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Truth of Universe - Doxia
Fragments of the Lost Parmenides

The steeds that bear me carried me
as far as ever my heart desired,
since they brought me, and set me

on the renowned way of the Goddess,
Who, with her own hands conducts the man
who 'knows through' all things.

On that way was I borne along;
for on it did the wise steeds carry me,
drawing my car, while maidens showed the way.

The axle glowed in the socket for it was urged round
by the whirling wheels at each end
which gave forth a sound as of a pipe,

when the Daughters of the Sun
hasting to convey me into the light
threw back their veils from off their faces

and left the abode of Night.
There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day
fitted above with a lintel,

and below with a threshold of stone.
They themselves, high in the air,
are closed by mighty doors.

'Her' did the maidens entreat with gentle words,
and skillfully persuaded to unfasten without demur
the bolted bars from the gates.

Then when the doors were thrown back
they disclosed a wide opening when their brazen hinges
swung backwards in their sockets fastened with rivets and nails.

Straight through them on the broad way
did the maidens guide the horses and the car
and a goddess greeted me kindly

and took my right hand in hers
and spake to me these words:
"Noble young man, coming to our home

in the company of immortal charioteers
and the horses which carry you;
...Welcome!...

It is no ill chance which has sent you
to travel along this road of right and justice
far from the way trodden by men.

You must learn about everything,
both the unshaken truth, and opinions of mortals
in which there is no true belief at all.

Yet none the less, you shall learn of all these things
since you must judge the theories that seem right to men
as you go through all things in your journey.

Come now, I will tell you - do hearken to my saying
and carry it away with you.
There are only two ways of searching:

Mortals have settled in their minds to speak of two forms,
one of which they should have left out;
and that is where they go astray from the truth.

They have assigned an opposite substance to each
and characteristics distinct from one another.
To one, the aetherial flame of light and fire, gentle and very fine,

identical with itself in every direction
and that the 'All' is full of 'light.'
The other is opposite to it: dark night, a compact heavy body.

Of these I'll tell you the whole arrangement.
And you shall know the origin of all the things on high.
You will also learn the nature of the aether (dark space)

and all the things found in the aether and the unseen workings
of the Sun's fiery rays and how they arose; of the Milky Way
and how the hot force of the stars rushed into being.

You shall know too, of the heavens that surround us,
of whence they arose and how Necessity took them
and bound them to hold the parameters of the stars.

And how the Goddess ('Mother Nature')
contrived Eros, the round-faced Moon
as a borrowed light shining in the night,

always turning her eyes to the beams of the sun
wandering around the earth and of Her origin;
of the Milky Way and the outermost Universe

and how the burning might of the stars arose.
And how narrow orbits are filled with pure fire,
and those next to them with darkest night.

In the darkness of night allotted amounts of fire circle in orbits,
and in the center of these, the goddess, who governs all
directs the course of all things, guiding all of nature;

and of procreation and begetting,
driving females to the male
and males to the female;

and according to knowledge,
as they've always been, so they are now the same,
unchanged as when all these things first came into being.

And thus, all these will in time hereafter,
so it is believed by mankind,
after having grown and matured,

will all come to their own end,
passing away.

And for each and all,
mankind has assigned them
individual names."





The above verses are from the 'lost' pages of the Parmenides - Doxia. The complete Parmenides,
e.g. The Way of Truth, was originally taught by female sages/poets/muses: in ancient BCE


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