Kitap 3
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The school of Hesiod, and all the cosmologists, considered only what was convincing to themselves, and gave no consideration to us. For they make the first principles Gods or generated from Gods, and say that whatever did not taste of the nectar and ambrosia became mortal—clearly using these terms in a sense significant to themselves;
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but as regards the actual applications of these causes their statements are beyond our comprehension. For if it is for pleasure that the Gods partake of them, the nectar and ambrosia are in no sense causes of their existence; but if it is to support life, how can Gods who require nourishment be eternal?
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However, it is not worth while to consider seriously the subtleties of mythologists; we must ascertain by cross-examining those who offer demonstration of their statements why exactly things which are derived from the same principles are some of an eternal nature and some perishable. And since these thinkers state no reason for this view, and it is unreasonable that things should be so, obviously the causes and principles of things cannot be the same.
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Even the thinker who might be supposed to speak most consistently, Empedocles, is in the same case; for he posits Strife as a kind of principle which is the cause of destruction, but none the less Strife would seem to produce everything except the One; for everything except GodThe expressions the One and God refer to Empedocles’ Sphere: the universe as ordered and united by Love. Cf. Empedocles, Fr. 26-29 (Diels). proceeds from it.
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At any rate he says
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From which grew all that was and is and shall be
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In time to come: the trees, and men and women,
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The beasts and birds and water-nurtured fish,
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And the long-living Gods.Empedocles, Fr. 21. 9-12.
