But what does all this have to do with the saying of Parmenides? Nowhere does he speak of uncanniness. He speaks, almost too soberly, only of the belonging-together of apprehending and Being. When we asked what belonging together means, we were diverted into the interpretation of Sophocles. What help is it to us? Surely we cannot simply carry it over into the interpretation of Parmenides. Certainly not. But we must recall the original, essential connection between poetic and thoughtful saying, especially when, as here, it is a matter of the inceptive, poetizing-thinking, grounding, and founding of the historical Dasein of a people. Yet above and beyond this general, essential relation, we immediately find a definite trait that is shared in common by the content of this poetry and thinking.

In the second phase, in our summary characterization of the concluding strophe, we deliberately highlighted the reciprocal relation of δίκη and τέχνη. Δίκη is the overwhelming fittingness. Τέχνη is the violence-doing of knowing. The reciprocal relation between them is the happening of uncanniness.

We now assert that the belonging-together of νοεῖν (apprehending) and εἶναι (Being), which is said in the saying of Parmenides, is nothing but this reciprocal relation. If we can show this, we will have demonstrated our earlier assertion that this saying for the first time delimits the essence of Being-human, and does not just come to speak about humanity in some casual way. [127|174]

In proof of our assertion, we will first carry out two more general reflections. Then we will attempt an interpretation of the saying in particular.

In the reciprocal relation between δίκη and τέχνη, as said poetically, δίκη stands for the Being of beings as a whole. We encounter this use of the word in the thought of the Greeks even before Sophocles’ time. The oldest saying that has been handed down to us,