Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Simplic. in Phys., p. 157,25 sqq.

A double tale I shall tell. For at one time it grew to be one alone

out of many; at another it grew apart, to be many out of one.

Twofold is the birth of mortal things, and twofold their failing:

for the one birth the coming together of all things begets and destroys,

while the other, as they grow apart again, is reared up and flies asunder. 5

And these things never cease from interchanging continually,

at one time all coming together into one through Love,

at another each borne apart by the hatred of Strife.

‹So, in so far as the one has learned to grow out of many,›

and again, as the one grows apart, many come forth, 10

to that extent they come to be, and their lifetime is not steadfast;

but in so far as they never cease from interchanging continually,

to that extent they are forever unmoved throughout the cycle.

But come, hear my words, for learning increases the mind.

As I said before, declaring the bounds of my words, 15

a double tale I shall tell. For at one time it grew to be one alone

out of many; at another it grew apart, to be many out of one —

fire and water and earth and the boundless height of air,

and destructive Strife apart from these, balanced in every direction,

and Love among them, equal in length and in breadth. 20

Look on her with the mind, and do not sit with eyes astonished;

she it is who is held to be inborn in mortal limbs as well,

and by her they think thoughts of love and accomplish works of joining,

calling her by the names of Gladness and of Aphrodite.