Truth and the true in Parmenides

An influential article by Thomas Cole, ‘Archaic Truth’, argued that (1) in Homer and Hesiod alētheia means not ‘reality’ but ‘accurate and careful reporting’, and alēthēs does not mean ‘real’; but (2) in Parmenides alētheia takes on the meaning ‘reality’. This chapter argues that while (1) is correct, there is, contrary to (2), much greater continuity in the meaning of alētheia and alēthēs between Homer, Hesiod, and Parmenides. The author’s review of the evidence in Homer and Hesiod argues, in particular, that alēthēs should never be translated ‘real’, and that what is called alētheia is the whole truth (on a particular subject or in a particular context). Similarly in Parmenides the adjective alēthēs does not mark an item as real, or a real instance of its kind, but, for example, a name as accurate or a path as veridical. The author argues that his interpretation allows one to appreciate the post-Xenophanean as well as the Homeric and Hesiodic contexts of Parmenides’ poem.