EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY V
PARMENIDES [28 DK]
R Judgments on Parmenides’ Poetry (R1–R5)R1 (21 A25) Cic. Acad. 2.74
Parmenides Xenophanes minus bonis quamquam versibus sed tamen illi versibus increpant eorum adrogantiam quasi irati, qui cum sciri nihil possit audeant se scire dicere.
R2 Plut.
a (< A15) Aud. poet. 2 16C
τὰ δ’ Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἔπη καὶ Παρμενίδου [. . .] λόγοι εἰσὶ κεχρημένοι παρὰ ποιητικῆς ὥσπερ ὄχημα τὸν ὄγκον καὶ τὸ μέτρον, ἵνα τὸ πεζὸν διαφύγωσιν.
b (< A16) Aud. 13 45A–B
μέμψαιτο δ’ ἄν τις [. . .] Παρμενίδου [. . .] τὴν στιχοποιίαν [. . .].
PARMENIDES
PARMENIDES
R Judgments on Parmenides’ Poetry (R1–R5)R1 (21 A25) Cicero, Prior Academics
Parmenides and Xenophanes, although in less good verses [scil. than Empedocles’], but nonetheless in verses, attack, almost in anger, the arrogance of those who dare to say that they know, when nothing can be known.
R2 Plutarch
a (< A15) How the Young Man Should Read Poetry
The verses of Empedocles and Parmenides [. . .] are discourses that borrow from poetry its weight and meter like a chariot in order to avoid the pedestrian character of prose.
b (< A16) How to Listen
One could rebuke [. . .] Parmenides for his versification [. . .].
See also XEN. R28