Could Themis be the Deity who «Steers» Parmenides’ Cosmos?

In this paper I will investigate the identity of the daímōn introduced by Parmenides in B12, 3 DK, the deity “who steers all things”. The importance of this deity is not adequately reflected in ancient doxography but in recent decades many scholars have reconsidered its role. I argue that in Parmenides’ poem this daímōn may play a relevant role in connecting the theological, ontological and cosmological planes. My purpose is to provide enough arguments for the hypothesis that the daímōn may be the same goddess, Themis, who in the proem (B1, 28) is paired with Dike as a guide for Parmenides to the theá who will reveal to him the truth of tò eón, and in the part of the poem called alḗtheia (B8, 32) is echoed as the divine personification of the thémis of tò eón itself. I will examine the different identities and attributes found in the accounts on Parmenides’ daímōn and will compare them with the identities and attributes that the mythological tradition assigns to the goddess Themis.