Why Did Parmenides Write A Poem?
Keywords:
Parmenides, poem, proem, mûthos, eposAbstract
This research focuses on Parmenides and his philosophical poem. The poem, catalogued as On Nature, is the first philosophical poem to have survived almost completely from the beginnings of Ancient Greek philosophical thought. It is called the founding text of ontology by some interpreters. However, this poem begins with the proem section, which describes a divine journey in which a nameless goddess conveys the truth to a young man whose identity we do not know. Therefore, it corresponds to a milestone in the history of philosophy in terms of both its content and form. The aim of this research is to examine what Parmenides, as one of the philosophers standing at the forefront of the Western philosophical tradition, carried over from the cultural world into which he was born—in other words, from outside philosophy. This is also a search for an answer to the question, “Why did Parmenides write a poem?” How was Parmenides influenced by the Greek ethos in which he lived? In particular, it will be examined what the form, meter, language, and elements used in the poem have inherited from the oral tradition. Each element of Parmenides’ poem has been interpreted in many different ways to date. In this study, the different and even opposing views of many specialists in Ancient philosophy and commentators will be employed to explore how Parmenides’ poem in general, and the proem in particular, can be read and interpreted [...]
References
Arslan, A. (2009). İlkçağ felsefe tarihi 1: Sokrates öncesi Yunan felsefesi. İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Barnes, J. (1987). Early Greek philosophy [Erken Yunan felsefesi]. Penguin Books.
Bonnechere, P. (2018). The sound of katabasis: bellowing, roaring and hissing at the crossing of impervious boundires. round trip to Hades in Eastern Mediterranean tradition: Visits to the underworld from antiquity to Byzantium. (G. Ekroth, I. Nilson, Ed.). Brill. 240-259. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375963_011
Bowra, C. M. (1937). The proem of Parmenides. Classical philology. Vol. 32, No. 2, 97-112. https://doi.org/10.1086/362001
Burkert, W. (1969). Das proömium des Parmenides und die katabasis des Pythagoras. Phronesis. Vol. 14. No.1. 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852869X00019
Burkert, W. (2013). Parmenides’ proem and Pythagoras’ descent (J. Bagchee, Çev.). Philosophy and salvation in Greek religion. De Gruyter. 85-116. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110276381.85
Burnet, J. (1920). Early Greek philosophy [Erken Yunan felsefesi] (3. baskı). A&C Black.
Cavarero, A. (2017). Platon’a rağmen: antik felsefenin feminist bir yeniden yazımı (Bilge Tanrısever, Çev.). Otonom Yayıncılık. (Orijinal eser 2009’da yayımlandı)
Coxon, A.H. (2009). The fragments of Parmenides [Parmenides’in fragmanları]. Parmenides Publishing.
Curd, P. (2004). The legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic monism and later presoctaric thought [Parmenides’in mirası: Elea monizmi ve sonraki Sokrates-öncesi düşünce]. Parmenides Publishing.
Erhat, A. (2010). Mitoloji sözlüğü. Remzi Kitabevi.
Fränkel, H. (1973). Early Greek poetry and philosophy [Erken Yunan şiiri ve felsefesi]. (M. Hadas, J. Willis, Çev.). A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
Gallop, D. (1984). Parmenides of Elea: fragment- a text and translation with an introduction [Elealı Parmenides: metin ve girişle birlikte çeviri]. University of Toronto Press.
Gören, E. (2018). Homerosçu ilahiler’den Pindaros’a arkaik Yunan şiiri antolojisi. Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
Guthrie, W.K.C. (1969). A history of Greek philosophy Vol. 2: The presocratics tradition from Parmenides to Democritus [Yunan felsefe tarihi 2: Parmenides’ten Demokritos’a Sokrates-öncesi gelenek]. Cambridge University Press.
Hadot, P. (2024). Yaşam için felsefe (K. Kahveci, Çev.). Ayrıntı Yayınları.
Havelock, E. A. (1958). Parmenides and Odysseus. Harvard studies classical philology, vol. 63, 133-143. https://doi.org/10.2307/310850
Hesiodos. (2022). Theogonia, işler ve günler (A. Erhat, & S. Eyüboğlu, Çev.; 12. baskı). Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları (Orijinal eser yak. MÖ VIII. yüzyıl sonu ve VII. yüzyıl ortasında yayımlandı.)
Homeros. (2020). Odysseia (A. Erhat, & A. Kadir, Çev.; 12. baskı). Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları (Orijinal eser yak. MÖ VIII. yüzyılda yayımlandı.)
Jaeger, W. (2011). Antik Yunan filozoflarında tanrı düşüncesi (G. Ayas, Çev.). İthaki Yayınları.
Kerényi, C. (2012). Eleusis: anne kızın arketip imgesi (T. Bayraktar Yaşar, Çev.). Pinhan Yayıncılık.
Kingsley, P. (1999). In the dark places of wisdom. The Golden Sufi Center.
Kirk, G. S., & Raven, J. E. (1983). Parmenides of Elea. The presocratic philosophers. Cambridge University Press.
Laertios, D. (2007). Ünlü filozofların yaşamları ve öğretileri (C. Şentuna, Çev.). Yapı Kredi Yayınları (Orijinal eser yak. III. yüzyılda yayımlandı.)
Mackenzie, T. (2021). Poetry and poetics in the presocratic philosophers: reading Xenophenes, Parmenides and Empedocles as literature, Cambridge University Press.
Mansfeld, J. (2020). An early Greek epic: narrative structures in Parmenides’ poem and the relation between ıts main parts. Mnemosyne, 74, 200-237. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-BJA10082
Mourelatos, A.P.D. (2008). The route of Parmenides [Parmenides’in rotası]. Parmenides Publishing.
Parmenides. (2019). Fragmanlar (K. H. Ökten, Çev.). Alfa Basım Yayım Dağıtım (Orijinal eser yak. MÖ V. yüzyılda yayımlandı.)
Platon. (2016). Sofist (Cenap Karakaya, Çev.). İletişim Yayınları (Orijinal eser yak. MÖ 355-347 yılları arasında yayımlandı.)
Platon. (2018). Parmenides (S. Babür, Çev.; 5. baskı). İmge Kitabevi (Orijinal eser yak. MÖ 360-355 yılları arasında yayımlandı.)
Tarán, L. (1965). Parmenides: a text with translation, commentary and critical essays. Princeyon University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright of their work.
All content published in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
