718 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Diels renders it with " verlassliche Wahrheit" and "wahre Uberzeu- 

 gung"; Burnet and Nestle do not vary the phrase but give "true 

 belief" and "des Wahren Gewissheit" in both cases. Two other 

 passages of the poem ought to be compared, to wit, fr. 8, 12, 



ovSe tot' eK /jlyj eoPTOS e4>r]ffeL TTtcrrios tcrxi-'S 

 yiyveadai tl Tap' avro, 



and fr. 8, 17, 



ov yap aX^idrjs 

 eaTLV ooos. 



In the passage last mentioned a\r]dr]s 686s is clearh^ equivalent to 

 'A\rjdeiT]s 656s, as in fr. 4, 4 we have Ilet^oOs eort KtXevdos. So in 

 Sophocl. O. R. 500, 



avbpGiv b' on p-avTis T\kov rj '70; </)eperat, 



KplcTLS OUK tCTTLV dXrj^TJS, 



where the meaning obviously is that "there is no proving the truth 

 of the contention that a seer outstrips me." This use of Kplais calls 

 to mind the fact that Parmenides employs the same word, fr. 8, 15, 



17 be KplcTLS Tepl tovtwv kv rOib' 'eanv ', 

 'eaTiv rj ovk earLV KenpLraL b' ovv, cocrTrep di'd7Kij, 

 TTjv jxev edv av6rjT0v a.v(jovv/xop (ov yap aXrjdris 

 'eaTLV 6b6s), Trjv b' ware TeXetv Kal eTrjTV/JLov elvaL. 



Here the context appears to me to furnish the clue to the meaning of 

 tI(ttls; for Parmenides clearly has in mind an action at law in which 

 the issue is sharply drawn and judgment is rendered. So fr. S, 27 sq. 

 the TicTTLS aXrjdris sends ykveaLS and oXedpos into banishment. The 

 juxtaposition of KplaLs and tl(xtls shows that tlcftls means such e\i- 

 dence or proof as may be adduced in court, a meaning which the 

 word quite regularly bore in legal argumentation. Aristotle, the logi- 

 cian, feeling that forensic oratory employed the enthymeme rather 

 than the syllogism, and that in consequence its deductions were 

 less cogent, continued to use tI<jtls for rhetorical proof in contradis- 

 tinction to dTToSet^ts, the stricter proof of logic or science. Thus irlaTLs 

 is for him Tadovs KeXevdos, the method proper to a procedure which, 

 like the plea of the rhetor, has for its object the establishment of the 

 eUos. In much the same way the ar]fj.aTa of Parmenides, fr. 8, 2, 

 are the arjp.e'ia of forensic argumentation, which Aristotle in like 

 manner and for the same reason distinguished from the more certain 



