Necessity 30holds it in the bonds of a limit, which pens it in all round, since it is right for what is to be not incomplete; for it is not lacking; if it were <lacking>, it would lack everything.Thinking and the thought that it is are the same.For not without what is, in which it is expressed, 35will you find thinking; for nothing else either is or will be

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except that which is, since Fate shackled itto be whole and unchanging; wherefore it has been named all names [or, all things]mortals have established, persuaded that they are true—to come to be and to perish, to be and not <to be>, 40and to change place and alter bright color.But since there is a furthest limit, it is completeon all sides, like the bulk of a well-rounded ball,evenly balanced in every way from the middle; for it must be not at all greater or smaller here than there. 45For neither <is it the case that> what is not is—which would stop it from reachingits like—nor <is it the case that> what is is in such a way that there could be more of what ishere and less there, since it is all inviolate;for equal to itself on all sides, it meets with its limits uniformly.

At this point I stop for you my reliable account and thought 50 concerning Truth; from here on, learn mortal opinion,listening to the deceitful ordering of my words.For they made up their minds to name two forms,of which it is not right to name one—in this they have gone astray—and they distinguished things opposite in body, and established signsapart from one another—for one, the aetherial fire of flame, 56mild, very light, the same as itself in every direction,but not the same as the other; but that other one, in itselfis opposite—dark night, a dense and heavy body.I declare to you all the ordering as it appears, 60 so that no mortal opinion may ever overtake you.

11.9

But since all things have been named light and night and the things which accord with their powers have been assigned to these things and those,all is full of light and obscure night together,of both equally, since neither has no share.

11.10

You shall know the nature of the aether and all the signs in the aetherand the destructive deeds of the shining sun’s pure torch and whence they came to be, and you shall learn the wandering deeds of the round-faced moonand its nature, and you shall know also the surrounding heaven,

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from what it grew and how Necessity led and shackled itto hold the limits of the stars.11.11

. . . how earth and sun and moonand the aether which is common to all and the Milky Way and furthest Olympus and the hot force of the stars surged forthto come to be.

11.12

For the narrower <wreaths> were filled with unmixed fire.The ones next to them with night, but a due amount of fire is inserted among it,and in the middle of these is the goddess who governs all things.For she rules over hateful birth and union of all things, sending the female to unite with male and in opposite fashion,male to female.

11.13

First of all gods she contrived-Love.

11.14

Night-shining foreign light wandering round earth.

11.15

Always looking towards the rays of the sun.

11.16

For as each person has a mixture of much-wandering limbs,so is thought present to humans. For that which thinks— the constitution of the limbs—is the samein all humans and every one; for which is more is thought.

11.17

[That the male is conceived in the right part of the uterus has been said by others of the ancients.For Parmenides says:]<The goddess brought> boys <into being> on the right <side of the uterus>, girls on the left.

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11.18

In this way, according to opinion, these things have grown and now areand afterwards after growing up will come to an end.And upon them humans have established a name to mark each one.

11.19

Such [or, Alone], unchanging, is that for which as a wholethe name is “to be.”

Zeno

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12.1

Once Parmenides and Zeno came to Athens for the Great Panathenaic festival. Parmenides was quite an elderly man, very grey, but fine and noble in appearance, just about sixty-five years old. Zeno was then almost forty, of a good height and handsome to see. The story goes that he had been Parmenides’ young lover….Socrates and many others [were] eager to listen to Zeno’s treatise, for he had then brought it to Athens for the first time. Socrates was then very young. Zeno himself read it to them….

When Socrates had heard it, he asked Zeno to read again the first hypothesis of the first argument.

When he had read it, he said, “How do you mean this, Zeno? If things that are are many, they must therefore be both like and unlike, but this is impossible. For unlike things cannot be like, nor can like things be unlike. Isn’t that what you are saying?”—ZENO: Yes.—SOCRATES: Now if it is impossible for unlike things to be like and like things unlike, it is also impossible for things to be many? For if they were many they would have impossible attributes. Is this the point of your arguments—to contend, against all that is said, that things are not many? And do you think that each of your arguments proves this...?—ZENO: You have well understood the purpose of the whole work.—SOCRATES: I understand, Parmenides, that Zeno here wants to be identified with you by his treatise as well as his friendship, for he has written in the same style as you, but by changing it he is trying to make us think he is saying something else. For in your poem you declare that the all is one and you do a good job of proving this, while he declares that it is not many, and furnishes many impressive proofs. Now when one of you says it is one and the other that it is not many, and each speaks so as to seem not to have said any of the same things, though you are saying practically the same things, what you have said appears beyond the rest of us.—ZEN0: Yes, Socrates, but you have not completely understood the truth of the treatise….It is actually a defense of Parmenides’ argument against those who make fun of it, saying that if IT is one, the argument has many ridiculous consequences which contradict it. Now my treatise opposes the advocates of plurality, and pays them back the same and more, aiming to prove that their hypothesis, “if there are many things,” suffers still more ridiculous consequences than the hypothesis that there is one, if anyone follows it through sufficiently. I wrote it in this spirit of competitiveness when I was young, and then someone stole it, so I did not even have the chance to consider whether it should be made public.

(Plato, Parmenides 127b—128d)12.2

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Zeno stated that if anyone could make clear to him what the one is, he would be able to speak of existing things. (Eudemus, Physics fr. 7, quoted in Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 97.12.13)

12.3

For if it should be added to something else that exists, it would not make it any bigger. For if it were of no size and was added, it [the thing it is added to] cannot increase in size. And so it follows immediately that what is added is nothing. But if when it is subtracted, the other thing is smaller, nor is it increased when it is added, clearly the thing being added or subtracted is nothing. (Zeno)

12.4

But if it exists, each thing must have some size and thickness, and part of it must be apart from the rest. And the same reasoning holds concerning the part that is in front. For that too will have size and part of it will be in front. Now it is the same thing to say this once and to keep saying it forever. For no such part of it will be last, nor will there be one part <of any such part> not related to another. Therefore, if there are many things, they must be both small and large; so small as not to have size, but so large as to be unlimited. (Zeno)

12.5

If there are many, they must be just as many as they are and neither more nor less than that. But if they are as many as they are, they would be limited. (b) If there are many, things that are are unlimited. For there are always others between the things that are, and again others between those, and so the things that are are unlimited. (Zeno)

12.6

Zeno’s arguments about motion which present difficulties for those who try to solve them are four. (Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b9-11)

The Stadium12.7

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First is the argument which says that there is no motion because that which is moving must reach the midpoint before the end.

(Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b11-13)

12.8

It is always necessary to traverse half the distance, but these are infinite, and it is impossible to get through things that are infinite…

(Aristotle, Physics 8.8 263a5-6)

12.9The Achilles

The second is the one called “Achilles.” This is to the effect that the slowest as it runs will never be caught by the quickest. For the pursuer must first reach the point from which the pursued departed, so that the slower must always be some distance in front. This is the same argument as The Dichotomy, but it differs in not dividing the given magnitude in half. (Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b14-20)

12.10

For this reason Zeno’s argument falsely assumes that it is impossible to traverse or come into contact with an infinite number of things individually in a finite time. For both length and time and generally everything that is continuous are called infinite in ways: infinite in division and infinite with respect to their extremities. Now it is impossible to come into contact with things infinite in quantity in a finite time, but it is possible to do so with things that are infinite in division. For time itself too is infinite in this way. And so, it follows that it traverses the infinite in an infinite and not a finite time, and comes into contact with infinite things in infinite, not finite times.

(Aristotle, Physics 6.2 233a21-31)

12.11

This solution is sufficient to use against the person who raised the question (for he asked whether it is possible to traverse or count infinite things in a finite time), but insufficient for the facts of the matter and the truth. (Aristotle, Physics 8.8 263a15-.18)

12.12The Flying Arrow

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The third argument is the one just stated, that the arrow is stopped while it is moving. This follows from assuming that time is composed of “nows.” If this is not conceded, the deduction will not go through.

(Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b30-33)

12.13

Zeno makes a mistake in reasoning. For if, he says, everything is always at rest when it occupies a space equal to itself, and what is moving is always “in the now,” the moving arrow is motionless. (Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b5-7)

12.14 The Moving Rows

The fourth argument is about the equal bodies moving in a stadium past equal bodies in the opposite direction, the one group moving from the end of the stadium, the other from the middle, at equal speed. He claims in this argument that it follows that half the time is equal to the double. The mistake is in thinking that an equal magnitude moving with equal speed takes an equal time in passing something moving as it does in passing something at rest. But this is false. Let A’s represent the equal stationary bodies, B’s represent the bodies beginning from the middle of the A’s, equal in number and size to the A’s, and C’s represent the bodies beginning from the end, equal in number and size to these and having the same speed as the B’s. It follows that the first B is at the end at the same time as the first C, at they [the B’s and C’s] move past each other, and the <first> C has passed by all the B’s but the B’s have passed half the A’s. And so the time is half. For each of them is next to each thing for an equal time. It follows simultaneously that the B’s have passed by all the C’s, for the first C and the first B will be at the ends at the same time, because both have been next to the A’s for an equal time.

(Aristotle, Physics 6.9 239b33-240a17)

12.15 The Place of Place

If place exists, where is it? For everything that exists is in a place. Therefore, place is in a place. This goes on to infinity Therefore place does not exist.

12.l6 The Millet Seed

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ZENO: “Tell me, Protagoras, does a single millet seed make a noise when it falls, or one ten-thousandth of a millet seed?”PROT. “No.”ZENO: “Does a bushel of millet seeds make a noise when it falls, or doesn’t it?”PROT. “It does.”ZENO: “But isn’t there a ratio between the bushel of millet seeds and one millet seed, or one ten-thousandth of a millet seed?”PROT. “Yes there is.”ZENO: “So won’t there be the same ratios of their sounds to one another? For as the things that make the noise <are to one another>, so are the noises <to one another>. But since this is so, if the bushel of millet seeds makes a noise, so will a single millet seed and one ten- thousandth of a millet seed.”

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 1108.1 8-25)

12.17

It does not follow that, if a given motive power causes a certain amount of motion, half that power will cause motion either of any particular amount or in any length of time: otherwise, one man might move a ship, if the power of the ship haulers is divided into their number and the distance which all of them move it. (Aristotle, Physics 7.5 250a16-19)

Melissus

15.1

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[Melissus proved through this common axiom that what is is ungenerated. He writes thus:] Whatever was, always was and always will be. For if it came to be, it is necessary that before it came to be it was nothing. Now if it was nothing, in no way could anything come to be out of nothing. (Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 162.23-26)

15.2

Now since it did not come to be, it is and always was and always will be, and does not have a beginning or an end, but is unlimited. For if it had come to be it would have a beginning (for having come to be it would have begun at some time) and an end (for having come to be it would have ended at some time). But since it neither began nor ended, it always was and always will be and does not have a beginning or end. For whatever is not entire cannot always be.(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristot1e’s Physics 29.22—26, 109.20-25)

15.3

[Just as he says that what came to be at some time is limited in its being, he also wrote clearly that what always is is unlimited in being, saying:] But just as it always is, so also it must always be unlimited in magnitude. [But by “magnitude” he does not mean what is extended in space.]

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 109.29-32)

15.4

For he himself proves that what is is indivisible. For if what is is divided, it moves. But if it moved, it would not be. [But by “magnitude” he means the distance across its substance.]

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 109.32-34)

15.5

[That he intends what is to be bodiless he indicated, saying:] Now if it is, it must be one. But being one, it must not have body. But if it had thickness, it would have parts and no longer would he one.

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 109.34-110.2)

15.6

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[And he put unlimited in being right next to eternity, saying:] Nothing that has both a beginning and an end is either eternal or unlimited. And so whatever does not have them is unlimited.

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 110.2-4)

15.7

[From “unlimited” he concluded “one,” from the argument:] If it is not one, it will come to a limit against something else.

(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 110.5-6)

15.8

[Although what is perceived seems clearly to be, if what is is one, there will be nothing else besides this. For Melissus says:] For if it is <unlimited>, it will be one. For if there were two, they could not be unlimited, but would have limits against each other. (Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heaven 557.14-17)

15.9

[Now Melissus speaks thus, summarizing what he has previously said and introducing the points about motion:]

1. Thus it is eternal and unlimited and one and all alike.2. And it cannot perish, or become greater, or be rearranged, or feel pain or distress. For if it experienced any of these, it would no longer be one. For if it became different, it is necessary that what is is not alike, but what previously was perishes, and what is not comes to be. Now if it should become different by one hair in ten thousand years, it will all perish in all of time.3. But it is not possible for it to be rearranged,53 either. For the arrangement that previously was is not destroyed and an arrangement that is not does not come to be. But when nothing either comes to be in addition or is destroyed or becomes different, how could anything that is be rearranged? For if it became at a different, it would indeed already have been rearranged.4. Nor does it feel pain. For it could not be all if it were feeling pain. For a thing feeling pain could not always be. Nor does it have equal power to what is healthy. Nor would it be alike if it were feeling pain. For it would feel pain either because

53 “Arrangement” here translates “KOSMOS.” “Rearranged” translates a verb whose root is the word “KOSMOS.”

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something is being taken away or added, and it would no longer be alike.5. Nor would what is healthy be able to feel pain. For what is healthy and what is would perish, and what is not would come to be.6. And the same argument applies to feeling distress as to feeling pain.7. Nor is any of it empty. For what is empty is nothing, and of course what is nothing would not be. Nor does it move. For it is not able to give way anywhere, but is full. For if it were empty it would give way into the empty. But since it is not empty, it does not have anywhere to give way.8. It cannot be dense and rare. For it is impossible for the rare to be equally full as the dense, but the rare immediately proves to be emptier than the dense.9. And it is necessary to make this the grounds for deciding whether something is full or not full: if something moves or can move, it is not full. But if it neither moves nor can move, it is full.10. Now it is necessary that it is full if it is not empty. Now if it is full, it does not move. (Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 111.18-112.15)

15.10

[After saying of what is that it is one and ungenerated and motionless and interrupted by no void, but is a whole full of itself, he goes on:]

1. Now this argument is the strongest indication that it is only one. But also the following are indications.2. For if there were many they would have to be such as I say the one is. For if there is earth and water and air and fire and iron and gold, and one thing is alive and another is dead, and black and white, and all the other things that people say are true, if indeed these are, and we see and hear correctly, each must be such as we decided at first, and must not change or come to be different, but each thing must always be just as it is. But as the case stands, we say we see and hear and understand correctly.3. We think that what is hot becomes cold and what is cold, hot, and what is hard becomes soft, and what is soft, hard, and what is alive dies and comes to be from what is not alive, and all these things become different, and anything that was and what is now are not at all alike, but iron, which is hard, is worn away by contact with the finger, and also gold and stone and anything else that seems to be

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strong, and earth and stone come to be from water.4. Now these things do not agree with one another. For we say that there are many things that are eternal and have forms and strength, but all of them seem to us to become different and change from what we see at each moment.5. Now it is clear that we were not seeing correctly and that that plurality does not correctly seem to be. For they would not change if they were real, but would be as each of them seemed. For nothing is stronger than what is real.6. But if it changes, what is is destroyed, and what is not has come to be. Thus, if there are many, they must be like the one.(Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heaven 558.19-559.12)

Empedocles

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14.1

Friends who dwell in the great cit, on the yellow Acragas on the heights of the citadel, you whose care is good deeds, respectful havens for strangers, untouched by evil, hail! I go about among you, an immortal god, no longer mortal,honored among all, as it seems, 5wreathed with headbands and blooming garlands.Wherever I go to their flourishing cities, I am revered by the men and women. And they follow togetherin tens of thousands, inquiring where lies the path to profit, some in need of prophecy, while others, 10pierced for a long time with harsh pains, asked to hear the voice of healing for all diseases.

14.2

Friends, I know that truth is in the words I will speak. But very difficult for men and exceedingly jealous is the invasion of belief into their minds.

14.3

But listen, Pausanias, son of wise minded Anchites.

14.4

But it is highly typical of evil people to disbelieve what prevails [i.e., is the truth];but <you>, learn how the trustworthy reports from our Muse command,by splitting apart the account (LOGOS) in your entrails.

14.5

[Empedocles advised Pausanias] to cover up his teachings] within a voiceless heart (PHREN).54

14.6

If you fix them in your strong intelligenceand gaze upon them propitiously with pure attention,these things will all be very much present to you all your life longand from them you will obtain many others. For these very things

54 The PHREN is an internal body part, perhaps the diaphragm, which was sometimes considered the location of the thinking process.

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grow into each kind of character, depending on each person’s nature.But if you reach out for other kinds of things, the millionsof evils that are found among men which blunt their thoughts,indeed they will leave you immediately as time revolves,longing to come to their own dear kind.For knowing that all things possess thought and a portion of intelligence.

14.7.

You will learn all the drugs there are for evils and a safeguard against old age,since for you alone I am bringing all these things to pass.You will stop the force of tireless winds which rushover the earth and devastate the plowed fields with their blasts.And, if you wish, you will arouse their breath again.You will change black rain to seasonable drynessfor people, and summer drought you will changeinto tree-nourishing waters which pour from the sky.And you will bring the strength of a dead man back from Hades.

14.8

Narrow are the means of apprehension spread throughout the limbs.Many unhappy things burst in which blunt the thoughts.People see a tiny part of life during their timeand swift-fated they are taken away and fly like smoke,persuaded only of whatever each of them has chanced to meetas they were driven everywhere; but everyone boasts that he discovered the whole.But these things are not in this way to be seen or heard by menor grasped with the mind. But you, since you have turned aside to this place,will learn; mortal cunning has reached no further.

14.9

But come, I shall first tell you the beginning…from which all that we now look upon came to be clear,earth and the sea with many waves and moist airand the Titan AITHER, squeezing all things round about in a circle.

14.10

But why do I insist on these matters as if I were accomplishing

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something great,if I am Superior to mortal humans who perish many times?

14.11

Joining high points of my story one to another, not to complete a single path.

14.12

For indeed it is a fine thing to tell twice what one must.

14.13

Blessed is he who possesses wealth of divine intelligence but wretched whose concern is a dim opinion about the gods.

14.14

It is not possible to reach and approach [the divine] with the eyesor grasp <it> with our hands, by which the most powerful highway of persuasion strikes the minds of men.

14.15

For if, immortal Muse, for any ephemeral creature it pleased you that our concerns should come to your thoughts, be present once again to me, Kalliopeia, now as I pray, as I reveal a good account about the blessed gods.

14.16

But, gods, avert madness from my tongue, and lead a pure stream from holy mouths.And you, much remembering maiden Muse with white arms, I entreat—bring <to me> the things it is right for creatures of a dayto hear, driving your easily-steered chariot from the halls of Reverence.

14.17

Nor will the blossoms of fair-famed honor from mortals compel you to take them up, on the condition that you say in rashness more than is holy—.and <only> then sit upon the summits of wisdom.

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But come, look with every means of apprehension, in whatever way each thing is clear,not holding any sight more in trust than <what comes> through hearing,or loud-sounding hearing above the things made clear by the tongue,and do not at all hold back trust in any of the other members, whatever way there is a channel for understanding, but understand each thing in whatever way it is clear.

14.18

There is an oracle of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods,eternal and sealed with broad oaths,that whenever anyone pollutes his own dear limbs with the sin of murder,…commits offense and swears a false oath— Divinities (DAIMONES) who possess immensely long life—he wanders away from the blessed ones for thrice ten thousand seasons,growing to be through time all different kinds of mortalstaking the difficult paths of life one after another.For the force of AITHER pursues them to the seaand the sea spits them out onto the surface of the earth, and the earth into the raysof the shining sun, and he [the sun] casts them into the vortices of AITHER.One receives them after another, but all hate them. Of them I am now one, a fugitive from the gods and a wanderer,putting my reliance on raving Strife.

14.19

I will tell a double story. For at one time they grow to be only oneout of many, but at another they grow apart to be many out of one.Double is the coming to be of mortal things, and double is their failing.For the coming together of all things produces one birth and destruction,and the other is nurtured and flies apart when they grow apart again. 5And these never cease continually interchanging, at one time all coming together into one by Loveand at another each being borne apart by the hatred of Strife.Thus in that they have learned to grow to be one out of manyand in that they again spring apart as many when the one grows apart,10in that way they come to be and their life is not lasting, but in that they never cease interchanging continually, in this way they are always unchanging in a cycle. But come, listen to my words, for learning increases wisdom. For as I previously said, while declaring the bounds of my words,I will tell a double story. For at one time they grew to be only one

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out of many, but at another they grew apart to be many out of one:fire and water and earth and the immense height of air,and deadly Strife apart from them, equal in all directionsand Love among them, equal in length and breadth. 20Behold her with your mind, and do not sit with your eyes staring in amazement.She is also recognized as innate in mortal limbs. Through her they have kindly thoughts and do peaceful deeds, calling her by the appellation Joy and also Aphrodite.No mortal man has seen her spinning 25among them. But listen to the undeceitful course of my account.For these [the four elements] are all equal and of the same age, but each rules in its own province and possesses its own individual character,but they dominate in turn as time revolves.And nothing is added to them, nor do they leave off, 30for if they were perishing continuously, they would no longer be.But what could increase this totality? And where would it come from?And how [or, where] could it perish, since nothing is empty of these?But there are just these very things, and running through one anotherat different times they come to be different things and yet are always and continuously the same. 35

14.20

Hear first the four roots of all things:Shining Zeus and life-bringing Hera and Aidoneus and Nestis who with her tears moistens mortal Springs.

14.2l

But come, behold this witness of my previous discourse, if anything in the foregoing was feeble in form:the sun, brilliant to see and hot everywhere, all the immortal things that are drenched in the heat and shining light,and rain in all things, dark and cold,and from earth stream forth things rooted and solid.In Anger they are all separate and have their own forms,but they come together in Love and yearn for one another.For from these come all things that were and are and will be in the future.Trees have sprouted and men and women,and beasts and birds and fishes nurtured in water, and long-lived gods highest in honors.For there are just these things, and running through one anotherthey come to have different appearances, for mixture changes them.

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14.22

For all these things—shining sun and earth and heaven and sea—have links with their own parts, all that are split off and have come to be in mortal things. In the same way, all that are more fitted for mixture are made alike by Aphrodite and love one another. But enemies are those which are furthest separated from one anotherin birth and mixture and moulded forms,in every way unaccustomed to be together and very bitterthrough their birth in Strife, because it brought about their birth.

14.23

For they are as they have been previously and will be, and never, I think,will endless time be empty of both of these [i.e., Strife and Love].

14.24

This is very clear in the mass of mortal members:sometimes all the limbs coming together through Love into one—those whose lot it is to become a body—at the peak of flourishing life,while at other times, split apart through evil Quarrels they wander each kind separately on the furthest shore of life.And it happens the same way for bushes and water-homed fishesand mountain dwelling beasts and wing-propelled birds.

14.25

<The Grace [i.e., Love]> loathes Necessity, hard to endure

14.28

As when painters decorate votive offerings—men through cunning well taught in their skill—who when they take the many colored pigments in their hands,out of them they produce shapes similar to all things,creating trees and men and womenand beasts and birds and fishes nurtured in waterand long-lived gods highest in honors.So let not deception compel your mind (PHREN) to believe that there is anywhere else

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a source of mortal things, all the endless numbers of things which have come to be manifest, but know these things distinctly, having heard the story from a god.

14.29

As then Cypris [goddess of Love], busily working on shapes [or, kinds of things] moistened earth in rain,and gave it to swift fire to strengthen…

14.30

. . . all of them that are dense within, while their exterior parts are formed in a loose texture,because they met with such moisture in the hands of Cypris.

14.37

Pleasant earth in well-made crucible obtained two parts of bright Nestis [water] out of the eight,and four of Hephaestus, and white bones came into being, fitted together divinely by the glues of Harmonia.

14.38

Earth came together by chance in about equal quantity to these,Hephaestus and rain and all-shining AITHER, anchored in the perfect harbors of Cypris, either a bit more or a bit less of it among more of them.From them blood came into being and other forms of flesh.

14.39

Mildly-shining flame chanced upon a little earth.

14.40

Fools. For their thoughts are not far-reaching,who expect that there comes to be what previously was not,or that anything perishes and is completely destroyed.

14.41

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For it is impossible to come to be from what in no way is, and it is not to be accomplished and is unheard of that what is perishes absolutely.For each time it will be where a person thrusts it each time.

14.42

A man who is wise would not divine such things as this with his thoughts (PHREN)—that as long as they live what they in fact call life they are, and have things bad and good, but before they took on the fixed form of mortals and after they have dissolved, they are then nothing.

14.43

I will tell you another thing. There is coming to be of not a single one of allmortal things, nor is there any end of deadly death,but only mixture, and separation of what is mixed, and nature is the name given to them by humans.

14.44

Whenever they arrive in the AITHER mixed so as to form a manor one of the wild beasts or bushesor birds, that is when <people> speak of coming into being; and whenever they are separated, that <is what they call> the ill-starred fate of death.They do not call it as is right, but I myself too assent to their convention.

14.45

None of the whole is either empty or over-full.

14.46

Of the whole, nothing is empty; from where, then, could anything come to it?

14.47

But I shall return to that path of songs which I recounted before drawing off from one account this account.

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When Strife had reached the lowest depthof the vortex, and Love comes to be in the middle of the whirl,at this point all these things come together to be one single thing,not at once, but willingly banding together, different ones from different places.As they were mixed, myriads of tribes of mortal things poured forth,but many contrariwise remained unmixed while they were mingling— all that Strife still held back aloft. For it had notentirely completed its blameless retreat from them to thefurthest limits of the circle, 10but it remained in some of the limbs, while from others it had withdrawn.But as far as it would continually run out ahead, so far continually would follow in pursuitthe gentle immortal onset of blameless Love.Immediately things became mortal which formerly had learned to be immortal,and things previously unmixed became mixed, interchanging their paths.As they were mixed, myriads of tribes of mortal things poured forth,fitted with all kinds of forms, a wonder to behold.

14.48

When they were coming together, Strife was being displaced to the extremity.

14.49

They [i.e., the four elements] dominate in turn as the cycle revolves,and they decrease into one another and grow in their turn, as destined.For there are just these things, and running through one anotherthey come to be both humans and the tribes of other beastsat one time coming together into a single le KOSMOS by Loveand at another each being borne apart by the Strife, until they grow together into one, the whole, and become subordinate.

14.50

There neither the swift limbs of the sun are discerned, nor the shaggy force of earth nor the sea.Thus by the dense concealment of Harmonia is made fast a rounded sphere, exulting in its circular [or, joyous] solitude [or, motionlessness].

14.51

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No dissent or unseemly battle in its limbs.

14.52

But equal to itself on all sides, and wholly without limit, a rounded sphere, exulting in its circular solitude [or, motionlessness].

14.53

For two do not spring from its backnor do feet or swift knees or organs of generati0nbut it was a sphere and equal to itself on all sides.

14.54

[Empedocles says this too about the mastery of Strife] But when great Strife was nourished in the limbs and leapt up to its rightful prerogatives as the time was fulfilled, which is established for them in turn by a broad oath… (Context from Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 1184.12—13)

14.55

When Strife has again begun to gain mastery, movement again occurs in the Sphere.All the limbs of the god trembled, each in turn. (Context from Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics 1184.2—3)

14.58

AITHER was borne upwards not by Strife, but sometimes he speaks as if it happened by chance.For thus in its course it sometimes chanced to meet with <the other elements> in this way, but often otherwise.And sometimes he says that fire by nature is borne upwards, butAITHER sank beneath the deep-rooted earth.(Context from Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption 2.6 334a1-5.)

14.59

Earth increases its own form and AITHER increases AITHER

14.61

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<The Sun> after being gathered together traverses the vast heaven.

14.62

<The Sun> shines back towards Olympus with fearless face.

14.64

Thus the <sun’s> ray, having struck the broad circle of the moon...

14.65

For <the moon> gazes straight at the pure circle of her lord [i.e., the sun].

14.66

A round alien light Spins round the earth. [“Alien” in the sense of “not its own,” “belonging to something else,” i.e., the sun].

14.67

<The moon> keeps off its [the sun’s] rays when it goes above and darkens a portion of the earththe size of the breadth of the gray-eyed moon.

14.69

Earth makes night by obstructing <the sun’s> rays.

14.76

By her [Love] many neckless faces sprouted, and arms were wandering naked, bereft of shoulders, and eyes were roaming alone, in need of foreheads.

14.77

In this situation, the members were still single-limbed [as the result of the separation caused by Strife, and] they wandered about [aiming at mixture with one another.]

14.78

But when divinity was mixed to a greater extent with divinity,

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and these things began to fall together, however they chanced to meet,and many others besides them arose continuously.

14.79

Many came into being with faces and chests on both sides,man-faced ox-progeny, and some to the contrary rose up as ox-headed things with the form of men, compounded partly from menand partly from women, fitted with shadowy parts.

14.80

Trailing-footed cattle with countless hands.

14.81

Come now, hear these things about how, as fire was being separated,it raised up the nocturnal shoots of men and women, much-wailing.For the story is not off the point or ignorant. First the whole-natured forms rose up out of the earth, having a portion of both water and heat.These the fire sent up, desiring to come to its like, not yet showing forth at all the lovely shape of limbs or a voice or the member native to men.

14.82

Nor was there any god Ares among them nor Kudoimos [“uproar”]nor was Zeus king, or Kronos or Poseidon,but Cypris was queen….Her they propitiated with reverent statues and painted figures and unguents with varied odors, and with offerings of unmixed myrrh and fragrant frankincense,pouring on the ground libations of yellow honey.No altar was drenched with the unspeakable slaughter of bulls,but this was the greatest abomination among humans,to destroy life and devour the noble limbs.

14.94

The same things become hairs and leaves and dense feathers of birds,and scales on stout limbs.

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14.105

This is how all things inhale and exhale. In all, bloodless tubes of flesh extend deep in the body.At their mouths the furthest extremities of the nostrils are pierced through with closely arranged holes, so that they keep inblood but a clear path for air is cut through.Then, whenever the delicate blood leaps back from there the bubbling air leaps in with a raging swell, and when it [the blood] springs up, the animal exhales again, as when a young girlplaying with a clepsydra of shining bronze,when she puts the passage of the pipe against her pretty handand dunks it into the delicate form of silvery water, no liquid enters the vessel, but the bulk of air, pressing from inside on the close-set holes, keeps it out until she uncovers the compressed stream. But then when the air is leaving, the water duly enters.In the same way when water occupies the vessel and the bronzemouth and passage is blocked by mortal flesh,the air striving eagerly to get in from without restrains the liquid,commanding the approaches around the gates of the gurgling straineruntil she removes her hand. At that point again, in reverse order,as the air enters, the water duly runs out.In the same way when delicate blood in violent motion through the limbssprings backward to the inmost recesses, immediately a stream of air raging in a swell comes in, and when the blood leaps back, it exhales an equal amount back again.

14.106

Thus sweet catches hold of sweet, bitter rushes towards bitter,sour goes to sour and hot rides upon hot.

14.107

For by earth we see earth, by water, water, by AITHER, divine AITHER, and by fire, destructive fire, yearning by yearning [Love] and strife by mournful Strife.

14.109

As when someone planning for a journey in the wintry nightprepares a light, a gleam of blazing fire, attaching a linen lantern against all the winds,

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which scatters the blast of blowing winds, but the light springs out, as much as it is finer, and shines at the threshold with unwearying beams. Thus at that time the original fire lay hidden in the round pupil, enclosed in membranes and fine garments which are pierced straight through with marvelous passages which keep back the depth of water flowing around but let the fire pass through as much as it is finer.

14.110

A single sight [i.e., visual impression] comes from both [eyes].

14.115

<The heart>, nurtured in the seas of rebounding blood,where most especially is what is called thought by humans, for the blood round the heart in humans is thought.

14.116

Insofar as they change and become different, so far, it follows,are different thoughts always present to them.

14.118

Wisdom grows in humans in relation to what is present.(Cited to show that for Empedocles thought and perception work similarly [Aristotle, On the Soul 3.4 427a21—23].)

14.119

For from these [the four elements] all things are joined and compoundedand by these they think and feel pleasure and pain.

14.121

Alas! Wretched race of mortals! Unfortunate! Out of such quarreling and groaning were you born.

14.125

There were the maidens Earth and far-seeing Sun, bloody Battle and serious Harmonia, Beauty and Ugliness, Speed and Slowness,

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lovely Truth and dark-haired Unclarity.

14.126

Growth and Wasting, Sleeping and Waking, Movement and Fixity, many-crowned Greatness and Defilement, Silence and prophetic Voice.

14.127

Wrapping <it> in an alien garb of flesh.

14.128

Therefore, while wandering in harsh evils,you will never relieve your spirit from wretched distress.

14.l29

Neither, then, the roofed halls of aegis-bearing Zeus nor the house of Hades [? receives] him.

14.130

For I have already once become a boy and a girl and a bush and a bird and a [mute] fish [from the sea].

14.13l

Among beasts they come into being as lions whose lairs are in the mountains,their beds on the ground, and as laurels among shaggy trees.

(These the best animals and plants for a DAIMON to become [Aelian, Natural History 12.71.)

14.132

In the end they are prophets and bards and physicians and chiefs among men on earth,and from there they arise as gods mightiest in honors.

14.133

Sharing the same hearth and table with other immortals

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relieved of human distress, unwearied.

14.134

For he [Apollo, or god in general] is not furnished in his limbs with a human head.Two branches do not spring from his back. He has no feet, no swift limbs, no hairy genitals, but is only mind (PHREN), holy and indescribable, darting through the entire KOSMOS with his swift thoughts.

14.135

But what is lawful for all extends far through the wide-ruling AITHER and through the immense glare.

14.137

A father lifts up his own dear son who has changed form,and, praying, slaughters him, committing a great folly. And they are at a loss,sacrificing him as he entreats them. But he, refusing to hear the cries,slaughters him and attends an evil feast in his halls.Likewise a son seizes his father and children their mother and tearing out their life devour the dear flesh.

14.138

Will you not cease from harsh-sounding murder? Do you not seethat you are devouring each other in the carelessness of your thought?

14.143

Fast from evil.

14.144

And so, if the earth is now at rest by compulsion, it came together, brought to the middle by the vortex motion.

(Aristotle, On the Heaven 2.13 295a9-10)

14.151

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He says that the KOMOS is in a like state both now in the period of [sc. Increasing] Strife and previously in the period of [increasing] Love.

(Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption 2.6 334a5-7)

14.152

It is not reasonable to produce an account of coming to be from things which are separate and in motion. For this reason even Empedocles omits an account of coming to be in the period of [sc. increasing] Love. For he would not be able put together the heaven by constructing it out of separate things, and making the compound through Love. For the KOSMOS is composed of separate elements, so that it must have come to be from a single united thing.(Aristotle, On the Heaven 3.2 301a14-20)

Anaxagoras

13.1 1. All things were together, unlimited in both amount and

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smallness. 2. For the small too was unlimited.3. And when (or, since) all things were together, nothing was manifest on account of smallness.4. For AER and AITHER dominated all things, both being unlimited.5. For these are the largest ingredients in the totality, both in amount and in size.

13.2 1. For both AER and AITHER are being separated off from the surrounding multitude2. and what surrounds is unlimited in amount.

13.3 1. For of the small there is no smallest, but always a smaller2. (for what is cannot not be).3. But also of the large there is always a larger,4. and it is equal in amount to the small.5. But in relation to itself, each is both large and small.

13.4 1. These things being so, it is necessary to suppose that in all things that are being mixed together there are many things of all kinds, and seeds of all things, having all kinds of shapes and colors and flavors;2. and that humans too were compounded and all the other animals that possess life;3. and that there are inhabited cities and cultivated fields for the humans just as with us,4. and that there are for them a sun and a moon and the rest just as with us,5. and that the earth grows many things of all kinds for them, of which they gather the most useful into their dwelling and use it.6. I have said these things about the separating off, because [or, that] it would have occurred not only with us, but elsewhere too.7. But before these things separated off, when [or, since] all things were together, not even any color was manifest, 8. for the mixture of all things prevented it—the wet and the dry, the hot and the cold, the bright and the dark, there being also much earth in the mixture and seeds unlimited in amount, in no way like one another.9. For none of the other things are alike either, the one to the other.10. Since this is so, it is necessary to suppose that all things were in the whole.

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13.5 It is necessary to know that although [or since] these things have been separated apart in this way, all things are not at all less or more (for it is not to be accomplished that they are more than all), but all things are always equal.

13.6 1. And since the portions of both the large and the small are equal in amount, in this way too all things would be in everything;2. nor can they be separate, but all things have a portion of everything.3. Since there cannot be a smallest, nothing can be separated or come tobe by itself, but as in the beginning now too all things are together.4. But in all things there are many things, equal in amount, both in the larger and the smaller of the things being separated off.

13.7 . . . and so we do not know either in word or in deed the amount of the things being separated off.

13.8 The things in the single KOSMOS are not separate from one another, nor are they split apart with an axe, either the hot from the cold or the cold from the hot.

13.9 1. As these things are thus rotating and being separated off by both force and speed,2. the speed causes the force,3. and their speed is like the speed of nothing now found among humans, but altogether many times as fast.

13.10 For how could hair come to be from not hair or flesh from not flesh?

13.11 In everything there is a portion of everything except Mind, but Mind is in some things too.

13.12 1. The rest have a portion of ever thing, but Mind is unlimited and self-ruled and is mixed with no thing, but is alone and by itself.2. For if it were not by itself but were mixed with something else, it would have a share of all things, if it were mixed with anything.3. For in everything there is a portion of everything, as I have said before.

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4. And the things mixed together with it would hinder it so that it would rule no thing in the same was as it does being alone and by itself.5. For it is the finest of all things and the purest, and it has all judgment about everything and the greatest power.6. And Mind rules all things that posses life—both the larger and the smaller.7. And Mind ruled the entire rotation, so that it rotated in the beginning.8. And at first it began to rotate from a small area, but it <now> rotates over a greater range and it will rotate over a <still> greater one.9. And Mind knew all the things that are being mixed together and separated off and separated apart.10. And Mind set in order all things, whatever kinds of things were to be—whatever were and all that are now and whatever will be—and also this rotation in which are flow rotating the stars and the sun and the moon, and the AER and AITHER that are being separated off.11. This rotation caused the separating off.12. And the dense is being separated off from the rare and the hot from the cold and the bright from the dark and the dry from the wet.13. But there are many portions of many things.14. And nothing is being completely separated off or separated apart one from another except Mind.15, All Mind is alike, both the larger and the smaller.16. But nothing else is like anything else, but each single thing is and was most plainly those things which it contains most.

13.13 1. And when Mind began to cause motion, separating off proceeded to occur from all that was moved,2. and all that Mind moved was separated apart,3. and as things were being moved and separated apart, the rotation caused much more separating apart to occur.

13.14 Mind, which is always, is very much even now where all other things are too, in the surrounding multitude and in things that have come together in the process of separating and in things that have separated off.

13.15 The dense and the wet and the cold and the dark came together here, where the earth is now, but the rare and the hot and the dry went out into the far reaches of the AITHER.

13.16 1. From these things as they are being separated off, earth is

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being compounded;2. for water is being separated off out of the clouds, earth out of water, and out of the earth stones are being compounded by the cold,3. and these [i.e., stones] move further out than the water.

13.17 1. The Greeks are wrong to accept coming to be and perishing,2. for no thing comes to be, nor does it perish, but they are mixed together from things that are and they are separated apart.3. And so they would be correct to call coming to be being mixed together, and perishing being separated apart.

13.18 The sun puts the shine in the moon.

13.19 We call Iris [rainbow] the brightness in the clouds opposite the sun.

13.20 On account of their [the senses’] feebleness we are unable to discern the truth.

13.21 Appearances are a sight of the unseen.

13.22 [We are less fortunate than animals in all these respects] but we make use of our own experience and wisdom and memory and skill, and we take honey, milk <cows>, and laying hold <of animals> we carry them and lead <them>.

13.23 The white of the egg is bird’s milk.

13.24 Once a ram with one horn was brought to Pericles from his country estate, and when the soothsayer Lampon saw the horn growing strong and solid from the middle of the forehead, he said that though there were two contending factions in the city (those of Thucydides and of Pericles), the one who obtained the head would gain power. But Anaxagoras had the skull cut open and showed that the brain had not completely filled its place, but was drawn together in a point like an egg in the very spot in the entire cavity where the root of the horn had its origin.

(Plutarch, Life of Pericles 6)

13.25 Anaxagoras…was in age prior to him [Empedocles], but in works posterior…(Aristotle, Metaphysics l.3 984a11-13)

13.26 In the same seed there are hairs, nails, veins, arteries, sinews and bones. They are unapparent because of the smallness of their

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Portions, but as they grow they gradually separate apart…He made these claims not only for bodies but also for colors. For black is in white and white is in black. He posited the same for weights, supposing that light is mixed with heavy and vice versa. (Scholium on Gregory Nazianzus, Patrologia Gaeca vol. 36, col. 911)

13.28 Once I heard someone reading out of a book by Anaxagoras, as he said and saying that it turns out to be Mind that causes order and is the cause of all things. I was delighted at this account of causation and I thought it was somehow good that Mind was the cause of everything and 1 believed that if it is so, Mind in producing order puts all things in order and establishes each thing in whatever way is best. . . . I thought I had found in Anaxagoras a teacher about causation in things who Was after my own mind, and that he would tell me first whether the earth is flat or round, and then would go on to explain in detail the cause and necessity, stating what was better, and that it was better that it be like this. If he revealed this to me I was prepared never to desire any other kind of causation again. I was also prepared to find out in the same way about the sun and moon and the other stars, their relative speeds and turnings and other characteristics—how it is better that each of these act and be affected as they are. For I would never have supposed that after declaring are set in order by Mind, he would have introduced any cause for as they are.

So I thought that by assigning what is best for each of them as a cause for each he would explain what is best for each and the common good for all. And I would not have abandoned my hopes for a great deal, but taking the books with all haste I read them as quickly as I could in order to know as soon as possible what is best and what is worse. But I was quickly deprived of this wonderful hope, friend, when as I proceeded to read I saw that the man did not make use of Mind at all and did not attribute to it any causation in putting things in order, but used as causes AERS and AITHERS and waters and many other things as well that were out of place. (Plato, Phaedo 97b-98c)

13.29 When someone said, then, that just as Mind is found in animals, so it is found in nature as the cause of the world and of all its order, he seemed like a sober man in comparison with his predecessors who spoke at random. . . . Those who believed this posited as a principle of things that which is at the same time the cause of beauty and the kind of cause from which things acquire movement. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.3 984b15-22)

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13.30 They make hardly any use of their causes except to a small extent. For Anaxagoras uses Mind as a mechanism for the making of the KOSMOS, and when he is at a loss to say through what cause something necessarily is, then he drags Mind in, but in all other cases he makes anything rather than Mind the cause of what happens. (Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.4 985a17—21)

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Plato’s Euthyphro

Translated by G.M.A. Grube

EUTHYPHRO: What’s new, Socrates, to make you leave your usual haunts in the Lyceum and spend your time here by the king-archon’s court? Surely you are not prosecuting anyone before the king-archon as I am?SOCRATES: The Athenians do not call this a prosecution but an indictment, Euthyphro.EUTHYPHRO: What is this you say? Someone must have indicted you, for you are not going to tell me that you have indicted someone else.SOCRATES: No indeed.EUTHYPHRO: But someone else has indicted you? SOCRATES: Quite so.EUTHYPHRO: Who is he?SOCRATES: I do not really know myself, Euthyphro. He is apparently young and unknown. They call him Meletus, I believe. He belongs to the Pitthean deme, if you know anyone from that deme called Meletus, with long hair, not much of a beard, and a rather aquiline nose.EUTHYPHRO: I don’t know him, Socrates. What charge does he bring against you?SOCRATES: What charge? A not ignoble one I think, it is no small thing for a young man to have knowledge of such an important subject. He says he knows how our young men are corrupted and who corrupts them. He is likely to be wise, and when he sees my ignorance corrupting his contemporaries, he proceeds to accuse me to the city as to their mother. I think he is the only one of our public men to start out the right way, for it is right to care first that the young should be as good as possible, just as a good farmer is likely to take care of the young plants first, and of the others later. So, too, Meletus first gets rid of us who corrupt the young shoots, as he says, and then afterwards he will obviously take care of the older ones and become a source of great blessings for the city, as seems likely to happen to one who started out this way.EUTHYPHRO: I could wish this were true, Socrates, but I fear the opposite may happen. He seems to me to start out by harming the very heart of the city by attempting to wrong you. Tell me, what does he say you do to corrupt the young?SOCRATES: Strange things, to hear him tell it, for he says that I am a maker of gods, and on the ground that I create new gods while not believing in the old gods, he has indicted me for their sake, as he puts it.EUTHYPHRO: I understand, Socrates. This is because you say that the divine sign keeps coming to you. So he has written this indictment against you as one who makes innovations in religious matters, and he comes to court to slander you, knowing that such things are easily

misrepresented to the crowd. The same is true in my case. Whenever I speak of divine matters in the assembly and foretell the future, they laugh me down as if I were crazy; and yet I have foretold nothing that did not happen. Nevertheless, they envy all of us who do this. One need not worry about them, but meet them head-on.SOCRATES: My dear Euthyphro, to be laughed at does not matter perhaps, for the Athenians do not mind anyone they think clever, as long as he does not teach his own wisdom, but if they think that he makes others to be like himself they get angry, whether through envy, as you say, or for some other reason.EUTHYPHRO: I have certainly no desire to test their feelings towards me in this matter.SOCRATES: Perhaps you seem to make yourself but rarely available, and not be willing to teach your own wisdom, but I’m afraid that my liking for people makes them think that I pour out to anybody anything I have to say, not only without charging a fee but even glad to reward anyone who is willing to listen. If then they were intending to laugh at me, as you say they laugh at you, there would be nothing unpleasant in their spending their time in court laughing and jesting, but if they are going to be serious, the outcome is not clear except to you prophets.EUTHYPHRO: Perhaps it will come to nothing, Socrates, and you will fight your case as you think best, as I think I will mine.SOCRATES: What is your case, Euthyphro? Are you the defendant or the prosecutor?EUTHYPHRO: The prosecutor.SOCRATES: Whom do you prosecute?EUTHYPHRO: One whom I am thought crazy to prosecute.SOCRATES: Are you pursuing someone who will easily escape you?EUTHYPHRO: Far from it, for he is quite old.SOCRATES: Who is it?EUTHYPHRO: My father.SOCRATES: My dear sir! Your own father?EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.SOCRATES: What is the charge? What is the case about?EUTHYPHRO: Murder, Socrates.SOCRATES: Good heavens! Certainly, Euthyphro, most men would not know how they could do this and be right. It is not the part of anyone to do this, but of one who is far advanced in wisdom.EUTHYPHRO: Yes, by Zeus, Socrates, that is so.SOCRATES: Is then the man your father killed one of your relatives? Or is that obvious, for you would not prosecute your father for the murder of a stranger.EUTHYPHRO: It is ridiculous, Socrates, for you to think that it makes any difference whether the victim is a stranger or a relative. One should only watch whether the killer acted justly or not; if he acted justly, let

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him go, but if not, one should prosecute, if, that is to say, the killer shares your hearth and table. The pollution is the same if you knowingly keep company with such a man and do not cleanse yourself and him by bringing him to justice. The victim was a dependent of mine, and when we were farming in Naxos he was a servant of ours. He killed one of our household slaves in drunken anger, so my father bound him hand and foot and threw him in a ditch, then sent a man here to inquire from the priest what should be done. During that time he gave no thought or care to the bound man, as being a killer, and it was no matter if he died, which he did. Hunger and cold and his bonds caused his death before the messenger came back from the seer. Both my father and my other relatives are angry that I am prosecuting my father for murder on behalf of a murderer when he hadn’t even killed him, they say, and even if he had, the dead man does not deserve a thought, since he was a killer. For, they say, it is impious for a son to prosecute his father for murder. But their ideas of the divine attitude to piety and impiety are wrong, Socrates.SOCRATES: Whereas, by Zeus, Euthyphro, you think that your knowledge the divine, and of piety and impiety, is so accurate that when those things happened as you say, you have no fear of having acted impiously in bringing your father to trial?EUTHYPHRO: I should be of no use, Socrates, and Euthyphro would not be superior to the majority of men, if I did not have accurate knowledge of all such things.SOCRATES: It is indeed most important, my admirable Euthyphro, that I should become your pupil, and as regards this indictment challenge Meletus about these very things and say to him: that in the past too I considered knowledge about the divine to be most important, and that now that now that he says that I am guilty of improvising and innovating about the gods I have become your pupil. I would say to him: “If, Meletus, you agree that Euthyphro is wise in these matters, consider me, too, to have the right beliefs and do not bring me to trial. If you do not think so, then prosecute that teacher of mine, not me, for corrupting the older men, me and his own father, by teaching me and by exhorting and punishing him.” If he is not convinced, and does not discharge me or indict you instead of me, I shall repeat the same challenge in court.EUTHYPHRO: Yes, by Zeus, Socrates, and, if he should try to indict me, I think I would find his weak spots and the talk in court would be about him rather than about me.SOCRATES: It is because I realize this that I am eager to become your pupil, my dear friend. I know that other people as well as this Meletus do not even seem to notice you, whereas he sees me so sharply and c1early that he indicts me for ungodliness. So tell me now, by Zeus, what you just now maintained you clearly knew: what kind of thing do you say that godliness and ungodliness are, both as regards murder and other things; or is the pious not the same and alike in every action, and the impious the

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opposite of all that is pious and like itself, and everything that is to be impious presents us with one form or appearance in so far as it is impious?EUTHYPHRO: Most certainly, Socrates.SOCRATES: Tell me then, what is the pious, and what the impious, do you say?EUTHYPHRO: I say that the pious is to do what I am doing now, to prosecute the wrongdoer, be it about murder or temple robbery or anything else, whether the wrongdoer is your father or your mother or anyone else; not to prosecute is impious. And observe, Socrates, that I can cite powerful evidence that the law is so. I have already said to others that such actions are right, not to favor the ungodly, whoever they are. These people themselves believe that Zeus is the best and most just of the gods, yet they agree that he bound his father because he unjustly swallowed his sons, and that he in turn castrated his father for similar reasons. But they are angry with me because I am prosecuting my father for his wrongdoing. They contradict themselves in what they say about the gods and about me.SOCRATES: Indeed, Euthyphro, this is the reason why I am a defendant in the case, because I find it hard to accept things like that being said about the gods, and it is likely to be the reason why I shall be told I do wrong. Now, however, if you, who have full knowledge of such things, share their opinions, then we must agree with them, too, it would seem. For what are we to say, we who agree that we ourselves have no knowledge of them? Tell me, by the god of friendship, do you really believe these things are true?EUTHYPHRO: Yes, Socrates, and so are even more surprising things, of which the majority has no knowledge.SOCRATES: And do you believe that there really is war among the gods, and terrible enmities and battles, and other such things as are told by the poets, and other sacred stories such as are embroidered by good writers and by representations of which the robe of the goddess is adorned when it is carried up to the Acropolis? Are we to say these things are true, Euthyphro?EUTHYFHRO: Not only these, Socrates, but, as I was saying just now, I will, if you wish, relate many other things about the gods which I know will amaze you.SOCRATES: I should not be surprised, but you will tell me these at leisure some other time. For now, try to tell me more clearly what I was asking just now, for, my friend, you did not teach me adequately when I asked you what the pious was, but you told me that what you are doing now, in prosecuting your father for murder, is pious.EUTHYPHRO: And I told the truth, Socrates.SOCRATES: Perhaps. You agree, however, that there are many other pious actions.

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EUTHYPHRO: There are.SOCRATES: Bear in mind then that I did not bid you tell me one or two of the many pious actions but that form itself that makes all pious actions pious, for you agreed that all impious actions are impious and all pious actions pious through one form, or don’t you remember?EUTHYPHRO: I do.SOCRATES: Tell me then what this form itself is, so that I look upon it, and using it as a model, say that any action of yours or another’s that is of that kind is pious, and if it is not that it is not.EUTHYPHRO: If that is how you want it, Socrates, that is how I will tell you.SOCRATES: That is what I want.EUTHYPHRO: Well then, what is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious.SOCRATES: Splendid, Euthyphro! You have now answered in the way I wanted. Whether your answer is true I do not know yet, but you will obviously show me that what you say is true.EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.SOCRATES: Come then, let us examine what we mean. An action or a man dear to the gods is pious, but an action or a man hated by the gods is impious. They are not the same, but quite opposite, the pious and the impious. Is that not so?EUTHYPHRO: It is indeed.SOCRATES: And that seems to be a good statement?EUTHYPHRO: I think so, Socrates.SOCRATES: We have also stated that the gods are in a state of discord, that they are at odds with each other, Euthyphro, and that they are at enmity with each other. Has that, too, been said? EUTHYPHRO: It has.SOCRATES: What are the subjects of difference that cause hatred and anger? Let us look at it this way. If you and I were to differ about numbers as to which is the greater, would this difference make us enemies and angry with each other, or would we proceed to count and soon resolve our difference about this?EUTHYPHRO: We would certainly do so.SOCRATES: Again, if we differed about the larger and the smaller, we would turn to measurement and soon cease to differ.EUTHYPHRO: That is so.SOCRATES: And about the heavier and the lighter, we would resort to weighing and be reconciled.EUTHYPHRO: Of course.SOCRATES: What subject of difference would make us angry and hostile to each other if we were unable to come to a decision? Perhaps you do not have an answer ready, but examine as I tell you whether these subjects are the just and the unjust, the beautiful and the ugly, the good

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and the bad. Are these not the subjects of difference about which, when we are unable to come to a satisfactory decision, you and I and other men become hostile to each other whenever we do?EUTHYPHRO: That is the difference, Socrates, about those subjects.SOCRATES: What about the gods, Euthyphro? If indeed they have differences, will it not be about these same subjects?EUTHYPHRO: It certainly must be so.SOCRATES: Then according to your argument, my good Euthyphro, different gods consider different thing to be just, beautiful, ugly, good, and bad, for they would not be at odds with one another unless they differed about these subjects, would they?EUTHYPHRO: You are right.SOCRATES: And they like what each of them considers beautiful, good, and just, and hate the opposites of these?EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.SOCRATES: But you say that the same things are considered just by some gods and unjust by others, and as they dispute about these things they are at odds and at war with each other. Is that not so?EUTHYPHRO: It is.SOCRATES: The same things then are loved by the gods and hated by the gods, and would be both god-loved and god-hated.EUTHYPHRO: It seems likely.SOCRATES: And the same things would be both pious and impious, according to this argument?EUTHYPHRO: I’m afraid so.SOCRATES: So you did not answer my question, you surprising man. I did not ask you what same thing is both pious and impious, and it appears that what is loved by the gods is also hated by them. So it is in no way surprising if your present action, namely punishing your father, may be pleasing to Zeus but displeasing to Cronus and Uranus, pleasing to Hephaestus but displeasing to Hera, and so with any other gods who differ from each other on this subject.EUTHYPHRO: I think, Socrates, that on this subject no gods would differ from one another, that whoever has killed anyone unjustly should pay the penalty.SOCRATES: Well now, Euthyphro, have you ever heard any man maintain that one who has killed or done anything unjust should not pay the penalty?EUTHYPHRO: They never cease to dispute on this subject, both elsewhere and in the courts, for when they have committed many wrongs they do and say anything to avoid the penalty.SOCRATES: Do they agree they have done wrong, Euthyphro, and in spite of so agreeing do they nevertheless say they should not be punished?EUTHYPHRO: No, they do not agree on that point.

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SOCRATES: So they do not say or do just anything. For they do not venture to say this, or dispute that they must not pay the penalty if they have done wrong, but I think they deny doing wrong. Is that not so?EUTHYPHRO: That is true.SOCRATES: Then they do not dispute that the wrongdoer must be punished, but they may disagree as to who the wrongdoer is, what he did and when.EUTHYPHRO: You are right.SOCRATES: Do not the gods have the same experience, if indeed they are at odds with each other about the just and the unjust, as your argument maintains? Some assert that they wrong one another, while others deny it, but no one among gods or men ventures to say that the wrongdoer must not be punished.EUTHYPHRO: Yes, that is true, Socrates, as to the main point.SOCRATES: And those who disagree, whether men or gods, dispute about each action, if indeed the gods disagree. Some say it is done justly, others unjustly. Is that not so?EUTHYPHRO: Yes, indeed.SOCRATES: Come now, my dear Euthyphro, tell me, too, that I may become wiser, what proof you have that all the gods consider that man to have been killed unjustly who became a murderer while in your service, was bound by the master of his victim, and died in his bonds before the one who bound him found out from the seers what was to be done with him, and that it is right for a son to denounce and to prosecute his father on behalf of such a man. Come, try to show me a clear sign that all the gods definitely believe this action to be right. If you can give me adequate proof of this, I shall never cease to extol your wisdom.EUTHYPHRO: This is perhaps no light task, Socrates, though I could show you very clearly.SOCRATES: I understand that you think me more dull-witted than the jury, as you will obviously show them that these actions were unjust and that all the gods hate such actions.EUTHYPHRO: I will show it to them clearly, Socrates, if only they will listen to me.SOCRATES: They will listen if they think you show them well. But this thought came to me as you were speaking, and I am examining it, saying to myself: “If Euthyphro shows me conclusively that all the gods consider such a death unjust, to what greater extent have I learned from him the nature of piety and impiety? This action would then, it seems, be hated by the gods, but the pious and the impious were not thereby now defined, for what is hated by the gods has also been shown to be loved by them.” So I will not insist on this point; let us assume, if you wish, that all the gods consider this unjust and that they all hate it. However, is this the correction we are making in our discussion, that what all the gods hate is impious, and what they all love is pious, and that what some gods

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love and others hate is neither or both? Is that how you now wish us to define piety and impiety?EUTHYPHRO: What prevents us from doing so, Socrates?SOCRATES: For my part nothing, Euthyphro, but you look whether on your part this proposal will enable you to teach me most easily what you promised.EUTHYPHRO: I would certainly say that the pious is what all the gods love, and the opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious.SOCRATES: Then let us again examine whether that is a sound statement, or do we let it pass, and if one of us, or someone else, merely says that something is so, do we accept that it is so? Or should we examine what the speaker means?EUTHYPHRO: We must examine it, but I certainly think that this is now a fine statement.SOCRATES: We shall soon know better whether it is. Consider this: Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?EUTHYPHRO: I don’t know what you mean, Socrates.SOCRATES: I shall try to explain more clearly: we speak of something carried and something carrying, of something led and something leading, of something seen and something seeing, and you understand that these things are all different from one another and how they differ?EUTHYPHRO: I think I do.SOCRATES: So there is also something loved and—a different thing—something loving.EUTHYPHRO: Of course.SOCRATES: Tell me then whether the thing carried is a carried thing because it is being carried, or for some other reason?EUTHYPHRO: No, that is the reason.SOCRATES: And the thing led is so because it is being led, and the thing seen because it is being seen?EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.SOCRATES: It is not being seen because it is a thing seen but on the contrary it is a thing seen because it is being seen; nor is it because it is something led that it is being led but because it is being led that it is something led; nor is something being carried because it is something carried, but it is something carried because it is being carried. Is what I want to say clear, Euthyphro? I want to say this, namely, that if anything is being changed or is being affected in any way, it is not being changed because it is something changed, but rather it is something changed because it is being changed; nor is it being affected because it is something affected, but it is something affected because it is being affected. Or do you not agree?EUTHYPHRO: I do.

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SOCRATES: Is something loved either something changed or something affected by something?EUTHYPHRO: Certainly.SOCRATES: So it is in the same case as the things just mentioned; it is not being loved by those who love it because it is something loved, but it is something loved because it is being loved by them?EUTHYPHRO: Necessarily.SOCRATES: What then do we say about the pious, Euthyphro? Surely that it is being loved by all the gods, according to what you say?EUTHYPHRO: Yes.SOCRATES: Is it being loved because it is pious, or for some other reason?EUTHYPHRO: For no other reason.SOCRATES: It is being loved then because it is pious, but it is not pious because it is being loved?EUTHYPHRO: Apparently.SOCRATES: And yet it is something loved and god-loved because it is being loved by the gods?EUTHYPHRO: Of course.SOCRATES: Then the god-loved is not the same as the pious, Euthyphro, nor the pious the same as the god-loved, as you say it is, but one differs from the other.EUTHYPHRO: How so, Socrates?SOCRATES: Because we agree that the pious is being loved for this reason, that it is pious, but it is not pious because it is being loved. Is that not so?EUTHYPHRO: Yes.SOCRATES: And that the god-loved, on the other hand, is so because it is being loved by the gods, by the very fact of being loved, but it is not being loved because it is god-loved.EUTHYPHRO: True.SOCRATES: But if the god-loved and the pious were the same, my dear Euthyphro, then if the pious was being loved because it was pious, the god-loved would also be being loved because it was god-loved; and if the god-loved was god-loved because it was being loved by the gods, then the pious would also be pious because it was being loved by the gods. But now you see that they are in opposite cases as being altogether different from each other: the one is such as to be loved because it is being loved, the other is being loved because it is such as to be loved. I’m afraid, Euthyphro, that when you were asked what piety is, you did not wish to make its nature clear to me, but you told me an affect or quality of it, that the pious has the quality of being loved by all the gods, but you have not yet told me what the pious is. Now, if you will, do not hide things from me but tell me again from the beginning what piety is, whether being loved by the gods or having some other quality—we shall

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not quarrel about that—but be keen to tell me what the pious and the impious are.EUTHYPHRO: But Socrates, I have no way of telling you what I have in mind, for whatever proposition we put forward goes around and refuses to stay put where we establish it.SOCRATES: Your statements, Euthyphro, seem to belong to my ancestor, Daedalus. If I were stating them and putting them forward, you would perhaps be making fun of me and say that because of my kinship with him my conclusions in discussion run away and will not stay where one puts them. As these propositions are yours, however, we need some other jest, for they will not stay put for you, as you say yourself.EUTHYPHRO: I think the same jest will do for our discussion, Socrates, for I am not the one who makes them go round and not remain in the same place; it is you who are the Daedalus; for as far as I am concerned they would remain as they were.SOCRATES: It looks as if I was cleverer than Daedalus in using my skill, my friend, in so far as he could only cause to move the things he made himself, but I can make other people’s move as well as my own. And the smartest part of my skill is that I am clever without wanting to be, for I would rather have your statements to me remain unmoved than possess the wealth of Tantalus as well as the cleverness of Daedalus. But enough of this. Since I think you are making unnecessary difficulties, I am as eager as you are to find a way to teach me about piety, and do not give up before you do. See whether you think all that is pious is of necessity just.EUTHYPHRO: I think so.SOCRATES: And is then all that is just pious? Or is all that is pious just, but not all that is just pious, but some of it is and some is not?EUTHYPHRO: I do not follow what you are saying, Socrates.SOCRATES: Yet you are younger than I by as much as you are wiser. As I say, you are making difficulties because of your wealth of wisdom. Pull yourself together, my dear sir, what I am saying is not difficult to grasp. I am saying the opposite of what the poet said who wrote:

You do not wish to name Zeus, who had done it, and who madeall things grow, for where there is fear there is also shame.

I disagree with the poet. Shall I tell you why?EUTHYPHRO: Please do.SOCRATES: I do not think that “where there is fear there is also shame,” for I think that many people who fear disease and poverty and many other such things feel fear, but are not ashamed of the things they fear. Do you not think so?EUTHYPHRO: I do indeed.

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SOCRATES: But where there is shame there is also fear. For is there anyone who, in feeling shame and embarrassment at anything, does not also at the same time fear and dread a reputation for wickedness?EUTHYPHRO: He is certainly afraid.SOCRATES: It is then not right to say “where there is fear there is also shame,” but that where there is shame there is also fear, for fear covers a larger area than shame. Shame is a part of fear just as odd is a part of number, with the result that it is not true that where there is number there is also oddness, but that where there is oddness there is also number. Do you follow me now?EUTHYPHRO: Surely.SOCRATES: This is the kind of thing I was asking before, whether where there is piety there is also justice, but where there is justice there is not always piety, for the pious is part of justice. Shall we say that, or do you think otherwise?EUTHYPHRO: No, but like that, for what you say appears to be right.SOCRATES: See what comes next: if the pious is a part of the just, we must, it seems, find out what part of the just it is. Now if you asked me something of what we mentioned just now, such as what part of number is the even, and what number that is, I would say it is the number that is divisible into two equal, not unequal, parts. Or do you not think so?EUTHYPHRO: I do.SOCRATES: Try in this way to tell me what part of the just the pious is, in order to tell Meletus not to wrong us any more and not to indict me for ungodliness, since I have learned from you sufficiently what is godly and pious and what is not.EUTHYPHRO: I think, Socrates, that the godly and pious is the part of the just that is concerned with the care of the gods, while that concerned with the care of men is the remaining part of justice.SOCRATES: You seem to me to put that very well, but I still need a bit of information. I do not know yet what you mean by care, for you do not mean the care in the same sense as the care of other things, as, for example, we say, don’t we, that not everyone knows how to care for horses, but the horse breeder does.EUTHYPHRO: Yes, I do mean it that way.SOCRATES: So horse breeding is the care of horses.EUTHYPHRO: Yes.SOCRATES: Nor does everyone know how to care for dogs, but the hunter does.EUTHYPHRO: That is so.SOCRATES: So hunting is the care of dogs.EUTHYPHRO: Yes.SOCRATES: And cattle raising is the care of cattle.EUTHYPHRO: Quite so.

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SOCRATES: While piety and godliness is the care of the gods, Euthyphro. Is that what you mean?EUTHYPHRO: It is.SOCRATES: Now care in each case has the same effect; it aims at the good and the benefit of the object cared for, as you can see that horses cared for by horse breeders are benefited and become better. Or do you not think so?EUTHYPHRO: I do.SOCRATES: So dogs are benefited by dog breeding, cattle by cattle raising, and so with all the others. Or do you think that care aims to harm the object of its care?EUTHYPHRO: By Zeus, no.SOCRATES: It aims to benefit the object of its care?EUTHYPHRO: Of course.SOCRATES: Is piety then, which is the care of the gods, also to benefit the gods and make them better? Would you agree that when you do something pious you make some one of the gods better?EUTHYPHRO: By Zeus, no.SOCRATES: Nor do I think that this is what you mean—far from it—but that is why I asked you what you meant by the care of gods, because I did not believe you meant this kind of care.EUTHYPHRO: Quite right, Socrates, that is not the kind of care I mean.SOCRATES: Very well, but what kind of care of the gods would piety be?EUTHYPHRO: The kind of care, Socrates, that slaves take of their masters.SOCRATES: I understand. It is likely to be a kind of service of the gods.EUTHYPHRO: Quite so.SOCRATES: Could you tell me to the achievement of what goal service to doctors tends? Is it not, do you think, to achieving health?EUTHYPHRO: I think so.SOCRATES: What about service to shipbuilders? To what achievement is it directed?EUTHYPHRO: Clearly, Socrates, to the building of a ship.SOCRATES: And service to housebuilders to the building of a house?EUTHYPHRO: Yes.SOCRATES: Tell me then, my good sir, to the achievement of what aim does service to the gods tend? You obviously know since you say that you, of all men, have the best knowledge of the divine.EUTHYPHRO: And I am telling the truth, Socrates.SOCRATES: Tell me then, by Zeus, what is that excellent aim that the gods achieve, using us as their servants?EUTHYPHRO: Many fine things, Socrates.SOCRATES: So do generals, my friend. Nevertheless you could easily tell me their main concern, which is to achieve victory in war, is it not?

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EUTHYPHRO: Of course.SOCRATES: The farmers too, I think, achieve many fine things, but the main point of their efforts is to produce food from the earth.EUTHYPHRO: Quite so.SOCRATES: Well then, how would you sum up the many fine things that the gods achieve?EUTHYPHRO: I told you a short while ago, Socrates, that it is a considerable task to acquire any precise knowledge of these things, but, to put it simply, I say that if a man knows how to say and do what is pleasing to the gods at prayer and sacrifice, those are pious actions such as preserve both private houses and public affairs of state. The opposite of these pleasing actions are impious and overturn and destroy everything.SOCRATES: You could tell me in far fewer words, if you were willing, the sum of what I asked, Euthyphro, but you are not keen to teach me, that is clear. You were on the point of doing so, but you turned away. If you had given that answer, I should now have acquired from you sufficient knowledge of the nature of piety. As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him. Once more then, what do you say that piety and the pious are? Are they a knowledge of how to sacrifice and pray?EUTHYPHRO: They are.SOCRATES: To sacrifice is to make a gift to the gods, whereas to pray is to beg from the gods?EUTHYPHRO: Definitely, Socrates.SOCRATES: It would follow from this statement that piety would be a knowledge of how to give to, and beg from, the gods.EUTHYPHRO: You understood what I said very well, Socrates. SOCRATES: That is because I am so desirous of your wisdom, and I concentrate my mind on it, so that no word of yours may fall to the ground. But tell me, what is this service to the gods? You say it is to beg from them and to give to them?EUTHYPHRO: I do.SOCRATES: And to beg correctly would be to ask from them things that we need?EUTHYPHRO: What else?SOCRATES: And to give correctly is to give them what they need from us, for it would not be skillful to bring gifts to anyone that are in no way needed.EUTHYPHRO: True, Socrates.SOCRATES: Piety would then be a sort of trading skill between gods and men?EUTHYPHRO: Trading yes, if you prefer to call it that.SOCRATES: I prefer nothing, unless it is true. But tell me, what benefit do the gods derive from the gifts they receive from us? What they give us

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is obvious to all. There is for us no good that we do not receive from them, but how are they benefited by what they receive from us? Or do we have such an advantage over them in the trade that we receive all our blessings from them and they receive nothing from us?EUTHYPHRO: Do you suppose, Socrates, that the gods are benefited by what they receive from us?SOCRATES: What could those gifts from us to the gods be, Euthyphro?EUTHYPHRO: What else, do you think, than honor, reverence, and what I mentioned just now, gratitude?SOCRATES: The pious is then, Euthyphro, pleasing to the gods, but not beneficial or dear to them?EUTHYPHRO: I think it is of all things most dear to them.SOCRATES: So the pious is once again what is dear to the gods.EUTHYPHRO: Most certainly.SOCRATES: When you say this, will you be surprised if your arguments seem to move about instead of staying put? And will you accuse me of being Daedalus who makes them move, though you are yourself much more skillful than Daedalus and make them go round in a circle? Or do you not realize that our argument has moved around and come again to the same place? You surely remember that earlier the pious and the god-loved were shown not to be the same but different from each other. Or do you not remember?EUTHYPHRO: I do.SOCRATES: Do you then not realize now that you are saying that what is dear to the gods is the pious? Is this not the same as the god-loved? Or is it not?EUTHYPHRO: It certainly is.SOCRATES: Either we were wrong when we agreed before, or, if we were right then, we are wrong now.EUTHYPHRO: That seems to be so.SOCRATES: So we must investigate again from the beginning what piety is, as I shall not willingly give up before I learn this. Do not think me unworthy, but concentrate your attention and tell the truth. For you know it, if any man does, and I must not let you go, like Proteus,55 before you tell me. If you had no clear knowledge of piety and impiety you would never have ventured to prosecute your old father for murder on behalf of a servant. For fear of the gods you would have been afraid to take the risk lest you should not be acting rightly, and would have been ashamed before men, but now I know well that you believe you have clear knowledge of piety and impiety. So tell me, my good Euthyphro, and do not hide what you think it is.EUTHYPHRO: Some other time, Socrates, for I am in a hurry now, and it is time for me to go.

55 See Odyssey iv.382 ff.215

SOCRATES: What a thing to do, my friend! By going you have cast me down from a great hope I had, that I would learn from you the nature of the pious and the impious and so escape Meletus’ indictment by showing him that I had acquired wisdom in divine matters from Euthyphro, and my ignorance would no longer cause me to be careless and inventive about such things, and that I would be better for the rest of my life.

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From Aristotle’s Metaphysics56

BOOK I

I. All men naturally desire knowledge. An indication of this is our esteem for the senses; for apart from their use we esteem them for their own sake, and most of all the sense of sight. Not only with a view to action, but even when no action is contemplated, we prefer sight, generally speaking, to all the other senses. The reason of this is that of all the senses sight best helps us to know things, and reveals many distinctions.

Now animals are by nature born with the power of sensation, and from this some acquire the faculty of memory, whereas others do not. Accordingly the former are more intelligent and capable of learning than those which cannot remember. Such as cannot hear sounds (as the bee, and any other similar type of creature) are intelligent, but cannot learn; those only are capable of learning which possess this sense in addition to the faculty of memory.

Thus the other animals live by impressions and memories, and have but a small share of experience; but the human race lives also by art and reasoning. It is from memory that men acquire experience, because the numerous memories of the same thing eventually produce the effect of a single experience. Experience seems very similar to science and art, but actually it is through experience that men acquire science and art; for as Polus rightly says, “experience produces art, but inexperience chance.” Art is produced when from many notions of experience a single universal judgment is formed with regard to like objects. To have a judgment that when Callias was suffering from this or that disease this or that benefited him, and similarly with Socrates and various other individuals, is a matter of experience; but to judge that it benefits all persons of a certain type, considered as a class, who suffer from this or that disease (e.g. the phlegmatic or bilious when suffering from burning fever) is a matter of art.

It would seem that for practical purposes experience is in no way inferior to art; indeed we see men of experience succeeding more than those who have theory without experience. The reason of this is that experience is knowledge of particulars, but art of universals; and actions and the effects produced are all concerned with the particular. For it is not man that the physician cures, except incidentally, but Callias or Socrates or some other person similarly named, who is incidentally a man as well. So if a man has theory without experience, and knows the universal, but does not know the particular contained in it, he will often fail in his treatment; for it is the particular that must be treated.

56 Aristotle, The Metaphysics. (Loeb) Translated by Hugh Tredennick (London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1961), 3-95.

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Nevertheless we consider that knowledge and proficiency belong to art rather than to experience, and we assume that artists are wiser than men of mere experience (which implies that in all cases wisdom depends rather upon knowledge); and this is because the former know the cause, whereas the latter do not. For the experienced know the fact, but not the wherefore; but the artists know the wherefore and the cause. For the same reason we consider that the master craftsmen in every profession are more estimable and know more and are wiser than the artisans, because they know the reasons of the things which are done; but we think that the artisans, like certain inanimate objects, do things, but without knowing what they are doing (as, for instance, fire burns); only whereas inanimate objects perform all their actions in virtue of a certain natural quality, artisans perform theirs through habit. Thus the master craftsmen are superior in wisdom, not because they can do things, but because they possess a theory and know the causes.

In general the sign of knowledge or ignorance is the ability to teach, and for this reason we hold that art rather than experience is scientific knowledge; for the artists can teach, but the others cannot. Further, we do not consider any of the senses to be Wisdom. They are indeed our chief sources of knowledge about particulars, but they do not tell us the reason for anything, as for example why fire is hot, but only that it is hot.

It is therefore probable that at first the inventor of any art which went further than the ordinary sensations was admired by his fellow-men, not merely because some of his inventions were useful, but as being a wise and superior person. And as more and more arts were discovered, some relating to the necessities and some to the pastimes of life, the inventors of the latter were always considered wiser than those of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. Hence when all the discoveries of this kind were fully developed, the sciences which relate neither to pleasure nor yet to the necessities of life were invented, and first in those places where men had leisure. Thus the mathematical sciences originated in the neighborhood of Egypt, because there the priestly class was allowed leisure.

The difference between art and science and the other kindred mental activities has been stated in the Ethics;57 the reason for our present discussion is that it is generally assumed that what is called Wisdom is concerned with the primary causes and principles, so that, as has been already stated, the man of experience is held to be wiser than the mere possessors of any power of sensation, the artist than the man of experience, the master craftsman than the artisan; and the speculative sciences to be more learned than the productive. Thus it is clear that Wisdom is knowledge of certain principles and causes.

57 Nicomachean Ethics VI 1139b14-1141b8.218

II. Since we are investigating this kind of knowledge, we must consider what these causes and principles are whose knowledge is Wisdom. Perhaps it will be clearer if we take the opinions which we hold about the wise man. We consider first, then, that the wise man knows all things, so far as it is possible, without having knowledge of every one of them individually; next, that wise man is he who can comprehend difficult things, such as are not easy for human comprehension (for sense-perception, being common to all, is easy, and has nothing to do with Wisdom); and further that in every branch of knowledge a man is wiser in proportion as he is more accurately informed and better able to expound the causes. Again among the sciences we consider that that science which is desirable in itself and for the sake of knowledge is more nearly Wisdom that that which is desirable for its results, and that the superior is more nearly Wisdom than the subsidiary; for the wise man should give orders, not receive them; nor should he obey others, but the less wise should obey him.

Such in kind and in number are the opinions which we hold with regard to Wisdom and the wise. Of the qualities there described the knowledge of everything must necessarily belong to him who in the highest degree possesses knowledge of the universal, because he knows in a sense all the particulars which it comprises. These things, viz, the most universal, are perhaps the hardest for man to grasp, because they are furthest removed from the senses. Again, the most exact of the sciences are those which are most concerned with the first principles; for those which are based on fewer principles are more exact than those which include additional principles; e.g., arithmetic is more exact than geometry. Moreover, the science which investigates causes is more instructive than one which does not, for it is those who tell us the causes of any particular thing who instruct us. Moreover, knowledge and understanding which are desirable for their own sake are most attainable in the knowledge of that which is most knowable. For the man who desires knowledge for its own sake will most desire the most perfect knowledge, and this is the knowledge of the most knowable, and the things which are most knowable are first principles and causes: for it is through these and from these that other things come to be known, and not these through the particulars which fall under them. And that science is supreme, and superior to the subsidiary, which knows for what end each action is to be done; i.e. the Good in each particular case, and in general the highest Good in the whole of nature.

Thus as a result of all the above considerations the term which we are investigating falls under the same science, which must speculate about first principles and causes; for the Good, i.e. the end, is one of the causes.

That it is not a productive science is clear from a consideration of the first philosophers. It is through wonder that men now begin and

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originally began to philosophize; wondering in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progression raising questions about the greater matters too, e.g. about the changes of the moon and of the sun, about the stars and about the origin of the universe. Now he who wonders and is perplexed feels that he is ignorant (thus the myth-lover is in a sense a philosopher, since myths are composed of wonders); therefore if it was to escape ignorance that men studied philosophy, it is obvious that they pursued science for the sake of knowledge, and not for any practical utility. The actual course of events bears witness to this; for speculation of this kind began with a view to recreation and pastime, at a time when practically all the necessities of life were already supplied. Clearly then it is for no extrinsic advantage that we seek this knowledge; for just as we call a man independent who exists for himself and not for another, so we call this the only independent science, since it alone exists for itself. For this reason its acquisition might justly be supposed to be beyond human power, since in many respects human nature is servile; in which case, as Simonides says, “God alone can have this privilege,” and man should only seek the knowledge which is within his reach. Indeed if the poets are right and the Deity is by nature jealous, it is probable that in this case He would be particularly jealous, and all those who excel in knowledge unfortunate. But it is impossible for the Deity to be jealous (indeed, as the proverb says, “poets tell many a lie”), nor must we suppose that any other form of knowledge is more precious than this; for what is most divine is most precious. Now there are two ways only in which it can be divine. A science is divine if it is peculiarly the possession of God, or if it is concerned with divine matters. And this science alone fulfils both these conditions; for (a) all believe that God is one of the causes and a kind of principle, and (b) God is the sole or chief possessor of this sort of knowledge. Accordingly, although all other sciences are more necessary than this, none is more excellent.

The acquisition of this knowledge, however, must in a sense result in something which is the reverse of the outlook with which we first approached the inquiry. All begin, as we have said, by wondering that things should be as they are, e.g. with regard to marionettes, or the solstices, or the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square; because it seems wonderful to everyone who has not yet perceived the cause that a thing should not be measurable by the smallest unit. But we must end with the contrary and (according to the proverb) the better view, as men do even in these cases when they understand them; for geometrician would wonder at nothing so much as if the diagonal were to become measurable.

Thus we have stated what is the nature of the science which we are seeking, and what is the object which our search and our whole investigation must attain.

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III. It is clear that we must obtain knowledge of the primary causes, because it is when we think that we understand its primary cause that we claim to know each particular thing. Now there are four recognized kinds of cause. Of these we hold that one is the essence or essential nature of the thing (since the “reason why” of a thing is ultimately reducible to its formula, and the ultimate “reason why” is a cause and principle); another is the matter or substrate; the third is the source of motion and the fourth is the cause which is opposite to this, namely the purpose or “good”; for this is the end of every generative or motive process. We have investigated these sufficiently in the Physics; however, let us avail ourselves of the evidence of those who have before us approached the investigation of reality and philosophized about Truth. For clearly they too recognize certain principles and causes, and so it will be of some assistance to our present inquiry if we study their teaching; because we shall either discover some other kind of cause, or have more confidence in those which we have just described.

Most of the earliest philosophers conceived only of material principles as underlying all things. That of which all things consist, from which they first come and into which on their destruction they are ultimately resolved, of which the essence persists although modified by its affections—this, they say, is an element and principle of existing things. Hence they believe that nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this kind of primary entity always persists. Similarly we do not say that Socrates comes into being absolutely when he becomes handsome or cultured, nor that he is destroyed when he loses these qualities; because the substrate, Socrates himself, persists. In the same way nothing else is generated or destroyed; for there is some one entity (or more than one) which always persists and from which all other things are generated. All are not agreed, however, as to the number and character of these principles. Thales, the founder of this school of philosophy, says the permanent entity is water (which is why, he also propounded that the earth floats on water). Presumably he derived this assumption from seeing that the nutriment of everything is moist, and that heat itself is generated from moisture and depends upon it for its existence (and that from which a thing is generated is always its first principle). He derived his assumption, then, from this; and also from the fact that the seeds of everything have a moist nature, whereas water is the first principle of the nature of moist things.

There are some who think that the men of very ancient times, long before the present era, who first speculated about the gods, also held this same opinion about the primary entity. For they represented Oceanus and Tethys to be the parents of creation, and the oath of the gods to be by water— Styx, as they call it. Now what is most ancient is most revered, and what is most revered is what we swear by. Whether this view of the primary entity is really ancient and time-honoured may perhaps be

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considered uncertain; however, it is said that this was Thales’ opinion concerning the first cause. (I say nothing of Hippo, because no one would presume to include him in this company, in view of the paltriness of his intelligence.)

Anaximenes and Diogenes held that air is prior to water, and is of all corporeal elements most truly the first principle. Hippasus of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus hold this of fire; and Empedocles—adding earth as a fourth to those already mentioned—takes all four. These, he says, always persist, and are only generated in respect of multitude and paucity, according as they are combined into unity or differentiated out of unity.

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae—prior to Empedocles in point of age, but posterior in his activities—says that the first principles are infinite in number. For he says that as a general rule all things which are, like fire and water, homoeomerous, are generated and destroyed in this sense only, by combination and differentiation; otherwise they are neither generated nor destroyed, but persist eternally.

From this account it might be supposed that the only cause is of the kind called “material.” But as men proceeded in this way, the very circumstances of the case led them on and compelled them to seek further; because if it is really true that all generation and destruction is out of some one entity or even more than one, why does this happen, and what is the cause ? It is surely not the substrate itself which causes itself to change. I mean, e.g., that neither wood nor bronze is responsible for changing itself; wood does not make a bed, nor bronze a statue, but something else is the cause of the change. Now to investigate this is to investigate the second type of cause: the source of motion, as we should say.

Those who were the very first to take up this inquiry, and who maintained that the substrate is one thing, had no misgivings on the subject; but some of those who regard it as one thing, being baffled, as it were, by the inquiry, say that that one thing (and indeed the whole physical world) is immovable in respect not only of generation and destruction (this was a primitive belief and was generally admitted) but of all other change. This belief is peculiar to them.

None of those who maintained that the universe is a unity achieved any conception of this type of cause, except perhaps Parmenides; and him only in so far as he admits, in a sense, not one cause only but two. But those who recognize more than one entity, e.g. hot and cold, or fire and earth, are better able to give a systematic explanation, because they avail themselves of fire as being of a kinetic nature, and of water, earth, etc., as being the opposite.

After these thinkers and the discovery of these causes, since they were insufficient to account for the generation of the actual world, men were again compelled (as we have said) by truth itself to investigate the

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next first principle. For presumably it is unnatural that either fire or earth or any other such element should cause existing things to be or become well and beautifully disposed; or indeed that those thinkers should hold such a view. Nor again was it satisfactory to commit so important a matter to spontaneity and chance. Hence when someone said that there is Mind in nature, just as in animals, and that this is the cause of all order and arrangement, he seemed like a sane man in contrast with the haphazard statements of his predecessors. We know definitely that Anaxagoras adopted this view; but Hermotimus of Clazomenae is credited with having stated it earlier. Those thinkers, then, who held this view assumed a principle in things which is the cause of beauty, and the sort of cause by which motion is communicated to things.

IV. It might be inferred that the first person to consider this question was Hesiod, or indeed anyone else who assumed Love or Desire as a first principle in things; eg. Parmenides. For he says, where he is describing the creation of the universe,

Love she created first of all the gods.

And Hesiod says,

First of all things was Chaos made, and then

Broad-bosomed Earth . . . And Love, the foremost of immortal

beings,

thus implying that there must be in the world some cause to move things and combine them.

The question of arranging these thinkers in order of priority may be decided later. Now since it was apparent that nature also contains the opposite of what is good, i.e. not only order and beauty, but disorder and ugliness; and that there are more bad and common things than there are good and beautiful: in view of this another thinker introduced Love and Strife as the respective causes of these things—because if one follows up and appreciates the statements of Empedocles with a view to his real meaning and not to his obscure language, it will be found that Love is the cause of good, and Strife of evil. Thus it would perhaps be correct to say that Empedocles in a sense spoke of evil and good as first principles, and was the first to do so—that is, if the cause of all good things, is absolute good.

These thinkers, then, as I say, down to the time of Empedocles, seem to have grasped two of the causes which we have defined in the Physics: the material cause and the source of motion; but only vaguely

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and indefinitely. They are like untrained soldiers in a battle, who rush about and often strike good blows, but without science; in the same way these thinkers do not seem to understand their own statements, since it is clear that upon the whole they seldom or never apply them. Anaxagoras avails himse1f of Mind as an artificial device for producing order, and drags it in whenever he is at a loss to explain some necessary result; but otherwise he makes anything rather than Mind the cause of what happens. Again, Empedocles does indeed use causes to a greater degree than Anaxagoras, but not sufficiently; nor does he attain to consistency in their use. At any rate Love often differentiates and Strife combines: because whenever the universe is differentiated into its elements by Strife, fire and each of the other elements are agglomerated into a unity; and. whenever they are all combined together again by Love, the particles of each element are necessarily again differentiated.

Empedocles, then, differed from his predecessors in that he first introduced the division of this cause, making the source of motion not one but two contrary forces. Further, he was the first to maintain that the so-called material elements are four—not that he uses them as four, but as two only, treating fire on the one hand by itself, and the elements opposed to it—earth, air and water—on the other as a single nature. This can be seen from a study of his writings. Such, then, as I say, is his account of the nature and number of the first principles.

. . . . .

From this survey we can sufficiently understand the meaning of those ancients who taught that the elements of the natural world are a plurality. Others, however, theorized about the universe as though it were a single entity; but their doctrines are not all alike either in point of soundness or in respect of conformity with the fact of nature. For the purposes of our present inquiry an account of their teaching is quite irrelevant, since they do not, while assuming a unity, at the same time make out that Being is generated from the unity as from matter, as do some physicists, but give a different explanation; for the physicists assume motion also; at any rate when explaining the generation of the universe; but these thinkers hold that it is immovable. Nevertheless thus much is pertinent to our present inquiry. It appears that Parmenides conceived of the Unity as one in definition, but Melissus as materially one. Hence the former says that it is finite, and the latter that it is infinite. But Xenophanes, the first exponent of the Unity (for Parmenides is said to have been his disciple), gave no definite teaching, nor does he seem to have grasped either of these conceptions of unity; but regarding the whole material universe he stated that the Unity is God. This school then, as we have said, may be disregarded for the purposes of our present inquiry; two of them, Xenophanes and Melissus, may be completely ignored, as being somewhat too crude in their views. Parmenides, however, seems to speak

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with rather more insight. For holding as he does that Not-being, as contrasted with Being, is nothing, he necessarily supposes that Being is one and that there is nothing else (we have discussed this point in greater detail in the Physics); but being compelled to accord with phenomena, and assuming that Being is one in definition but many in respect of sensation, he posits in his turn two causes, i.e. two first principles, Hot and Cold; or in other words, Fire and Earth. Of these he ranks Hot under Being and the other under Not-being.

. . . . .

VI. The philosophies described above were succeeded by the system of Plato, which in most respects accorded with them, but contained also certain peculiar features distinct from the philosophy of the Italians. In his youth Plato first became acquainted with Cratylus and the Heraclitean doctrines—that the whole sensible world is always in a state of flux, and that there is no scientific knowledge of it—and in after years he still held these opinions. And when Socrates, disregarding the physical universe and confining his study to moral questions, sought in this sphere for the universal and was the first to concentrate upon definition, Plato followed him and assumed that the problem of definition is concerned not with any sensible thing but with entities of another kind; for the reason that there can be can no general definition of sensible things which are always changing. These entities he called “Ideas,” and held that all sensible things are named after them and in virtue of their relation to them; for the plurality of things which bear the same name as the Forms exist by participation in them. (With regard to the “participation,” it was only the term that he changed; for whereas the Pythagoreans say that things exist by imitation of numbers, Plato says that they exist by participation—merely a change of term. As to what this “participation” or “imitation” may be, they left this an open question.)

. . . . .

BOOK II

I. The study of truth is in one sense difficult, in another easy. This is shown by the fact that whereas no one person can obtain an adequate grasp of it, we cannot all fail in the attempt; each thinker makes some statement about the natural world, and as an individual contributes little or nothing to the inquiry; but a combination of all conjectures results in something considerable. Thus in so far as it seems that Truth is like the proverbial door which no one can miss, in this sense our study will be easy; but the fact that we cannot, although having some gasp of the whole, grasp a particular part, shows its difficulty. However, since difficulty also can be accounted for in two ways, its cause may exist not in the objects of our study but in ourselves: just as it is with bats’ eyes in

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respect of daylight, so it is with our mental intelligence in respect of those things which are by nature most obvious.

It is only fair to be grateful not only to those whose views we can share but also to those who have expressed rather superficial opinions. They too have contributed something; by their preliminary work they have formed our mental experience. If there had been no Timotheus, we should not possess much of our music; and if there had been no Phrynis, there would have been no Timotheus. It is just the same in the case of those who have theorized about reality: we have derived certain views from some of them, and they in turn were indebted to others.

Moreover, philosophy is rightly called a knowledge of Truth. The object of theoretic knowledge is truth, while that of practical knowledge is action; for even when they are investigating how a thing is so, practical men study not the eternal principle but the relative and immediate application. But we cannot know the truth apart from the cause. Now every thing through which a common quality is communicated to other things is itself of all those things in the highest degree possessed of that quality (e.g. fire is hottest, because it is the cause of heat in everything else); hence that also is most true which causes all subsequent things to be true. Therefore in every case the first principles of things must necessarily be true above everything else—since they are not merely sometimes true, nor is anything the cause of their existence, but they are the cause of the existence of other things,—and so as each thing is in respect of existence, so it is in respect of truth.

II. Moreover, it is obvious that there is some first principle, and that the causes of things are not infinitely many either in a direct sequence or in kind. For the material generation of one thing from another cannot go on in an infinite progression (e.g. flesh from earth, earth from air, air from fire, and so on without a stop); nor can the source of motion (e.g. man be moved by air, air by the sun, the sun by Strife,58 with no limit to the series). In the same way neither can the Final Cause recede to infinity—walking having health for its object, and health happiness, and happiness something else: one thing always being done for the sake of another. And it is just the same with the Formal Cause. For in the case of all intermediate terms of a series which are contained between a first and last term the prior term is necessarily the cause of those which follow it; because if we had to say which of the three is the cause, we should say “the first.” At any rate it is not the last term, because what comes at the end is not the cause of anything. Neither, again, is the intermediate term, which is only the cause of one (and it makes no difference whether there is one intermediate term or several, nor whether they are infinite or limited in number). But of series which are infinite in this way, and in

58 Aristotle is evidently thinking of Empedocles’ system.226

general of the infinite, all the parts are equally intermediate, down to the present moment. Thus if there is no first term, there is no cause at all.

. . . . .

Further, the Final cause of a thing is an end, and is such that it does not happen for the sake of something else, but all other things happen for its sake. So if there is to be a last term of this kind, the series will not be infinite; and if there is no such term, there will be no Final cause. Those who introduce infinity do not realize that they are abolishing the nature of the Good (although no one would attempt to do anything if he were not likely to reach some limit); nor would there by any intelligence in the world, because the man who has intelligence always acts for the sake of something, and this is a limit, because the end is a limit.

Nor again can the Formal cause be referred back to another fuller definition; for the prior definition is always closer, and the posterior is not; and where the original definition does not apply, neither does the subsequent one. Further, those who hold such a view do away with scientific knowledge, for on this view it is impossible to know anything until one comes to terms which cannot be analyzed. Understanding, too, is impossible; for how can one conceive of things which are infinite in this way? It is different in the case of the line, which, although in respect of divisibility it never stops, yet cannot be conceived of unless we a stop (which is why, in examining an infinite line, one cannot count the sections). Even matter has to be conceived under the form of something which changes, and there can be nothing which is infinite. In any case the concept of infinity is not infinite.

Again, if the kinds of causes were infinite in number it would still be impossible to acquire knowledge; for it is only when we have become acquainted with the causes that we assume that we know a thing; and we cannot, in a finite time, go completely through what is additively infinite.

III. The effect of a lecture depends upon the habits of the listener; because we expect the language to which we are accustomed, and anything beyond this seems not to be on the same level, but somewhat strange arid unintelligible on account of its unfamiliarity; for it is the familiar that is intelligible. The powerful effect of familiarity is clearly shown by the laws, in which the fanciful and puerile survivals prevail, through force of habit, against our recognition of them. Thus some people will not accept the statements of a speaker unless he gives a mathematical proof; others will not unless he makes use of illustrations ; others expect to have a poet adduced as witness. Again, some require exactness in everything, while others are annoyed by it, either because they cannot follow the reasoning or because of its pettiness; for there is something

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about exactness which seems to some people to be mean, no less in an argument than in a business transaction.

Hence one must have been already trained how to take each kind of argument, because it is absurd to seek simultaneously for knowledge and for the method of obtaining it; and neither is easy to acquire. Mathematical accuracy is not to be demanded in everything, but only in things which do not contain matter. Hence this method is not that of natural science, because presumably all nature is concerned with matter. Hence we should first inquire what nature is; for in this way it will become clear what the objects of natural science are [and whether it belongs to one science or more than one to study the causes and principles of things].

“The rehabilitation of authority and tradition”

Hans-Georg Gadamer59

59 From Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (245-253). Translation edited by Garrett Barden and John Cumming (New York: Crossroad. 1982).

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This is where the hermeneutical problem comes in. This is why we examined the discrediting of the concept of prejudice by the enlightenment. That which presents itself, under the aegis of an absolute self-construction by reason, as a limiting prejudice belongs, in fact, to historical reality itself. What is necessary is a fundamental rehabilitation of the concept of prejudice and a recognition of the fact that there are legitimate prejudices, if we want to do justice to man’s finite, historical mode of being. Thus we are able to formulate the central question of a truly historical hermeneutics, epistemologically its fundamental question, namely: where is the ground of the legitimacy of prejudices? What distinguishes legitimate prejudices from all the countless ones which it is the undeniable task of the critical reason to overcome?

We can approach this question by taking the view of prejudices that the enlightenment developed with a critical intention, as set out above, and giving it a positive value. As for the division of prejudices into those of ‘authority’ and those of ‘over-hastiness’, it is obviously based on the fundamental presupposition of the enlightenment, according to which a methodologically disciplined use of reason can safeguard us from all error. This was Descartes’ idea of method. Over-hastiness is the actual source of error in the use of one’s own reason. Authority, however, is responsible for one’s not using one’s own reason at all. There lies, then, at the base of the division a mutually exclusive antithesis between authority and reason. The false prejudice for what is old, for authorities, is what has to be fought. Thus the enlightenment regards it as the reforming action of Luther that ‘the prejudice of human prestige, especially that of the philosophical (he means Aristotle) and the Roman pope was greatly weakened’. The reformation, then, gives rise to a flourishing hermeneutics which is to teach the right use of reason in the understanding of transmitted texts. Neither the teaching authority of the pope nor the appeal to tradition can replace the work of hermeneutics, which can safeguard the reasonable meaning of a text against all unreasonable demands made on it.

The consequences of this kind of hermeneutics need not be those of the radical critique of religion that we found, for example, in Spinoza. Rather the possibility of supernatural truth can remain entirely open. Thus the enlightenment, especially in the field of popular philosophy, limited the claims of reason and acknowledged the authority of bible and church. We read in say, Walch, that he distinguishes between the two classes of prejudice--authority and over-hastiness—but sees in them two extremes, between which it is necessary to find the right middle path, namely a reconciliation between reason and biblical authority. Accordingly, he sees the prejudice from over-hastiness as a prejudice in favor of the new, as a predisposition to the overhasty rejection of truths

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simply because they are old and attested by authorities. Thus he discusses the British freethinkers (such as Collins and others) and defends the historical faith against the norm of reason. Here the meaning of the prejudice from over-hastiness is clearly reinterpreted in a conservative sense.

There can be no doubt, however, that the real consequence of the enlightenment is different: namely, the subjection of all authority to reason. Accordingly, prejudice from over-hastiness is to be understood as Descartes understood it, ie as the source of all error in the use of reason. This fits in with the fact that after the victory of the enlightenment, when hermeneutics was freed from all dogmatic ties, the old division returns in a changed sense. Thus we read in Schleiermacher that he distinguishes between narrowness of view and over-hastiness as the causes of misunderstanding. He places the lasting prejudices due to narrowness of view beside the momentary ones due to overhastiness, but only the former are of interest to someone concerned with scientific method. It no longer even occurs to Schleiermacher that among the prejudices in the mind of one whose vision is narrowed by authorities there might be some that are true—yet this was included in the concept of authority in the first place. His alteration of the traditional division of prejudices is a sign of the fulfillment of the enlightenment. Narrowness now means only an individual limitation of understanding: ‘The one sided preference for what is close to one’s own sphere of ideas’.

In fact, however, the decisive question is concealed behind the concept of narrowness. That the prejudices that determine what I think are due to my own narrowness of vision is a judgment that is made from the standpoint of their dissolution and illumination and holds only of unjustified prejudices. If, contrariwise, there are justified prejudices productive of knowledge, then we are back with the problem of authority. Hence the radical consequences of the enlightenment, which are still contained in Schleiermacher’s faith in method, are not tenable.

The distinction the enlightenment draws between faith in authority and the use of one’s own reason is, in itself, legitimate. If the prestige of authority takes the place of one’s own judgment, then authority is in fact a source of prejudices. But this does not exclude the possibility that it can also be a source of truth, and this is what the enlightenment failed to see when it denigrated all authority. To be convinced of this, we only have to consider one of the greatest forerunners of the European enlightenment, namely Descartes. Despite the radicalness of his methodo1ogical thinking, we know that Descartes excluded morality from the total reconstruction of all truths by reason. This was what he meant by his provisional morality. It seems to me symptomatic that he did not in fact elaborate his definitive morality and that its principles, as far as we can judge from his letters to Elizabeth, contain hardly anything new. It is obviously unthinkable to prefer to wait

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until the progress of modern science provides us with the basis of a new morality. In fact the denigration of authority is not the only prejudice of the enlightenment. For, within the enlightenment, the very concept of authority becomes deformed. On the basis of its concept of reason and freedom, the concept of authority could be seen as diametrically opposed to reason and freedom: to be, in fact, blind obedience. This is the meaning that we know, from the usage of their critics, within modern dictatorships.

But this is not the essence of authority. It is true that it is primarily persons that have authority; but the authority of persons is based ultimately, not on the subjection and abdication of reason, but on recognition and knowledge—knowledge, namely, that the other is superior to oneself in judgment and insight and that for this reason his judgment takes precedence, ie it has priority over one’s own. This is connected with the fact that authority cannot actually be bestowed, but is acquired and must be acquired, if someone is to lay claim to it. It rests on recognition and hence on an act of reason itself which, aware of its own limitations, accepts that others have better understanding. Authority in this sense, properly understood, has nothing to do with blind obedience to a command. Indeed, authority has nothing to do with obedience, but rather with knowledge. It is true that authority is necessary in order to be able to command and find obedience. But this proceeds only from the authority that a person has. Even the anonymous and impersonal authority of a superior which derives from the command is not ultimately based on this order, but is what makes it possible. Here also its true basis is an act of freedom and reason, which fundamentally acknowledges the authority of a superior because he has a wider view of things or is better informed, ie once again, because he has superior knowledge.

Thus the recognition of authority is always connected with the idea that what authority states is not irrational and arbitrary, but can be seen, in principle, to be true. This is the essence of the authority claimed by the teacher, the superior, the expert. The prejudices that they implant are legitimized by the person himself. Their validity demands that one should be biased in favor of the person who presents them. But this makes them then, in a sense, objective prejudices, for they bring about the same bias in favor of something that can come about through other means, eg through solid grounds offered by reason. Thus the essence of authority belongs in the context of a theory of prejudices free from the extremism of the enlightenment.

Here we can find support in the romantic criticism of the enlightenment; for there is one form of authority particularly defended by romanticism, namely tradition. That which has been sanctioned by tradition and custom has an authority that is nameless, and our finite historical being is marked by the fact that always the authority of what has been transmitted—and not only what is clearly grounded—has power

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over our attitudes and behavior. All education depends on this, and even though, in the case of education, the educator loses his function when his charge comes of age and sets his own insight and decisions in the place of the authority of the educator, this movement into maturity in his own life does not mean that a person becomes his own master in the sense that he becomes free of all tradition. The validity of morals, for example, is based on tradition. They are freely taken over, but by no means created by a free insight or justified by themselves. This is precisely what we call tradition: the ground of their validity. And in fact we owe to romanticism this correction of the enlightenment, that tradition has a justification that is outside the arguments of reason and in large measure determines our institutions and our attitudes. It is even a mark of the superiority of classical ethics over the moral philosophy of the modern period that it justifies the transition of ethics into ‘politics’, the art of right government, by the indispensability of tradition. In comparison with it the modern enlightenment is abstract and revolutionary.

The concept of tradition, however, has become no less ambiguous than that of authority, and for the same reason, namely that it is the abstract counterpart to the principle of the enlightenment that determines the romantic understanding of tradition. Romanticism conceives tradition as the antithesis to the freedom of reason and regards it as something historically given, like nature. And whether the desire is to be revolutionary and oppose it or would like to preserve it, it is still seen as the abstract counterpart of free self-determination, since its validity does not require any reasons, but conditions us without our questioning it. Of course, the case of the romantic critique of the enlightenment is not an instance of the automatic dominance of tradition, in which what has been handed down is preserved unaffected by doubt and criticism. It is, rather, a particular critical attitude that again addresses itself to the truth of tradition and seeks to renew it, and which we may call ‘traditionalism’.

It seems to me, however, that there is no such unconditional antithesis between tradition and reason. However problematical the conscious restoration of traditions or the conscious creation of new traditions may be, the romantic faith in the ‘growth of tradition’, before which all reason must remain silent, is just as prejudiced as and is fundamentally like the enlightenment. The fact is that tradition is constantly an element of freedom and of history itself. Even the most genuine and solid tradition does not persist by nature because of the inertia of what once existed. It needs to be affirmed, embraced, cultivated. It is, essentially, preservation, such as is active in all historical change. But preservation is an act of reason, though an inconspicuous one. For this reason, only what is new, or what is planned, appears as the result of reason. But this is an illusion. Even where life changes violently, as in ages of revolution, far more of the old is preserved in the supposed

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transformation of everything than anyone knows, and combines with the new to create a new value. At any rate, preservation is as much a freely-chosen action as revolution and renewal. That is why both the enlightenment’s critique of tradition and its romantic rehabilitation are less than their true historical being.

These thoughts lead to the question of whether in the hermeneutic of the human sciences the element of tradition should not be given its full value. Research in the human sciences cannot regard itself as in an absolute antithesis to the attitude we take as historical beings to the past. In our continually manifested attitude to the past, the main feature is not, at any rate, a distancing and freeing of ourselves from what has been transmitted. Rather, we stand always within tradition, and this is no objectifying process, ie we do not conceive of what tradition says as something other, something alien. It is always part of us, a model or exemplar, a recognition of ourselves which our later historical judgment would hardly see as a kind of knowledge, but as the simplest preservation of tradition.

Hence in regard to the dominant epistemological methodologism we must ask if the rise of historical consciousness has really detached our scientific attitude entirely from this nature attitude to the past. Does understanding in the human sciences understand itself correctly when it relegates the whole of its own historicality to the position of prejudices from which we must free ourselves? Or does ‘unprejudiced science’ have more in common than it realizes with that naive openness and reflection in which traditions live and the past is present?

At any rate understanding in the human sciences shares one fundamental condition with the continuity of traditions, namely, that it lets itself be addressed by tradition. Is it not true of the objects of its investigation—just as of the contents of tradition—that only then can its meaning be experienced? However much this meaning may always be a mediated one and proceed from a historical interest, that does not seem to have any relation to the present; even in the extreme case of ‘objective’ historical research, the proper realization of the historical task is to determine anew the meaning of what is examined. But the meaning exists at the beginning of any such research as well as at the end: as the choice of the theme to be investigated, the awakening of the desire to investigate, as the gaining of the new problematic.

At the beginning of all historical hermeneutics, then, the abstract antithesis between tradition and historical research, between history and knowledge, must be discarded. The effect of a living tradition and the effect of historical study must constitute a unity, the analysis of which would reveal only a texture of reciprocal relationships. Hence we would do well not to regard historical consciousness as something radically new—as it seems at first—but as a new element within that which has always

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made up the human relation to the past. In other words, we have to recognize the element of tradition in the historical relation and enquire into its hermeneutical productivity.

That there is an element of tradition active in the human sciences, despite the methodological nature of its procedures, an element that constitutes its real nature and is its distinguishing mark, is immediately clear if we examine the history of research and note the difference between the human and natural sciences with regard to their history. Of course no finite historical effort of man can completely erase the traces of this finiteness. The history of mathematics or of the natural sciences is also a part of the history of the human spirit and reflects its destinies. Nevertheless, it is not just historical naiveté when the natural scientist writes the history of his subject in terms of the present stage of knowledge. For him errors and wrong turnings are of historical interest only, because the progress of research is the self-evident criterion of his study. Thus it is of secondary interest only to see how advances in the natural sciences or in mathematics belong to the moment in history at which they took place. This interest does not affect the epistemic value of discoveries in the natural sciences or in mathematics.

There is, then, no need to deny that in the natural sciences elements of tradition can also be active, eg in that particular lines of research are preferred at particular places. But scientific research as such derives the law of its development not from these circumstances, but from the law of the object that it is investigating.

It is clear that the human sciences cannot be described adequately in terms of this idea of research and progress. Of course it is possible to write a history of the solution of a problem, eg the deciphering of barely legible inscriptions, in which the only interest was the ultimate reaching of the final result. Were this not so, it would not have been possible for the human sciences to have borrowed the methodology of the natural ones, as happened in the last century. But the analogy between research in the natural and in the human sciences is only a subordinate element of the work done in the human sciences.

This is seen in the fact that the great achievements in the human sciences hardly ever grow old. A modern reader can easily make allowances for the fact that, a hundred years ago, there was less knowledge available to a historian, who therefore made judgments that were incorrect in some details. On the whole, he would still rather read Droysen or Mommsen than the latest account of the particular subject from the pen of a historian living today. What is the criterion here? Obviously one cannot simply base the subject on a criterion by which we measure the value and importance of research. Rather, the object appears truly significant only in the light of him who is able to describe it to us properly. Thus it is certainly the subject that we are interested in, but the subject acquires its life only from the light in which it is presented to us.

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We accept the fact that the subject presents itself historically under different aspects at different times or from a different standpoint. We accept that these aspects do not simply cancel one another out as research proceeds, but are like mutually exclusive conditions that exist each by themselves and combine only in us. Our historical consciousness is always filled with a variety of voices in which the echo of the past is heard. It is present only in the multifariousness of such voices: this constitutes the nature of the tradition in which we want to share and have a part. Modern historical research itself is not only research, but the transmission of tradition. We do not see it only in terms of the law of progress and verified results; in it too we have, as it were, a new experience of history, when ever a new voice is heard in which the past echoes.

What is the basis of this? Obviously we cannot speak of an object of research in the human sciences in the sense appropriate to the natural sciences, where research penetrates more and more deeply into nature. Rather, in the human sciences the interest in tradition is motivated in a special way by the present and its interests. The theme and area of research are actually constituted by the motivation of the enquiry. Hence historical research is based on the historical movement in which life itself stands and cannot be understood teleologically in terms of the object into which it is enquiring. Such an object clearly does not exist at all in itself. Precisely this is what distinguishes the human sciences from the natural sciences. Whereas the object of the natural sciences can be described idealiter as what would be known in the perfect knowledge of nature, it is senseless to speak of a perfect knowledge of history, and for this reason it is not possible to speak of an object in itself towards which its research is directed.

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Student Reflection

Perilous JourneyLiezl Anne Yap

By no means did the gods reveal all things to mortals from the beginning,But in time, by searching, they discover better (7.21).

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For 13 years, I studied in a Catholic school where we had Christian Life Education (CLE) as a subject every academic quarter of every year ever since I could remember. We were taught about Christian values, the importance of prayer, the Bible, the life and times of Jesus Christ, the prophets, Christian doctrine. I was exposed to a very religious culture while I was growing up.

In my early years, I didn’t question much about this way of life; it was simple and straightforward. Yet, despite learning all these things, I felt that something was lacking to tie it all together. Because I had learned all these concepts, religion and faith for me were becoming more of an academic exercise than a personal experience. I did well in my CLE classes because I knew the answers they were looking for, but that personal belief and conviction wasn’t there.

As it was, some questions did begin to bother me. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God—I did, but there was so much I didn’t know about Him and so much I wasn’t sure of that I was uneasy. One of the most contradictory things I have always found in my religion is that I am told that my faith is always a choice; God waits for us with open arms, yet whether we choose to accept him or not is up to us. But I was baptized as a child when I wasn’t even conscious enough to make a decision. Questions like these turned my world upside down, and the personal significance of traditions and rituals like attending Mass every Sunday suddenly seemed lost on me. Did I do these things because I wanted to, or because I felt I was obligated to? Did I find personal meaning in them or was it mere obligation that drove me to be there every Sunday at 6 o’clock in the church?

Perhaps it is not altogether unsurprising that these questions suddenly came to me as a teenager. But I honestly did not see Christian tradition as another institution to rebel against—I was just deeply afraid of the possibility that something I had always trusted and believed in would turn out to be hollow after all.

A turning point came when, after another Sunday Mass I had spent pondering and contemplating about my faith, I decided to stop attending Mass every Sunday so I could focus more on a spiritual relationship with God. My family could not understand it—my mother in particular, being a very devout Catholic, disagreed with my decision—but, bless them, they gave me the space and freedom I needed. Stepping away allowed me to take a step back and finally see the bigger picture more clearly. It forced me to really look within myself: to reflect, contemplate, and deliberate on my faith, my religion, and what it ultimately meant to me. I prayed more intensely than I ever had before.

A few months after I made that decision, something monumental happened. My skin broke out in hives, and after a week of visiting the emergency room, seeing numerous doctors, and conducting all sorts of tests, still no one could determine the cause. Frightened, my

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parents brought me to their prayer group so they could pray over me. After a short Mass, they asked me to come forward and sit on a chair in front of the altar. By candlelight, they prayed together and in unison for my healing, and I found myself crying as I sat there. I felt that more than my physical health, they were praying for my spiritual healing, praying for me to find my spiritual self again. (My hives eventually did subside after that, but I suppose that’s beside the point.) Shortly after, with a newfound sense of purpose and a stronger sense of conviction, I began attending Mass again.

Perhaps that’s what Xenophanes is talking about in this particular fragment. By no means did the gods reveal all things to mortals from the beginning, but in time, by searching, they discover better. Maybe my interpretation is a bit too literal, but I honestly felt that critical examination was important to my spiritual journey. If we simply take things as they are and don’t bother to examine and seek meaning in what has been passed on to us, these traditions lose their value. Didn’t the Greeks believe that it was most important to “know thyself”? I needed to do what I did in order to achieve a fuller understanding of my faith and my spirituality, in order to find meaning in these rituals and traditions. I couldn’t bear the thought of just doing them blindly, without being sure of what they really meant to me. Faith should run deeper than that.

It is human nature to be scared of what is unknown, maybe even more so when it comes to matters like faith, because unlike, for example, science, faith and religion can never be fully quantified. We can’t always know or be sure of everything, but ultimately, what is important is that we try to look within us for answers, to search and perhaps discover the meaning that we need to find. It is through this act of questioning that we’re able to emerge as improved, more developed versions of ourselves. That period of “faith seeking understanding” that I went through allowed me to deepen my understanding of faith, and ultimately, my understanding of myself. After all, if we do not understand ourselves, if we do not understand our faith and why we do the things we do, how can we attempt to understand the rest of the world?

She whom they call IrisLeslie Glenne C. Abad

She whom they call Iris, this thing too is cloud,Purple and red and yellow to behold (7.14).

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Iris was the Greek goddess of the rainbow. Aside from being a messenger to the Olympian gods, she bore the important task of carrying water to the clouds so that rain might fall on Earth. This was because the arc of the rainbow was often seen to be stretching from the distant seas to the sky. Even though no cult, no temple, and no mythology were dedicated to her, she was nonetheless a goddess in the eyes, minds and hearts of the ancient Greeks. One would have to wonder what Xenophanes was thinking when he challenged the existence of such a goddess.

True she wasn’t a major god, like Zeus or Hera or Athena, but she was a goddess nonetheless, so it must have taken courage on the part of Xenophanes to dismiss Iris as just a cloud. However, he challenged the godliness of all the Olympic gods and goddess. I personally think that is amazing: to question the faith of the majority, the faith that he grew up in, to be able to arrive at a greater truth. Perhaps the idea of the questioning the gods and goddesses of their forefathers was still so fresh that he could only challenge the minor gods and goddesses to avoid the wrath of their whole civilization. It was the beginning of a revolution.

I grew up in the Catholic faith and I’m a bit of an obsessive-compulsive. I rarely do anything without planning and careful consideration. But I don’t show it to people, so they still believe that I’m carefree and absolutely impulsive. Being that, I personally found it almost impossible to even question the doctrines of the Church, to change something that I’ve always believed to be true ever since I could use my reason. Whatever the Church said, I would follow. One could even say that I followed to the letter. I was so ‘good’ that my family, those who knew me most, wondered how I could live with myself. Honestly, when I think back on it, I don’t think I can say I lived at all. I controlled my emotions so thoroughly that I became distant and just plain nice. Not good, not bad; just nice. I don’t know if I even really knew God then. I just followed what the Church said. I became a fatalist. Whatever happened happened because it was ‘God’s will’. I suppose that if Xenophanes were alive, he would have scoffed at my mindless obedience, considering I live and grew up in a very liberal world that should encourage critical questioning.

However, my experience with God changed as I approached the latter part of my college life: I turned away from God completely. I started questioning the doctrines. However, I wasn’t asking the right questions. I just questioned and questioned until my questions didn’t make sense anymore. I still didn’t think about or study what it was I was questioning; I just asked without bothering to uncover the answers. I ended up doing whatever I thought was right. No Church doctrines or moral acts or worship. And I stopped praying since I found it useless. At this part of my life, I was pretty much a woman of the world: no thinking, just doing.

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However, after this experience of non-exploration, I am now, through the help of my present theology and philosophy classes, able to think more clearly and question things that needed to be questioned in order for me to grow as a person. I see now the importance of knowing what you believe in to be able to grow spiritually and morally. I have to critically examine and question the doctrines of the Church in order to understand them so I can derive my own beliefs.

It’s a privilege for me to be living in such an advanced world where it’s okay to have your own opinions. Xenophanes would have loved the world that I live in. I should take advantage of it in order to understand God better; in turn, the world I live in; which will in turn allow me to understand myself.

All things that come into being and grow are earth and water (7.16).

Ashes To Ashes, Dust To DustBy Bianca Marie Agustin

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The fragments of Xenophanes are bold in the way they call out the gods of Hesiod and Homer. They even go so far as to challenge the power of these gods and goddesses by scientifically explaining the natural phenomena that people back then attributed to the them. A well-known example would be the polytheistic people blaming the temper or wrath of their gods for the calamities and natural disasters they experienced. To this, Xenophanes simply responds, “All things that come into being and grow are earth and water” (7.16). From these basic elements, he effectively explains how earth and water cause the wind to blow, the sea to be salty, and the changes that occur in all the world orders (7.17, 18).

In this aspect, I believe Xenophanes to be right. Science has shown us the power of reason—that there is a logical cause for any event. Science has also explained how the first semblance of life forms started in the seas; how plants rooted in the land draw nourishment from earth and water; how babies find life in the watery womb of mothers. Earth and water have become accepted symbols for life.

However, I also think that there is more to Xenophanes’ statement. The dichotomy of elements is, for me, a metaphor for our relationship with God. It could be traced back to the Bible in the Book of Genesis. The story of creation says that “the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). Like earth without water, man cannot survive without God. This great reminder of our mortality makes me see more clearly the importance of the life we are living now. It poses an opportunity for self-examination, an opportunity to ask myself whether the life I am living now is one I am satisfied with, and an opportunity to critique our priorities in life.

Indeed, God has blessed us with so many things that we just take for granted – the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the food that we eat, and the companions that we keep. But while I was growing up, I dedicated hardly any time or thought to God outside that of the usual Christian events like Lent or Christmas. I was pretty complacent with my life, so much so that I lost sight of what was truly important, of who made all the things that I enjoy possible.

Then, a tragic event shook our family. On the night of January 15th, on my older sister’s birthday, my mother got kidnapped in our hometown of Cotabato City. This really shook our family because our mother was a very strong figure in our household. As Christians, my family attended Sunday mass regularly. However, this was mainly due to my mother’s devotion and persistence. She was the one who encouraged us to go to confession, pray the rosary, and all that. More than that, she was our mother, the woman who gave birth to us, loved us, raised us, and provided us with all her love and care.

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At the time of the kidnapping, I was 11 years old and all of my siblings and I were living here in Manila, either studying or working. I did not and still do not get to see my parents more than a few times every year because of our living arrangements. So when the news was broken to me, I did not know how to react. The fact that her presence was not with us did not really bother me much initially, and everything was surreal. However, reality finally settled in and I could not fathom the thought of losing my mother forever. In a moment of epiphany, I realized how vulnerable humans are – how vulnerable I was.

During her captivity, we daily prayed the rosary as a family for her safe return. At night, I silently prayed as I lay in bed and talked to God, asking for my mother’s safety and promised to be grateful for every single blessing He has given us. I didn’t stick to saying formulated prayers or pray just for the sake of it. This time of emotional trouble really paved the way for me to have a deeper connection with God. The spiritual support I got by praying and just talking was very helpful and made me feel slightly better. Eventually, to our relief, my mother was released safely into the awaiting presence of her family.

I remember being taught that we, humans, are called into being by God when he made us from the dust of the earth and breathed life into us. When he made us, God consequently established a relationship with us, one which we are called to reciprocate through prayer, service, faith, or simply, love. However, completely relying on God for every single thing without exerting any effort is like being a plant drowned in too much water. The earth becomes muddy and the plant cannot grow healthily. At the same time, like earth without water, life without God would be void of purpose or meaning. Without him, we are nothing. This is why, every Ash Wednesday, we are reminded that we are naught but ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.

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Student Research

Xenophanes’ Fragments: A Development of Hesiod’s TheogonyJoyce R. Santos

AbstractHesiod’s Theogony narrates the birth of the gods (Robinson 3), a

systematic construction of the divine genealogy (Jaeger 12). Hesiod

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identifies the gods, specifically Chaos, as the founding principle of all things. Xenophanes, too, works on the same basic principle. Both of them believe in the presence of the divine in the universe (McKirahan 62). Both of them identify the divine as the cause of everything. However, there is a key distinction between how Hesiod and Xenophanes have portrayed the gods in their works (McKirahan 62).

While Hesiod recounts the birth of the gods, Xenophanes, on the other hand, totally rejected the idea of gods being born. However, we will see that Xenophanes’ idea of god as eternal was actually rooted in the way Hesiod described the existence of the very first god.

Moreover, we will see how Xenophanes’ idea of god, as the greatest among gods and men, was actually a re-emergence of the character of Zeus portrayed in the Theogony.

Xenophanes did not simply oppose Hesiod’s portrayal of the gods; rather, has tried to capitalize on it and to develop it more fully than Hesiod himself did. Therefore, this research paper shows how Xenophanes’ conception of the divine serves as a development of Hesiod’s gods in the Theogony.

God is eternalMcKirahan notes that “Xenophanes maintains that the divine is

eternal (they are neither born nor do they die), and so declares accounts of births of the gods to be equally impious” (61).

Looking at the Theogony, Hesiod indeed focuses on recounting the births and genealogies of the gods. It identifies Chaos as the very first god that came into being and after him a generation of gods follows. In the Theogony, Hesiod always thinks and speaks in terms of genealogies (Jaeger 14). He relates how gods were born and even identifies whom their parents were. And so, questions arise when Hesiod fails to report how the very first god, Chaos, came into being. He merely says, “First Chaos came to be, and then the Earth” (Theogony 116-138).

There are two main interpretations that can be drawn from this statement. The first one is that Chaos was indeed born and came into being.

To Hesiod, who thinks in terms of genealogies, even Chaos came into being. He does not say, “In the beginning was Chaos,” but, “First Chaos came to be, and then the Earth (Jaeger 14).”

Still, Jaeger continues with the second interpretation as he brings the other side of the story:

The question arises whether there must not have been a beginning of becoming—something that has not itself become.

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Hesiod leaves this question unanswered; indeed he never goes so far as to raise it (14).

With this, we can see that the idea of god being eternal can already be seen, though only implicitly, in Hesiod’s Theogony. He renders the coming-to-be of Chaos, the first god, with an obscure and unknown becoming.

By the time Xenophanes wrote his poem, this implicit doctrine has become explicit. Xenophanes emphasizes that gods have neither a beginning nor an end because god is eternal (7.7). He totally rejected the idea that the gods are born (7.4), regarding the idea of gods being born as impious (7.7).

God is greatest among gods and menHesiod’s Theogony not only narrates the genealogy of the gods,

but it also emphasized the supremacy and power of Zeus above any man or god (McKirahan 72). This is evident in Hesiod’s highlighting of several battles that Zeus won (820-885) and the time when Zeus imposed the great oath of the gods (775-806). In these events, Zeus is portrayed “no longer as the receiver but the dispenser of titles and privileges (Robinson 53).”

This idea of the greatness of god was preserved and developed by Xenophanes with the ideas of omnipresence (7.9) and omnipotence (7.11-12).

7.9 He always remains in the same place, moving not at all, nor is it fitting for him to go to different places at different times

7.11 All of him sees, all of him thinks, all of him hears

7.12 But without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind.

In preserving the greatness of god, Xenophanes did not merely cut-and-paste a replica of Zeus’ character and works into his fragments. Instead, he worked on the basic principle found in Hesiod’s work, developing a god whose supremacy is a re-emergence of that exemplified by Zeus.

In conclusion, the seeds of Xenophanes’ idea of god were already present in Hesiod’s Theogony. Some of this may be as obscure as seeing god as eternal or may be as clear as seeing the greatness of god in the Theogony. But Xenophanes successfully developed these ideas, determining a “fitting” nature of god.

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Sources CitedJaeger, Werner. The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers (UK: Oxford Press, 1948).McKirahan, Richard D. Philosophy Before Socrates (USA: Hackett Publishing Co., 1994).Robinson, John Mansley. An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy

(USA: Houghton Miffin Co., 1968).

From Chaos to Order: The Emergence of the One God in Greek Thought

Raymund Vincent M. Gatmaitan

Like many ancient civilizations, the Greeks sought an explanation for the amazing things around them. They must have been immensely fascinated

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with the celestial bodies of the night sky, the changing of the seasons, and even great calamities like volcanic eruptions and storms. Early on, the Greeks must have realized that many things found in their surroundings were out of their control. Instead, forces greater than themselves must be causing these wonders of nature.

The world presents itself as a chaotic diversity of things and events. In order to comprehend it, we need to locate order in the chaos, unity in the multiplicity, limit in the unlimited. The traditional world view found its principle of order, unity, and limit in the gods (McKirahan 71).

In order to explain these forces, the Greeks attributed these phenomena to the workings of the gods. The gods of the Greeks were not ordinary beings. Two of the earliest Greek thinkers who spoke about the gods were Homer and Hesiod. “The gods of Homer are scarcely distinguishable from men, except for their greater power and their freedom from death” (Robinson 53). The earliest Greek gods were derived from anthropomorphism (Jaeger 49). Human attributes such as a body, emotions, speech, and birth were highlighted in stories about the gods. Later thinkers would criticize this blatant equality between men and beings perceived to be masters of the universe.

One famous account of the gods is the Theogony by Hesiod. The Theogony is a tale that shows a movement from chaos to order in understanding the world for the Greeks. McKirahan notes that “the Theogony puts traditional myths together into a unified story of the development of the world up to the rule of Zeus, which still prevails and will continue forever” (70). Looking at the Theogony, it is not surprising that the genealogy of the gods starts with the formation of Chaos, Gaia, Eros, and Tartaros. The most interesting of the four, in my opinion, is Chaos. Chaos represents air, or the gap between heaven and earth. In modern day language, chaos stands for something confused and organized. However, it appears that Chaos, in Greek myth, allows a separation between the sky above and the earth below. In effect, he brings order to an originally disordered world. It is therefore not surprising that he is mentioned as the first to come about.

The Theogony continues its tale with the appearance of many other gods. Some of these gods stand for things we know today as naturally-occurring phenomena like Night, Day, Sleep, Thunder, etc. Their actions as gods reflect the observations of the Greeks regarding the qualities of these natural phenomena. Some gods however, assume more distinct personalities. A particularly striking personality is that of Zeus, known as the leader of the Olympian gods. Most of the Theogony is

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devoted to “the unique history of Zeus’ rise to power and the particular events which preceded and attended it” (McKirahan 72).

The story of Zeus is a quest for supremacy and the institution of a “new world order” for the cosmos. It begins with the downfall of Chaos at the hands of his son Cronos. Later, Cronos and his fellow Titans would fall at the hands of his own son Zeus and the rest of the Olympian gods. With his victory complete, Zeus reigns supreme in the universe. “The world is characterized by order, with the inferior divinities performing the functions assigned to them by Zeus. In fact, it is a moral order, since Zeus is closely associated with Justice, Peace, etc…” (McKirahan 70).

One visible way to maintain order and justice which was instituted by Zeus according to the Theogony is the oath to the Styx. In order to resolve issues in times of “strife and quarrel among the deathless gods,” Zeus sends for a golden jug of the waters from the Styx. Any of the gods who swear falsely upon pouring this water would be punished by “lying breathless for a year,” never tasting ambrosia, as if in a heavy trance. After one year, this divinity is still not allowed for the succeeding nine years to join the rest of the gods in feasts (Theogony, ll. 775-806). In this example, we can see how Zeus has truly attained the level of supreme deity and is respected as such by the other gods. In effect, the Olympian gods and the rest of creation under them, pay homage to Zeus as their supreme being. “In Hesiod…Zeus is no longer the receiver but the dispenser of titles and privileges. He is the very source of justice, and the father of men” (Robinson 53).

However, the order in the universe at the hands of the Olympian gods with Zeus as its head would be questioned by later thinkers. Why do we so venerate gods who demonstrate such human-like faults and weaknesses? In the Theogony, the gods are motivated by very human emotions and attributes like envy, pride, ambition, etc. The actions and attitudes of the gods not only affect them, but the entire universe in which they are supreme. Even Zeus is not immune to seemingly very human weaknesses. Despite his eminence, he is still moved by anger (ll. 561-584).

One of the most prominent later Greek thinkers who would oppose the idea of the Olympian gods was Xenophanes.

The Milesians (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Xenophanes) were unanimous in recognizing the divine nature of their primary substances, but accounted for the world in terms of natural processes. This approach has devastating implications for the Olympian religion. There is no room left for anthropomorphic gods governing natural phenomena and human destiny or for stories of strife among the gods that imply that the divine realm is itself not well ordered and so is

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incapable of regulating our world in an ordered, comprehensible manner. These conclusions are implicit in Milesian natural speculation, but were first drawn by Xenophanes, who lashes the Olympians with vigor and points the way to rational theology (McKirahan 60).

Totally disregarding the idea of multiple gods according to the Olympian hierarchy, Xenophanes declares that there is one God (7.10). This God, like Zeus, is the Supreme Being, the “greatest among gods and men.” The one God has supremacy among all other beings in the universe because he is “not at all like mortals in body and thought.” He is immortal. However, unlike Zeus (Theogony, ll. 545-547), he is not limited in his wisdom for “all of him sees, all of him thinks, all of him hears. But without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind” (7.11-7.12). Also, the one God, due to his supreme eminence does not have to move in order to accomplish his wishes (7.9) but simply uses his mind (7.12).

Xenophanes takes the idea of divine order and justice seen in Zeus and applies these concepts to the very nature of the one God himself. He realizes the ‘”unfittingness” of human weaknesses being applied to the gods (7.3). If the divine is truly above humanity, then they must not be subject to the weaknesses which characterize humanity.

Xenophanes criticizes mythological stories for attributing to the gods shameful actions like theft, adultery, and deceit which are frequent events in the Homeric epics and the Theogony. Such behavior is inappropriate to the divine and so is wrongly ascribe to the gods. Xenophanes rejects tradition as a source of knowledge about the divine and substitutes human reason, in the rational criterion “what is fitting”. Humans can determine the nature of god as Xenophanes does, first finding reasons to question traditional ideas and then constructing an acceptable view of the divine (McKirahan 70).

Therefore, if the Supreme Being is ultimate source of order and justice in the universe, he must then be, according to Xenophanes, good (7.2).

Xenophanes does not question the presence of the divine in the universe (but) only the way it was conceived. His attacks imply that god is not immoral or responsible for evil, is not anthropomorphic, is eternal,

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self-sufficient, independent and master of everything, and unmoving (McKirahan 62).

Xenophanes introduced the concept of monotheism to the Greeks. However, the seeds of change were sown way before the time of Xenophanes. Some of these movements can already be seen in the stories of Homer and Hesiod themselves. The idea of the Supreme Being as the embodiment of justice and order could already be seen in Zeus, who attained eminence among the gods and dispensed justice. Their writing already points to a use of reason which would ultimately be expressed in the words of Xenophanes and his idea of the one God.

ReferencesJaeger, Werner. The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers (UK:

Oxford Press, 1948).McKirahan, Richard D. Philosophy Before Socrates (USA: Hackett

Publishing Co., 1994).Robinson, John Mansley. An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy

(USA: Houghton Miffin Co., 1968).

Knowing Xenophanes’ GodViva Gonzalez

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By no means did the gods reveal all things to mortals from the beginning,But in time, by searching, they discover better (7.21).

Xenophanes is said to be, “a man who put into verse a serious criticism of predominant beliefs and institutions and approached his subjects with a fine appreciation of the human issues at stake.”60 Xenophanes is often said to be a revolutionary thinker. He, along with Anaximander and Anaximenes, rejected the traditional religious tradition of explaining religious phenomena and human existence. What was the traditional religious belief at the time of Xenophanes? The prevailing belief was in the system of Olympian gods but according to Bowra, “For many the system of the Olympian gods, as Homer and Hesiod had framed it, was unsatisfactory.”61 This was “an age of religious turmoil.”62 It was at this time that the Ionian thinkers provided an alternative explanation for nature and human existence. Anaximander theorized a mixture of earth, air, fire and water as the source of things while Anaximenes specified air as the source of all things. Both of these philosophers have formulated a conception of god, the origin of all things through “reflection upon the nature of things.”63 In other words, these three philosophers used reflection and critical thinking rather than imagination, as was used by Homer and Hesiod, and this is the tradition that Xenophanes emerged out of.

Xenophanes went a step further than Anaximander and Anaximenes and put forth truly revolutionary ideas, he did not just use reason to explain natural phenomena. He used rational thinking to present a normative image of God, what God “ought” to be. Xenophanes directly challenged Homer and Hesiod’s conception of God as having a master (Zeus), being mortal and even doing deeds considered immoral. But the truly revolutionary thought of Xenophanes is the way he problematized knowledge and truth. He went beyond merely problematizing the errors of the nature of the God as presented by Homer and Hesiod and I think that Xenophanes even went beyond presenting his idea of God, he problematized something even more fundamental and that is the nature of knowledge and the truth.

During this period, the system of Olympian gods put forth by Homer and Hesiod did not allow any space for any active dialogue with

60 C. M. Bowra, Early Greek Elegists (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), 107.

61 Ibid., 113.62 Ibid. 63 John Mansley Robinson, An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy:

The Chief Fragments and Ancient Testimony, with connecting Commentary (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968), 54.

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the divine. The gods were feared, the Greeks feared their wrath. The truth about gods and religion were already spread out before them through the words of Homer and Hesiod. They were not asked to think or reflect, they were only asked to obey. Xenophanes challenged this absolutist nature of the Olympian gods by conceiving a god that does not reveal all (fragment 7.21) and with this comes the idea of relativity of knowledge. During this period, religion was a way for the Greeks to make sense of the world. People sought out the truth through religion and the gods. The gods of Homer and Hesiod presented truth and knowledge as something absolute and accessible but only through the blessing of the gods.

The problem of knowledge and truth lies at the heart of thinking about religion. Xenophanes has unknowingly started man’s pursuit of God, which continues to this day. We can never know Xenophanes’ God the way we can know the Olympian gods. The god of Xenophanes is eternal, therefore his origin cannot be determined because he has always existed. The truth about Xenophanes’ god cannot be known through texts of philosophers or poets or even through everyday experiences—his god transcends all of this. Man has to now seek out God and the truth about him. Man is now an actor in religion, no longer a passive recipient of its doctrines. He takes a more active role in shaping the meaning of his existence—there is dialogue with God and the truth. There has to be a constant, unwavering pursuit of the truth in order to seek out “what is better.” McKirahan adds, “Only through patient enquiry does the truth come to be known; and there are limits, even then, to what men may know.”64 When we discover something about God something recedes into the background, there is always something more to know. Xenophanes’ God is not a mere mortal, he is more than man, eternal, omnipresent and omniscient and with this comes the implication that man can never fully understand god or the truth of his nature and existence. This was a truly revolutionary thought since the culture of the Greeks at that time was heavily anchored on the concept that man can know everything through science and reason; man can have truth. Xenophanes was the first presocratic to “reflect on the frailty of our ability to gain knowledge.”65

The inadequacy of man to completely know God as Xenophanes had posited introduced a new dimension to religious thinking. It put forth a truly revolutionary concept that god is more than man, more than nature and more than what the human mind can grasp.

From Destructive Criticism to Proactive ThinkingBenedict Lee

64 Richard McKirahan, Philosophy Before Socrates (Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Company, 1994), 56.

65 Ibid., 66.252

Xenophanes did not just stop at bashing mythological tradition. He proposed different and possibly controversial ideas. He might have hated the ancient Greek’s traditional way of thinking, but out of that hate sprang forth a potentially revolutionary way of thinking about God. Xenophanes’ idea of God might seem somewhat abstract and metaphysical, but actually, it is a straightforward attempt to replace features he did not like about the concept of “god” relative to mythological tradition (Freeman 95). In other words, Xenophanes’ God emerged from criticizing Homer and Hesiod’s gods.

In the Theogony, Hesiod created a systematic order for the gods with a genealogy (Guthrie 28). The purpose of a genealogy is to connect the powers of the world with one another and trace them back to a common source (Ricken 5). This probably set the pace for the Ionian search for a rational source of all things. Thus, Hesiod’s systematization bore fruit in Xenophanes’ thinking of one God.

Hesiod’s characterization of Zeus and Xenophanes’ notion of God is possibly the most prominent connection between the two philosophers. Hesiod’s Zeus was an all-powerful god, and Xenophanes agreed with him about an all-powerful, ruling, and guiding principle that governs the world (Ricken 6). Xenophanes’ fragment about God, “greatest among gods and men” (7.10), could very well describe Hesiod’s Zeus, while Hesiod’s description of Zeus as the “wise…father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken” (453-491) well approximates Xenophanes’ notion of God.

Xenophanes was most popular for his criticism. As Guthrie puts it, “Xenophanes was chiefly known to the ancient world as a writer of satirical criticism and denunciation” (370). He called the works of Homer and Hesiod “forgeries” and promoted critical thinking saying that “always to be mindful of the gods is good” (7.2) He might represent an extreme side of a critical stance, but its early stages can be linked back to Hesiod.

Early in the Theogony, when the muses were speaking, Hesiod subtly expressed the need for a critical attitude towards mythological tradition (Ricken 5).

Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things (26-8).

These verses show that seeds of doubt had been planted in Hesiod about the truthfulness and credibility of the myths—seeds which culminated in the critique of Xenophanes.

From a critique of the traditional notions of a god, Xenophanes developed his own ideas. Instead of faulty, fickle, power grabbing gods

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full of immorality and weaknesses, he proposed one God, greatest among gods and men, reminiscent of Zeus, but “all of him sees, all of him thinks, all of him hears” (7.11). In contrast to ancient Greek gods, who are born, implying a time of non-existence, Xenophanes’ God is not born into the world but is eternal. If Hesiod’s Zeus used thunder and lightning and at certain times needed to directly intervene in matters, it is not fitting for Xenophanes’ God to move at all for “without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind” (7.12)

In conclusion, Hesiod provides the impetus for the critical thinking of future philosophers. The critical attitude, which Hesiod initially supported, culminated in a concept of God that replaces the faulty and conflicting thinking of its earlier stages. Xenophanes’ God and Hesiod’s Zeus have many similarities, but Xenophanes reworked Zeus and the other gods into his concept of one God—omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

References:

Freeman, Kathleen. (1953). The philosophers of the sixth and fifth centuries. The pre-Socratic philosophers (pp. 104-132). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Guthrie, W.K.C. (1962). A history of Greek philosophy (pp. 28, 360-401). Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.

Ricken, F. (1991). A pre-Socratic philosophy. Philosophy of the ancients (pp. 4-6, 18-22). London: University of Notre Dame Press.

Prometheus Bound and Greek SocietyGigi Lapid

Fyodor Dostoevsky once said, “Art at first imitates life. Then life will imitate art.” This couldn’t have been better said about Greek art, Greek

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drama in particular. Greek drama in the fifth century B.C. reflected various socio-political issues that surfaced during that time. Not only did the art of drama serve as a chief form of entertainment for the Greeks but more importantly, it served as a reflection of the socio-political issues they experienced. As Podlecki mentions in his preface to The Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy, “dramas written in a particular historical context may also reflect that context. The issues and personalities with which the dramatist is involved in his public life can impinge on his art in various ways.”66 Aeschylus for example, was one playwright who cleverly wove his opinions into his art. Prometheus Bound is one such piece that comments on the political situation of the places he lived in.

Based on the anonymous account about Aeschylus entitled Life, he was born of “nobility” at Eleusia in 525/4 B.C.67 He was the son of Euphorion and was raised in a highly theatrical family68. The atmosphere of the society Aeschylus was born into was a politically charged one. He was old enough to have experienced the tyranny of Hippias and to vote on the democratic reforms of Kleisthenes.69 Not only was Aeschylus immersed in politics and the arts—according to Life, he also took part in several battles during the Persian Wars. Aeschylus wrote and produced a number of plays as he traveled from place to place. Most of his life was spent in Attica, but he paid at least two visits to the court of the tyrannical Heiron of Syracuse where he produced some of his plays.70 Aeschylus did not only get a taste of living under tyrannical rule, but also he found himself in a time of societal change—from the aristocratic society to Ionian enlightenment. All these factors molded the dramatist to create his tragedies that reflected them, the most famous of which is his Prometheus Bound.

To Aeschylus, the reality of tyranny was a societal problem that needed to be urgently addressed. His retelling of the Prometheus myth seems to have capitalized on this particular ill of society. The play focuses on the complicated and brutal struggle between man and man.71

Podlecki considered the play “an anguished cry of the human spirit, a quarrying ground of archetypal images, a Marxian treatise illustrating the

66 Anthony Podlecki, Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy (Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1966), vii-viii.

67 Ibid., 2. 68 Gilbert Murray, Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy (London:

Oxford University Press, 1940), page 11. 69 George Thomson, Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social

Origins of Drama (New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1940), 245.70 Ibid, 245.71 Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social Origins of

Drama, 318.255

class struggle.”72 According to Farrington, what is illustrated in the play is the “political problem of adjusting contemporary institutions to meet the great upheaval of the old ways of life represented by the Ionian Enlightenment.”73 Farrington compares Zeus to the authority of the old aristocratic families and suggests that Prometheus may have stood for the Ionian Enlightenment. The main challenge he proposes is the challenge of authority and alleged aristocratic thought control in matters of religion which was offered by the speculations of Ionian physicists like Anaxagoras.74 Aeschylus’ Zeus is very un-Homeric and is portrayed totally devoid of humor and mercy. He is described as a “savage” tyrant by both his allies and enemies.75 Aeschylus’ violent attack on tyranny seems to suggest his reaction to the tyranny he himself was experiencing during the rule of Hippias, Hieron and Xerxes. Italian scholar Gaetano Baglio even equates Zeus with Xerxes. This proposition however was refuted and considered absurd by Farrington due to insufficient textual and contextual supports.76

With regard to Aeschylus’ characterization of Prometheus, he was depicted as the “ideal figure of the enlightenment”77 and as the “patron saint of the proletariat”78 who refused to follow Zeus’ new laws and thus was severely punished. Considering the fact that Aeschylus was “of nobility,” his choice of Prometheus for hero is a kind of moral or mental conversion. Through the character of Prometheus, he seems to encourage the new democratic science; however, he also presented the risks of doing so by highlighting the punishment Prometheus suffered for his choice. This suffering, however, also presents a promise—the day will come that the tables will be turned and those suffering will be in power.

The portraits of the tyrant and democrat that Aeschylus paints in Prometheus Bound as Podlecki puts it, “makes the Prometheus Bound a supremely interesting document in the history of Greek political theory…the play gives us the first formulation of any length of the new democracy’s quarrel with the tyrant, who, as a law unto himself and beyond the check of legal redress, constituted an exact antithesis to the democratic process.”79 One can say that Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound is universal and timeless for the themes it carries echo the socio-political issues of today. It shows that we have stagnated at the level where the

72 Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy, 101.73 Ibid, 113.74 Ibid., 113-115.75 Ibid., 88, 90, 93 and 94.76 Ibid., 113.77 Ibid., 114.78 Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social Origins of

Drama, 318.79 Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy, 115.

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struggle is of man vs man. Aeschylus’ art was indeed a reflection of the life he knew. But it seems as a though it was not only that of the life he knew, but life as it really is regardless of time and place.

Redemptor or Malefactor?Charles Jerome Lee

Prometheus, a character mentioned in both Hesiod’s Theogony and Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, is the giver of fire to man. He is a titan who helped Zeus ascend to the throne against Cronos. But Prometheus’ most prominent characteristic is his craftiness and his unusual ways of dealing with things.

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The titan Prometheus sought to deceive Zeus by concealing the bones of a sacrificial ox with shining fat. But wise Zeus saw through the trick and became furious. He withheld fire from mankind, fire that was supposed to comfort man’s very lives. Thereafter, Prometheus outwitted Zeus stole fire by placing it in a hollow stalk (Hesiod 67). By attaining fire, men also gained the ire of gods. Men now had to get on the good side of the gods so that the latter would bring the former good fortune. Injustice would bring about famine and death to men (McKirahan 18).

In Theogony, Prometheus is wily and seen as the giver of fire to man. Hesiod saw Prometheus as a character that was vitally important for the eventual independence of man from gods. Fire can be created in two ways, either by a lightning striking a tree or when two pieces of wood are rubbed against one another. To man, fire is not only a marvel but also a miracle. With the advent of fire came countless uses for it: food preparation, mechanic arts & inventions which needed fire, and the ability to advance a community out of savagery to better the lives of common man and society as a whole (Wecklein 1).

For Hesiod, Prometheus was the “pioneer in man’s conquest of nature, [and] has been degraded to the level of a common malefactor” (Thomson 125). During Hesiod’s era, man’s continued search for material progress was made far more complicated by class struggles that jeopardized the happiness of man. In effect, Hesiod created a Prometheus who seemed to be a trouble-maker for man and he is the god who taught man to exploit nature.

In Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is more than just that described by Hesiod. Aeschylus developed Hesiod’s Prometheus and added his own thoughts to the character. Aeschylus adopted some of Hesiod’s ideas such as a succession of different ages and races of mankind, but he “sought to reconcile the imperfection of human nature with the perfection of Zeus’ government” (Wecklein 15). Aeschylus wanted man to be wiser and more civilized with the dawn of fire.

Prometheus learned that battles were not only decided by brute force but also with the use of strategies. After grabbing the throne from Cronos, Zeus wanted to eliminate the human race and replace it with a new and more fitted race. But Prometheus stood as a champion of the humans. He gave fire which was stolen from the gods to man and taught them arts and handicrafts (Aeschylus 95). But not only that, by teaching man all sorts of things, it eventually led to the awakening of their consciousness (Wecklein 8).

During Aeschylus’ time, there was a revolution that led to self-government under freedom and awakened the Athenian people to self-consciousness. Aeschylus is a participant in this movement and this affected his writings describing the evolution of mankind with the gift of fire. Even the gods evolve from tyrannical to positive relations: liberty, peace and harmony (Smyth ix). Drawing from Homer, Hesiod, and other

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writers, Aeschylus developed his mythology, adding his own ideas (Smyth x-xi). The end result is a character in the name of Prometheus who is filled with passion and self-will, and whose motives are selfless.

Aeschylus was born as a noble, but he is described as a “possessor of ancient wealth” who was “kind to his slaves” (Smyth xv). He had sympathy for the common people and this is reflected in Prometheus. Aeschylus does not only see the character of Prometheus as a witty mischief-maker. Prometheus is a god who has decided to help man because he has a genuine concern for them. Prometheus was made to suffer, chained to a rock with an eagle eating at his regenerating liver (Hesiod 66). His sufferings are also man’s sufferings (Thomson 126). He seems to point out that Prometheus helped mankind and in effect is somewhat like a savior to them.

Aeschylus describes to the reader a Prometheus who is both a redemptor by giving fire and teaching man art and crafts and at the same time a malefactor who aspires for the good of man but eventually leads to man’s and his own demise. Aeschylus goes further than Hesiod in that he develops Prometheus and goes on to prove that Prometheus is a god that deserves the respect of man for the things he has taught man which in turn has helped their lives considerably. Prometheus shows great love for mankind. He deserves the reader’s sympathy for his sufferings, but his impatience as a titan warrants punishment for his hasty feats (Wecklein 16).

The character of Prometheus can be compared to a germ, which is capable of growing into a huge tree once planted. His task does not end when he gives fire to man. Rather, it continues to be a source of inspiration for man to search for ways to better his life as well as other people’s lives. It is Prometheus who is the benefactor of these gifts to man and teaches man its uses which lead to man’s evolution of thought (Mather xxiv). Aeschylus recognizes a power outside of man which is necessary for his total development and he realized this in his own lifetime, which Hesiod must have not incorporated into his Prometheus—perhaps because he did not have the prior experience and inspiration to do so.

ReferencesMather, R. H. Introduction. Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound (Amherst College, 1884).McKirahan, Richard D. Jr. Philosophy Before Socrates (Indiana: Hackett

Publishing Company, Inc., 1994).Smyth, Herbert Weir. Introduction. Aeschylus. (London: William

Heinemann Ltd., 1922).Thomson, George. “Prometheia.” Aeschylus: A Collection of Critical

Essays. Ed. Marsh H. McCall, Jr. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972), 124-147.

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Wecklein, N. Introduction. The Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus. Trans. F. D. Allan (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1891), 1-27.

The Greeks and Mathematics:Pythagoras and the Absolute Truth

Phoebe Glynis Gan

“Of all peoples, the Greeks have dreamed the dream of life the best.” All rational thoughts that make life worth living to a rational human being are deeply influenced by the Greeks in art, literature, philosophy, and science. Whatever they began, it was carried out to a height of perfection

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given the short span of history that belonged to them. But then, what special aptitude do the Greeks have for mathematics? The answer is that their genius for mathematics is simply one aspect of their genius for philosophy.80

Examine the conditions favoring the development of philosophy among the Greeks. According to Aristotle, all men, by nature, desire to know. The Greeks possessed the love of knowledge for its own sake; it amounted to an instinct and a passion.81 The Greeks showed this love of knowledge by traveling or their love of adventure. Philosophers believe that travel is beneficial in order to gain wisdom that other nations have gathered during the centuries.82 The “founders” of mathematics, Thales and Pythagoras, have both traveled to Egypt to gain knowledge from the priests. Although varying accounts are presented, Pythagoras appears to be the one who was the better-traveled of the two. 83

For simplicity’s sake, this paper will only focus on the more popular of the two, Pythagoras. It was Pythagoras’ greatest achievement to prove the theorem associated with his name. The Egyptians and Babylonians knew that triangles with sides of ratio 3:4:5 contain a right angle and used the knowledge in their daily building and measuring. But it was Pythagoras who ultimately introduced the idea of proof and universal truth. When he proved his theorem, Pythagoras felt that he had been privileged to catch a glimpse of the eternal.84

The salutary lesson in Pythagoras’ story lies in the folly of those who search for truth, but suppress it when it comes. The discovery of irrational numbers was not, in fact, such a great disaster that the Pythagoreans took it to be. Rather, it was a stepping stone to a further branch of mathematics – approximations.85

In a similar way, when philosophers discover something, they feel that they have caught a glimpse of the eternal, the absolute truth. However, for fear of having another philosopher dispute his findings, he suppresses the truth instead. The idea of not being able to find the absolute truth ever limits the thinkers from enlightening the others of their findings. The Greeks, being lovers of knowledge, find the process of finding the absolute truth more interesting than getting the absolute truth.

80 Sir Thomas Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume 1: From Thales to Euclid (Amen House, London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 1-10.

81 Ibid.82 Ibid.83 Tobias Dantzig, The Bequest of the Greeks (New York:

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1955), 20-33.84 G.F. Parker, A Short Account of Greek Philosophy from

Thales to Epicurus (London: Arnold, 1967), 30.85 Ibid.

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Pythagoras, even though he was not the first to really discover about the relation of the sides of a triangle, was the one who ultimately introduced the idea as a universal truth. Because he had the courage to do so, a stepping stone was formed towards a more advanced idea. Even if Pythagoras’ ideas were not the absolute, he did not fail in helping the future thinkers to come closer to the absolute truth. In my opinion, this is his most admirable trait. Not that he gave us absolute truths, but that he had the courage to give out his ideas even after being surrounded with the idea of not being able to reach the absolute truth merely through the use of the rational mind.

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