Empedoklés citáty
Empedoklés
Datum narození: 490 př. n. l.
Datum úmrtí: 430 př. n. l.
Empedoklés z Akragantu byl řecký filosof předsokratického období. Definoval jakožto základní látky všeho bytí dodnes známé čtyři elementy: oheň, vodu, vzduch a zemi. Empedoklés byl pluralista. Hnací síla všeho dění jsou u něho dvě prasíly: láska - síla sjednocující, a nenávist- síla oddělující. Pod vlivem těchto sil svět pulsuje mezi stavem naprosté jednoty a stavem naprostého rozdělení. Náš svět je možný mezi temito dvěma extrémními stavy.
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„Fortunate is he who has acquired a wealth of divine understanding, but wretched the one whose interest lies in shadowy conjectures about divinities.“
— Empedocles
ὄλβιος, ὅς θείων πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον,/δειλὸς δ’, ὧι σκοτόεσσα θεῶν πέρι δόξα μέμηλεν.
fr. 132
Variant translations:
Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable is he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
tr. Arthur Fairbanks
Source: Fairbanks, Arthur. (1898). The First Philosophers of Greece https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029013162. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd. p. 201.
„I shall speak twice over. As upon a time One came to be alone out of many, so at another time it divided to be many out of One: fire and water and earth and the limitless vault of air, and wretched Strife apart from these, in equal measure to everything, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth.“
— Empedocles
Context: But come, hear my words, since indeed learning improves the spirit. Now as I said before, setting out the bounds of my words, I shall speak twice over. As upon a time One came to be alone out of many, so at another time it divided to be many out of One: fire and water and earth and the limitless vault of air, and wretched Strife apart from these, in equal measure to everything, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth. Consider [Love] in mind, you, and don't sit there with eyes glazing over. It is a thing considered inborn in mortals, to their very bones; through it they form affections and accomplish peaceful acts, calling it Joy or Aphrodite by name.
from fr. 17
Variant translations:
But come! but hear my words! For knowledge gained/Makes strong thy soul. For as before I spake/Naming the utter goal of these my words/I will report a twofold truth. Now grows/The One from Many into being, now/Even from one disparting come the Many--/Fire, Water, Earth, and awful heights of Air;/And shut from them apart, the deadly Strife/In equipoise, and Love within their midst/In all her being in length and breadth the same/Behold her now with mind, and sit not there/With eyes astonished, for 'tis she inborn/Abides established in the limbs of men/Through her they cherish thoughts of love, through her/Perfect the works of concord, calling her/By name Delight, or Aphrodite clear.
tr. William E. Leonard
„He must for seasons thrice ten thousand roam“
— Empedocles
Context: A law there is, an oracle of Doom, Of old enacted by the assembled gods, That if a Daemon—such as live for ages— Defile himself with foul and sinful murder, He must for seasons thrice ten thousand roam Far from the Blest; such is the path I tread, I too a wanderer and exile from heaven.
tr. Phillip H. De Lacy and Benedict Einarson. Cf. full quotation at Leonard p. 54-55 https://books.google.com/books?id=omUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false
fr. 115, as paraphrased in Plutarch's Moralia
„I too a wanderer and exile from heaven.“
— Empedocles
Context: A law there is, an oracle of Doom, Of old enacted by the assembled gods, That if a Daemon—such as live for ages— Defile himself with foul and sinful murder, He must for seasons thrice ten thousand roam Far from the Blest; such is the path I tread, I too a wanderer and exile from heaven.
tr. Phillip H. De Lacy and Benedict Einarson. Cf. full quotation at Leonard p. 54-55 https://books.google.com/books?id=omUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false
fr. 115, as paraphrased in Plutarch's Moralia
„Far from the Blest; such is the path I tread,“
— Empedocles
Context: A law there is, an oracle of Doom, Of old enacted by the assembled gods, That if a Daemon—such as live for ages— Defile himself with foul and sinful murder, He must for seasons thrice ten thousand roam Far from the Blest; such is the path I tread, I too a wanderer and exile from heaven.
tr. Phillip H. De Lacy and Benedict Einarson. Cf. full quotation at Leonard p. 54-55 https://books.google.com/books?id=omUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false
fr. 115, as paraphrased in Plutarch's Moralia
„As it has long been and shall be, not ever, I think, will unfathomable time be emptied of either.“
— Empedocles
ἧι γὰρ καὶ πάρος ἔσκε, καὶ ἔσσεται, οὐδέ ποτ’, οἴω,/τούτων ἀμφοτέρων κενεώσεται ἄσπετος αἰών.
This quote refers to Love and Strife, the fundamental opposing and ordering forces in Empedocles' model of the cosmos.
fr. 16
„Fools -- for their thoughts are not well-considered who suppose that not-being exists or that anything dies and is wholly annihilated.“
— Empedocles
νήπιοι· οὐ γάρ σφιν δολιχόφρονές εἰσι μέριμναι, οἵ δὴ γίγνεσθαι πάρος οὐκ ἐὸν ἐλπίζουσιν ἤ τι καταθνήισκειν τε καὶ ἐξόλλυσθαι ἁπάντηι.
fr. 11
„Nothing of the All is either empty or superfluous.“
— Empedocles
οὐδέ τι τοῦ παντὸς κενεὸν πέλει οὐδὲ περισσόν.
fr. 13
„For one by one did quake the limbs of God.“
— Empedocles
πάντα γὰρ ἑξείης πελεμίζετο γυῖα θεοῖο.
tr. William Leonard
Source: Leonard, William E. (1908). The Fragments of Empedocles. The Open Court Publishing Company. p. 30.
fr. 31
„With deep roots Ether plunged into earth.“
— Empedocles
αἰθήρ [δ’ αὖ] μακρῆισι κατὰ χθόνα δύετο ῥίζαις.
fr. 54
