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Born around 515 BC., Parmenides, was a citizen of Elea, a small town in the south of

Italy. His poem "n !eality" was proaly comprised of three parts of which we ha#e only thefirst two lar$ely intact. %he first part ta&es the form of an alle$orical poem in which we see the poet, impelled ya stron$ desire, tra#el toward the domain of the 'oddess, in a chariot pulled y powerful

runners. (fter un#eilin$ their faces for him, the )aidens of li$ht $uide him to the "thresholdwhere the roads of *i$ht and of +ay con#er$e", and he is allowed to cross it as a result of theirintercession. He is then welcomed with ene#olence y the 'oddess who ta&es his ri$ht hand inhers and commences her teachin$.

%he second part, translated here, is the metaphysical section and contains the teachin$ ofthe truth. %he third, which is fra$mentary, is the physical part. It represents i$norant pulicopinion accordin$ to which reality is the physical uni#erse which came into eistence in the past,

eists today, and is destined to disappear one day.

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Now then, I will instruct you; hear what I say:Two paths are open to investigation.The first says: being is and non-being is not.It is the path of certainty, because it follows the truth.The other says: being is not, therefore non-being is.

This misdirected path, I tell you, cannot lead to a sound convictionFor, if this statement were true, it would not be possible for you to conceive of non-being, nor toname it.

pea!ing and thin!ing necessarily arise from being, because being is."nd non-being is not. I invite you to reflect deeply on this point,"nd to move away, in your search, from that other path"s from the one traveled by those ignorant mortals#ho are the men of two minds: the uncertainty which resides in their hearts$isleads their wavering reason. They are swept along,%eaf and blind, benighted, the masses without discernment#ho pretend that being and non-being are simultaneously identical"nd different, they for whom, for any statement, the opposite is e&ually true.

No power will ever bring non-being into e'istence.o direct your thin!ing away from this path of e'ploration.$ay habit, so often resumed, not force you to return to it,#ith eyes blinded, ears filled with noise"nd mouth with words, and may your intelligence alone resolve this contentious issue.

(nly one path remains for us to pursue:

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)eing is. "nd countless signs proveThat being is free from birth and death)ecause it is complete, immutable and eternal.It never was, it never will be, because it is completely whole in the now,(ne, endless. #hat beginning, indeed, should we attribute to it*#hence would it evolve* #hither*

I will not allow you to say or to thin! that it comes from nothingness,Nor that being is not. #hat e'igency would have brought it forth+ater or earlier, from non-being*Thus, it can only be, absolutely, or not at all.(ur firm innermost conviction will never admitThat something can spring forth from nothingness.In this way the goddess of ustice, forbidding birth and death,reserves without respite the e'istence of being. #hereas the &uestion was to resolve#hether being is or is not. #e must therefore decide to abandon as falseThe second hypothesis, the path which can neither be thought nor formulated,"nd to hold to the first, which is the path of the truth.ow could what is, one day cease to be* ow could it have, one day, come to be*

#hat is born, is not, neither what is to be born.Thus dies birth and thus dies death.#ithin being there remain no differences because it is completely identical to itself.There is not, here, something more that comes to brea! continuityNeither, there, something less: but everything is filled with being.Thus it is all continuous: being ad/oined to being.(n the other hand, maintained motionless by powerful lin!s,It is without beginning and without end, since birth and deathave been re/ected as contrary to our intuition of truth.0emaining itself, e'isting within itself, supported by itself,Thus, immutable, it remains in the same place because the powerful necessity,emming it in from all sides, !eeps it firmly unified.

That is why it is not permitted that being be unfinished,)ecause there is nothing missing in it; unfinished, it would be missing everything1Thought is identical to being, and so it is for the ob/ect to which thought refers;Thus there is nothing, and there will never be anything, outside of being#hich %estiny compels to an eternal bliss. Thus,To be born and to die, to be or not to be,To change place or appearance,"ll of these events are but names superimposed by man2s ignorance.)eing the ultimate, it is everywhere complete.ust as an harmoniously round sphere%eparts e&ually at all points from its center.Nothing can be added to it here nor ta!en away from it there.

#hat is not, cannot interrupt it2s homogeneous e'istence.#hat is, cannot possess it more or less. (ut of all reach,3verywhere identical to itself, beyond all limits, it is.

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