105
reference, i.e., "to live the death of the other" and "to die the life of another," to think toward the relationship of gods and humans. Gods do not live the death of humans in the sense that a slaying of humans belongs to their life. We interpret "to live the death of mortals" as a life of the gods in sight of the being of living beings who understand being in a finite, temporal manner. In sight of humans who are delivered over to death and who are not sheltered by perpetual being, the gods understand their ἀεί εἶναι [to be always] and are, as it were, the πῦρ ἀείζωον, even if they are never ἀεί in the strict sense like πῦρ ἀείζωον is. Against this, humans {171} die the life of the gods. In understanding of the perpetual being of the gods, they are not allowed thereby to partake of it. Humans win no share of the perpetual being of the immortals, but they understand themselves and their disappearance in reference to the fact that the gods are not delivered over to death. I attempt to give one sense to the formulas, "to live the death of mortals" and "to die the life of immortals," in which I interpret them as the intertwining of the self-understanding and understanding of being of gods and humans. This intertwining relationship represents the counter reference of ἕν, the always living fire, and the temporally finite being of πάντα in general which are brought forth by the seasons. The immortal gods are the reflection, the innerworldly representations, of the always living fire as a form of ἕν. In this interpretation, I see a possibility of understanding how the gods live the death of humans. They live the death of humans not in the sense of an encounter; rather, they are referred to the death' of humans-in-the encounter of their own perpetual being.
In the first and second versions of "Mnemosyne," Hölderlin says: "For the heavenly ones are unable / To do everything. Namely, the mortals / Reach the abyss. Thus, the echo returns / With them. Long is / the time, but / What is true happens." That means that the gods, those who do not stand in need, nevertheless need one thing, namely mortals who pass further into the abyss. We have a simile of ἕν to the πάντα, which are constantly driven about in time, in that we see how the gods cannot, in their perpetuity, self-sufficiently enjoy their infinity, and how they are in need of the counter reference to mortals. We have a simile of ἕν and πάντα in that we see how humans, driven about in time, are in need of the counter reference to perpetual gods for the sake of knowledge of their own finitude. Humans and gods have the commonality that they are not only entities in the world, but that they live in the manner of understanding relationships to being. Humans understand being in a finite way. the gods in infinite manner. The gods {172} exceed humans not only in force generally, but in the power of their understanding of what is. The πᾶν is mortal immortal. The πᾶν is, however, no coincidentia oppositorum, no night in which all oppositions are obliterated. τό πᾶν is the word in which ἕν and πάντα are comprehended together. We can apply paradoxical phrases to it alone.