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So far then as Parmenides and his school kept a firm grip on this
other-world aspect of nature as implied even in the simple word is,
or be, so far they did good service in the process of the world’s
thought. On the other hand, he and they were naturally enough disinclined,
as we all are disinclined, to remain in the merely or mainly negative or
defensive. He would not lose his grip of heaven and eternity, but he would
fain know the secrets of earth and time as well. And hence was fashioned the
second part of his poem, in which he expounds his theory of the world of
opinion, or guess-work, or observation.
In this world he found two originative principles at work, one pertaining to
light and heat, the other to darkness and cold. From the union of these two
principles all observable things in creation come, and over this union a
God-given power presides, whose name is Love. Of these two principles, the
bright one being analogous to Fire, the dark one to Earth, he
considered the former to be the male or formative element, the latter the
female or passive element; the former therefore had analogies to Being as
such, the latter to Non-being.
The heavenly existences, the sun, the moon, the stars, are of pure Fire,
have therefore an eternal and unchangeable being; they are on the extremest
verge of the universe, and corresponding to them at the centre is another
fiery sphere, which, itself unmoved, is the cause of all motion and
generation in the mixed region between. The motive and procreative power,
sometimes called Love, is at other times called by Parmenides Necessity,
Bearer of the Keys, Justice, Ruler, etc.
A History of Greek Philosophy /
THE ELEATICS /
PARMENIDES
