Parmenides,
Fragments
Arthur Fairbanks, ed. and trans. The First Philosophers of Greece (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1898), 87-102.

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Scanned by, October 1996.


(Prooemium) The horses which bear me conducted me as far as desire may go, when they had brought me speeding along to the far-famed road of a divinity who herself bears onward through all things the man of understanding. Along this road I was borne, along this the horses, wise indeed, bore me hastening the chariot on, and maidens guided my course. The axle in its box, enkindled by the heat, uttered the sound of a pipe (for it was driven on by the rolling wheels on either side), when the maiden daughters of Helios hastened to conduct me (89) to the light, leaving the realms of night, pushing aside with the hand the veils from their heads. There is the gate between the ways of day and night lintel above it, and stone threshold beneath, hold it in place, and high in air it is fitted with great doors; retributive Justice holds the keys that open and shut them.1