# Parmenides — The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers character guide

> Parmenides in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** wise Parmenides, Parmenides of Zeno the Eleatic

**First appearance:** 0083-parmenides

## Snapshot

The Eleatic sage who taught that all is one, unmoving, and eternal, and who adopted Zeno as his devoted pupil and heir.

## Who they are

In Diogenes' pages Parmenides is the revered elder of Elea, a man so trusted in politics that his city made him admiral, and so admired for private virtue that his doctrines carried weight beyond the school. His teaching that the universe is one, unchanging, and without real motion sets him against the flux most Greeks took for granted, and his refusal to define the gods marks him as a thinker unafraid of pious convention. He matters because he is the hinge on which the Eleatic line turns: Zeno's paradoxes and dialectic grow directly from his master's austere vision of being.

## Relationships

### [Pythagoras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters/pythagoras)

_social_

Parmenides was influenced by Pythagorean thought, though he developed his own monistic philosophy.

### [Pythagoras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters/pythagoras)

_social_

Parmenides was influenced by Pythagorean thought, though he developed his own monistic philosophy.

## In the story

### [Anaximenes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/anaximenes)

Some say Anaximenes was also a pupil of Parmenides.

### [Book VIII: The Pythagorean and Promiscuous Philosophers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/book-viii)

Mentioned as a teacher of Empedocles and Zeno, and as an influence on Empedocles' poetic style.

### [Empedocles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/empedocles)

Empedocles is described as an imitator and rival of Parmenides in his poems.

### [Book IX: The Skeptics and the Eleatic School](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/book-ix)

Pupil of Xenophanes and Anaximander; first to assert the earth is spherical; discovered Hesperus and Lucifer are the same star.

### [Parmenides](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/parmenides)

Main subject of the chapter; pupil of Xenophanes and Anaximander, follower of Aminias the Pythagorean; first to assert spherical earth and central universe; taught dual elements and the primacy of reason.

### [Melissus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/melissus)

Teacher of Melissus.

### [Zeno, the Eleatic](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/chapters/zeno-the-eleatic)

Zeno was a pupil of Parmenides and greatly attached to him; Plato mentions Zeno in his Parmenides.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters/parmenides
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_lives_and_opinions_of_eminent_philosophers_se/characters