Κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρὁνου τἁξιν. El tiempo en las cosmogonias presocráticas

Abstract

This is a study of the different forms of the intervention of time in the cosmogonies of the Pre-Socratics, their answers to the question of what time actually is, and the ways they understood its passing in the process of world creation. After introducing some prior problems, the author emphasizes that the Pre-Socratics had six distinct notions of time: l. Time-life (as the duration of a lifetime). 2. Time-order (as regulated duration). 3. Time-events (a sequence of a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ with respect to ‘now’ formed by successive events). 4. Time-change (that of transformation, of γιγνεσθαι). 5. Time-framework or time-receptacle (in which events are inserted). 6. Time-linguistic, related to the distinction which can be expressed in Greek either through the opposition between present/pass/future or through adverbs such as «before» and «after». They also have different time-passing models. 1. Understood as duration (a limited and an illimited one are distinguished and within the latter the eternal, atemporal and embracing finite times). 2. Understood as a line (within which a rectilinear one and a cyclical one are distinguished). In the light of these assumptions the passages referring to time in Hesiod, Ferecides, the Orphics, Anaximander, the Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Melissus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia and Democritus are revised. The author conc1udes that the suggested parameters, together with a philological analysis of the texts and a deep semantic study, constitute a productive mean to study the subject.