and which, moreover, is prior to any scientific knowledge, will have especial weight, even though its importance is never purely ontological. That understanding of Being which lies in Dasein itself, expresses itself preontologically. The document which we are about to cite should make plain that our existential Interpretation is not a mere fabrication, but that as an ontological 'construction' it is well grounded and has been sketched out beforehand in elemental ways.
There is an ancient fable in which Dasein's interpretation of itself as 'care' has been embedded:
Cura cum jluvium transiret, vidit cretosum lutum
sustulitque cogitabunda atque coepit fingere.
dum deliberat quid iam fecisset, Jovis intervenit.
rogat eum Cura ut det illi spiritum, et facile impetrat.
cui cum vellet Cura nomen ex sese ipsa imponere,
Jovis prohibuit suumque nomen ei dandum esse dictitat.
dum Cura et Jovis disceptant, Tel/us surrexit simul
suumque nomen esse volt cui corpus praebuerit suum.
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sumpserunt Satumum iudicem, is sic aecus iudicat:
'tu Jovis quia spiritum dedisti, in morte spiritum,
tuque Tellus, quia dedisti corpus, corpus recipito,
Cura eum quia prima finxit, teneat quamdiu vixerit.
sed quae nunc de nomine eius vobis controversia est,
homo vocetur, quia videtur esse factus ex humo.'
'Once when 'Care' was crossing a river, she saw some clay; she thoughtfully took up a piece and began to shape it. While she was meditating on what she had made, Jupiter came by. 'Care' asked him to give it spirit, and this he gladly granted. But when she wanted her name to be bestowed upon it, he forbade this, and demanded that it be given his name instead. While 'Care' and Jupiter were disputing, Earth arose and desired that her own name be conferred on the creature, since she had furnished it with part of her body. They asked Saturn to be their arbiter, and he made the following decision, which seemed a just one: 'Since you, Jupiter, have given its spirit, you shall receive that spirit at its death; and since you, Earth, have given its body, you shall receive its body. But since 'Care' first shaped this creature, she shall possess it as long as it lives. And because there is now a dispute among you as to its name, let it be called 'homo', for it is made out of humus (earth).'1
1 In both the earlier and later editions Heidegger has 'videt' in the first line of the Latin version of the fable, where Bücheler, from whom the text has been taken, has 'vidit'; in the 12th line Heidegger has 'enim' where Bücheler has 'eum'. The punctuation of the Latin version is as Bücheler gives it. The single quotation marks in the English translation correspond strictly to the double quotation marks in Heidegger's version; some of these are not found in Burdach's translation, which, except for two entirely trivial changes, Heidegger has otherwise reproduced very accurately. (On Bücheler and Burdach, see Heidegger's note v, ad loc.) Our translation is a compromise between Burdach and the original Latin.