being mixed, namely, all that Strife not fallen yet retained; for 10it had not yet altogether retired perfectly from them to the outermost boundaries of the circle. Some of it still remained within, and some had passed out from the limbs of the All. But in proportion as it kept rushing out, a soft, immortal stream of blameless Love kept running in, and straightway those things became mortal which had been immortal before, those things were mixed that had before been unmixed, 15each changing its path. And, as they mingled, countless tribes of mortal creatures were scattered abroad endowed with all manner of forms, a wonder to behold.[1] R. P. 169.
| · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
(37)
Earth increases its own mass, and Air swells the bulk of Air.
(38)
Come, I shall now tell thee first of all the beginning of the sun,[2] and the sources from which have sprung all the things we now behold, the earth and the billowy sea, the damp vapour and the Titan air that binds his circle fast round all things. R. P. 170 a.
(39)
If the depths of the earth and the vast air were infinite, a foolish saying which has been vainly dropped from the lips of many mortals, though they have seen but a little of the All. . . .[3] R. P. 103 b.
(40)
The sharp-darting sun and the gentle moon.
(41)
But (the sunlight) is gathered together and circles round the mighty heavens.
- ↑ We see clearly from this fragment how the ἀθάνατα (the elements) are identified with the "unmixed," and the θνητά (the perishable combinations) with the "mixed."
- ↑ The MSS. of Clement have ἥλιον ἀρχήν, and the reading ἡλίου ἀρχήν is a mere makeshift. Diels reads ἥλικά τ' ἀρχήν, "the first (elements) equal in age."
- ↑ The lines are referred to Xenophanes by Aristotle, who quotes them De caelo, B, 13. 294 a 21. See above, Chap. II. p. 125, n. 3.
