THE HELLENIC PERIOD 37 



new sun is born each day. Thus he explains the fact 

 that the universe is motionless although it appears 

 to move as a whole. By an optical illusion, easy to 

 detect, we attribute to everything the changes which 

 characterize particular phenomena. Thanks to the 

 distinction which he established between the apparent 

 and the real, Xenophanes opened the way for his dis- 

 ciple Parmenides. 



According to Diogenes Laertius (IX, ch. Ill, 23) 

 Parmenides reached his " acme " in the year 500 B.C. ; 

 but if we accept the somewhat doubtful indications 

 given by Plato in his dialogue {Parmenides, 127 b), he 

 was born in 516 B.C. and could not have reached his 

 " acme " before 480 B.C. He scarcely left Elea, his 

 native town. It was there that he received instruc- 

 tion from the Pythagorean Ameinias, who made a 

 profound impression upon him. In the famous poem 

 which he wrote, he shows us the virgins, daughters of 

 the Sun, leading him to the dweUings guarded by 

 avenging Justice and inhabited by the Goddess, who 

 takes him by the hand and teaches him to distinguish 

 between the truth which rests on the real being and the 

 ideas suggested by appearances. The Being or Ent is 

 what the intelligence understands and plainly identifies ; 

 the not-Being, or Nonent, is what cannot exist because 

 of internal contradictions. The real Being is space 

 materially extended, immovable, indivisible, uncreated 

 and imperishable ; this space is also limited and 

 spherical, for an indefinite whole is inconceivable. 

 The not-Being is empty space, the conception of which 

 corresponds to nothing, since by its definition the 

 empty space excludes all positive reality. Beside the 

 true Being there are particular phenomena, changing 

 and perishable. These arise from appearances and can 

 only create ideas in our mind. In expounding these 

 ideas, Parmenides is inspired by the cosmology of 



