Parmenides’ epic poem (1)

Text
Detailed imagery of gurded doors, gates, bolts, bars, keys, and locks at the entrance of the netherworld are a central feature of Babylonian cosmic mythology. These gates in the Babylonian sources are described as lying on the paths of the sun and moon, just as Parmenides’ gates stand on ‘the paths of night and day”.

Parmenides B.1.11-21:
Here are the gates of the paths of Night and Day, and a lintel and a stone treshold enclose them. They themselves, high in the air, are filled by great doors, and punitive Dike (= Justice) holds the keys which fit them. Her the girls (= the daughters of the sun) appeased with soft words, subtly persuading her to push back for them the bolted bar swiftly from the gates. They flew back and made a yawning gap between the doors, swinging in turn in their sockets the bronze pivots, fitted with pegs and pins. And through them the girls held the chariot and mares straight on the highway.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Parmenides B.1.11-21

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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