The pupil and successor of
Xenophanes was Parmenides, a native of
Elea. In a celebrated dialogue of
Plato bearing the name of this philosopher
he is described as visiting Socrates when the latter was very young. “He was
then already advanced in years, very hoary, yet noble to look upon, in years
some sixty and five.”
Socrates was born about 479 B.C. The birth
of Parmenides might therefore, if this indication be authentic, be about
520. He was of a wealthy and noble family, and able therefore to devote
himself to a learned leisure. Like his master he expounded his views in
verse, and fragments of his poem of considerable length and importance have
been preserved. The title of the work was
ΠερὶΦύσεως—Of
Nature.
The exordium of the poem is one of some grandeur. The poet describes himself
as soaring aloft to the sanctuary of wisdom where it is set in highest
aether, the daughters of the Sun being his guides; under whose leading
having traversed the path of perpetual day and at length attained the temple
of the goddess, he from her lips received instruction in the eternal
verities, and had shown to him the deceptive guesses of mortals. “’Tis for
thee,” she says, “to hear of both,—to have disclosed to thee on the one hand
the sure heart of convincing verity, on the other hand the guesses of
mortals wherein is no ascertainment. Nevertheless thou shalt learn of these
also, that having gone through them all thou may’st see by what unsureness
of path must he go who goeth the way of opinion. From such a way of
searching restrain thou thy thought, and let not the much-experimenting
habit force thee along the path wherein thou must use thine eye, yet being
sightless, and the ear with its clamorous buzzings, and the chattering
tongue. ‘Tis by Reason that thou must in lengthened trial judge what I shall
say to thee.”
A History of Greek Philosophy /
THE ELEATICS /
PARMENIDES
