Ancilla to Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker

Kathleen Freeman, 'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers - A complete translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragamente der Vorsokratiker,' Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Sixth Impression 1971 (First printed 1947). 162 pp. ISBN 063102820X. The staggering importance of the Pre-Socratics was made abundantly clear recently by the American scholar Thomas McEvilley when, in his 'The Shape of Ancient Thought,' he pointed out that: "Within the academic departments where the Greek and Latin Classics are custodialized, the fragments of the pre-Socratics occupy the pinnacle of a hierarchy of texts. They are the Ur-fountainhead of the western tradition [and] arguably the crown of the Greek heritage as it has survived" (ISBN 1581152035 page 643). But why, given this, do we still have to resort to Kathleen Freeman's edition of the fragments, an edition that is now over 60 years old? Why does her book remain, after all this time, the only COMPLETE English translation of the B fragments in Diels? Personally I've always found her 'Ancilla' to be very useful so far as it goes, despite the fact that some of her translations could probably be improved on and also that her book would have been far more useful if she had provided the Greek text. But why hasn't the enormously wealthy English-speaking world been given an equivalent to the German Diels-Kranz, a truly COMPLETE bilingual Greek-English edition of the fragments? Why, if we want to consult the Greek, must we have to spend the $300 or more that a copy of the out-of-print Diels-Kranz now costs on the used book market since a COMPLETE Greek text of the fragments, so far as I know, exists nowhere else? And why have all of our classicists without exception confined themselves to cherry-picking and given us editions of only those fragments they personally felt comfortable with while ignoring the rest? I think the answer to this question has been provided by Victor David Hanson and John Heath in their devastating expose of the Anglo classicist establishment, 'Who Killed Homer? - The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001. ISBN 1893554260) a book which infuriated classicists since it happens to be true. Classicists as a class are here accused of being idle, arrogant, greedy, irresponsible, amoral careerists. They are cads who care little for Greek thought and who have nothing but the most extreme contempt, not only for the general public which pays their salaries, but even for their students since they would rather disburden themselves of the distasteful task of teaching by passing it to an underclass of academic slaves known as 'graduate teaching assistants' while (when not gadding about the world on an endless round of international 'conferences,' i.e. mutual back-slapping cocktail-slurping canape-gobbling gabfests) they themselves engage in what they fondly describe as 'research' (i.e. the scribbling of esoteric monographs on utterly trivial

Back in 1948, Kathleen Freeman's "Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers" was a genuine gift to English-speakers interested in the early Greek thinkers, but not at home in Greek, Latin, and German. In this "handmaiden" she translated the "fragments" -- actually quotations in texts by other, later, writers, although a few physical fragments have turned up on papyri -- as they were presented in the then most-recent edition of a classic of scholarship, the fifth edition of H. Diels' "Fragmente der Vorsokratiker." (Which, for those who haven't guessed, was one of the monuments of late-nineteenth-century German classical studies.) The translation was severely plain, and seems to have pretty much avoided any but the most basic interpretation -- that of vocabulary and grammar (which can get pretty controversial for this material!). She was not the first to translate most of these passages in one place (Burnet's 1892 "Early Greek Philosophy," and its revisions, included a great many), but her work was both exceptionally comprehensive, and when published, up-to-date; the title of "Ancilla" indicated, to those familiar with the word, that it was intended to assist. The book was originally published as part of a set, along with "The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Companion to Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker," which is now out of print. It was obviously intended as a supplemental reader, to be used with one of the many books on the history of Greek philosophy (not necessarily Freeman's "Companion.") There is not even a clear statement of the rationale for segregating this extremely diverse group as all characterized by being predecessors to Socrates. (Although, in fact, some seem to have been his younger contemporaries....) Nietzsche, who, early in his short career as a classical philologist, did an important study of one of the major late-classical sources, suggested calling them "Pre-Platonic." This is actually more helpful; what they most clearly have in common is that Plato's works are the first such to survive "in bulk," and their writings reach us only in snippets. Traditional usage prevailed, with Diels, with Freeman, and everyone else. The "Ancilla" was restricted to Diels' "B" texts, those he regarded as certainly or likely to be the actual words of the men to whom they were attributed. The much more voluminous "A" texts, the biographical, descriptive, and anecdotal "Testimonies," were excluded (Freeman dealt with them in "Companion"). Freeman's was a modest-looking but difficult project, carried out to the satisfaction of many classicists -- although every specialist, of course, found something to object to in the treatment of his or her favored Pre-Socratic. Since the book was largely aimed at people finding their way through the literature, Freeman thoughtfully provided a table to find fifth-edition Diels texts as numbered in the fourth edition, which was cited in much of the older secondary literature in English. Naturally, the sixth (by

I think it's important for everyone to realize that when you purchase this book, you are getting less than you may imagine. The back of the book (which is viewable through the "Look Inside!" feature) states: "This book is a complete translation of the fragments of the pre-Socratic philosophers given in the fifth edition of Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker." Sounds good, huh? Well, I think right about here is where it would have been extraordinarily appropriate and relevant to mention the fact that this book is not an autonomous work, and is instead merely supplemental to another of Freeman's books, 'Companion to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers'. Don't you agree? But no, I had to buy this work, wait for it to arrive, and then find this sentence in the extremely short foreword (N.B: the "Look Inside!" feature conveniently skips right over the foreword): "Comments on readings and interpretation have been confined to footnotes, and are restricted to the minimum; for further discussion, the reader is referred to my Companion to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, to which this book is ancillary." For ancillary, read "subordinate." I do not care what led to the decision to omit this seemingly vital (yet, apparently superfluous) piece of information, but, to my mind, this situation needs to be remedied and I accordingly wrote this review... In any case, I managed to track down a copy of Freeman's 'Companion to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers'. [Note: It's that Freeman's Companion is a companion to the three volume work of Diels, and this gives rise to its name]. I would recommend that everyone do likewise, since it is meticulous in its citation of sources, and extremely helpful in explicating innumerable passages in the Ancilla. However, it was extremely difficult for me to find a copy of Freeman's Companion as it is unfortunately exceedingly rare. Go ahead and test this assertion by trying to find a copy for yourself. I'm betting you will either fail or, in your success, have to fork over a large sum of money. FYI, Diels' book is in German [as a side-note, the true name of his work is 'Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker']. This is true of all the statements in the three volume work that are not the Fragments themselves, but not true of the Fragments, which are still in Ancient Greek. I myself read fluent German, and I wouldn't be able to read Diels' work. I would like to defend the description of the Ancilla as subordinate to the Companion [Note: The word ancillary is originally used by Freeman herself (etymologically related to the title of the work), and I'm following her lead, because after reviewing the situation, I agree with her]. In the Ancilla, one encounters such enlightening fragments as this one from Anaximander of Miletus: 4. Nozzle of the bellows. Or, how about this one from Heracleitus of Ephesus? 137. Utterly decreed by fate. Wait, there is more! Empedocles of Acragas states: 159. The accumulated bulk. Now, admittedly, there a

Am I the only one who has ever had the following experience? You keep reading summaries of the pre-Socratics, and every once in a while they'll toss you an actual fragment. But when you ask them, "Hey, where did you happen to get these lovely pre-Socratic fragments?," they tell you its all contained in a single volume by a guy named Diels. Oh, but there is one small catch. His book is called "Fragmente der Vorsokratteker," or something, and so you have to learn how to speak German. If this problem has been keeping you awake at night because you only read English, then worry no longer! Kathleen Freeman's "Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers" is a complete translation of the Diels text, excluding only a couple orations by Gorgias. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only translation avaliable. For anyone with an interest in philosophy, this book is an invaluable reference that you will turn to time and again. All the fragments of Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Parmenides are contained in this one little softcover volume for only a few dollars. Get this book now, because who knows how long it will be in print. If you wait too long, you may have to learn how to read German.