Heraclitus: Xenophanes

¹ Heraclitus was:

• the son of Blyson, or of Heracion
• a citizen of Ephesus.

He flourished about the sixty-ninth olympiad.

² He was above all men of a lofty and arrogant spirit:

“Abundant learning does not form the mind; for if it did, it would have instructed Hesiod, and Pythagoras, and likewise Xenophanes, and Hecatæus. For the only piece of real wisdom is to know that idea, which by itself will govern everything on every occasion.”

He used to say, too, that Homer deserved to be expelled from the games and beaten, and Archilochus likewise.

He used also to say, “It is more necessary to extinguish insolence, than to put out a fire.” Another of his sayings was, “The people ought to fight for the law, as for their city.” He also attacks the Ephesians for having banished his companion Hermodorus, when he says, “The Ephesians deserve to have all their youth put to death, and all those who are younger still banished from their city, inasmuch as they have banished Hermodorus, the best man among them, saying, ‘Let no one of us be pre-eminently good; and if there be any such person, let him go to another city and another people.’”

When he was requested to make laws for them, he refused, because the city was already immersed in a thoroughly bad constitution.

Having retired to the temple of Diana with his children, he began to play at dice; and when all the Ephesians flocked round him, he said, “You wretches, what are you wondering at? is it not better to do this, than to meddle with public affairs in your company?”

³ And at last, becoming a complete misanthrope, he used to live, spending his time in walking about the mountains; feeding on grasses and plants, and in consequence of these habits, he was attacked by the dropsy.

So then he returned to the city, and asked the physicians, in a riddle, whether they were able to produce a drought after wet weather.

They did not understand him, so he shut himself up in a stable for oxen, and covered himself with cow-dung, hoping to cause the wet to evaporate from him, by the warmth that this produced.

As he did himself no good in this way, he died, having lived seventy years; and we have written an epigram upon him which runs thus:

I’ve often wondered much at Heraclitus, That he should chose to live so miserably, And die by such a miserable fate. For fell disease did master all his body, With water quenching all the light of his eyes, And bringing darkness o’er his mind and body.

But Hermippus states, that what he asked the physicians was this, whether any one could draw off the water by depressing his intestines? and when they answered that they could not, he placed himself in the sun, and ordered his servants to plaster him over with cow-dung; and being stretched out in that way, on the second day he died, and was buried in the market-place.

But Neanthes, of Cyzicus says, that as he could not tear off the cow-dung, he remained there, and on account of the alteration in his appearance, he was not discovered, and so was devoured by the dogs.

⁴ He was a wonderful person, from his boyhood, since, while he was young, he used to say that he knew nothing but when he had grown up, he then used to affirm that he knew everything.

He was no one’s pupil. He himself had investigated every thing, and had learned everything of himself.

But Sotion relates, that some people affirmed that he had been a pupil of Xenophanes.

Ariston, stated in his account of Heraclitus, that he was cured of the dropsy, and died of some other disease.

Hippobotus gives the same account.

⁵ His work about nature is divided into 3 discourses:

1. on the Universe
2. on Politics
3. on Theology

He deposited this book in the temple of Diana, as some authors report, having written it intentionally in an obscure style, in order that only those who were able men might comprehend[378] it, and that it might not be exposed to ridicule at the hands of the common people.

Timon attacks this man also, saying:

Among them came that cuckoo Heraclitus The enigmatical obscure reviler Of all the common people.

Theophrastus asserts, that it was out of melancholy that he left some of his works half finished, and wrote several, in completely different styles; and Antisthenes, in his Successions, adduces as a proof of his lofty spirit, the fact, that he yielded to his brother the title and privileges of royalty.[121] And his book had so high a reputation, that a sect arose in consequence of it, who were called after his own name, Heracliteans.

⁶ His main principles are:

• everything is created from fire, and is dissolved into fire
• everything happens according to destiny
• all existing things are harmonized and made to agree together by opposite tendencies
• all things are full of souls and dæmones
• fire is an element
• the changes of fire causes all things exist being engendered sometimes by rarity, some times by density.

He also discussed all the passions.

He contended that the sun was of that precise magnitude of which he appears to be.

One of his sayings too was, that no one, by whatever road he might travel, could ever possibly find out the boundaries of the soul, so deeply hidden are the principles which regulate it.

He used also to call opinion the sacred disease; and to say that eye-sight was often deceived.

Sometimes, in his writings, he expresses himself with great brilliancy and clearness; so that even the most stupid man may easily understand him, and receive an elevation of soul from him. And his conciseness, and the dignity of his style, are incomparable.

But he explains nothing clearly.

He also says that:

• everything is produced by contrariety
• everything flows on like a river
• the universe is finite
• there is one world produced from fire
• the whole world is in its turn again consumed by fire at certain periods
• all this happens according to fate.
• of the contraries, that which leads to production is called war and contest
• that which leads to the conflagration is called harmony and peace
• change is the road leading upward and downward
• the whole world exists according to change
• fire, when densified becomes liquid, and becoming concrete, becomes also water
• the water when concrete is turned to earth, and that this is the road down.
• the earth itself becomes fused, from which water is produced, and from that everything else is produced.

He refers almost everything to the evaporation which takes place from the sea.

• This is the road which leads upwards.
• There are evaporations, both from earth and sea, some of which are bright and clear, and some are dark.

The fire is increased by the dark ones, and the moisture by the others.

But what the space which surrounds us is, he does not explain.

He states, however, that there are vessels in it, turned with their hollow part towards us; in which all the bright evaporations are collected, and form flames, which are the stars.

The brightest and the hottest of these flames is the light of the sun; for that all the other stars are farther off from the earth.

On this account, they give less light and warmth.

The moon is nearer the earth, but does not move through a pure space.

The sun, on the other hand, is situated in a transparent space, and one free from all admixture, preserving a well proportioned distance from us, on which account it gives us more light and more heat.

The sun and moon are eclipsed, when the before-mentioned vessels are turned upwards.

The different phases of the moon take place every month, as its vessel keeps gradually turning round. Moreover, that day and night, and months and years, and rains and winds, and things of that kind, all exist according to, and are caused by, the different evaporations.

The bright evaporation catching fire in the circle of the sun causes day, and the predominance of the opposite one causes night; and again, from the bright one the heat is increased so as to produce summer, and from the dark one[380] the cold gains strength and produces winter; and he also explains the causes of the other phenomena in a corresponding manner.

But with respect to the earth, he does not explain at all of what character it is, nor does he do so in the case of the vessels; and these were his main doctrines.

⁷ what his opinion about Socrates was, and what expressions he used when he met with a treatise of his which Euripides brought him, according to the story told by Ariston, we have detailed in our account of Socrates.

Seleucus, the grammarian, says in Diver that Croton relates that Crates:

• first brought this book into Greece.
• wanted some Delian diver who would not be drowned in it

The book has different titles. Some calling it the Muses, some a treatise on Nature; but Diodotus calls it:

A well compacted helm to lead a man Straight through the path of life.

Some call it a science of morals, the arrangement of the changes[122] of unity and of everything.

⁸ They say that when he was asked why he preserved silence, he said, “That you may talk.”

⁹ Darius wanted very much to enjoy his conversation so he wrote thus to him:

Darius

KING DARIUS, THE SON OF HYSTASPES, ADDRESSES HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS, THE WISE MAN, GREETING HIM.

You have written a book on Natural Philosophy, difficult to understand. It seems to disclose a very important theory concerning the universal world. But commonly, the mind is kept in suspense. Those who have studied your work are not able precisely to disentangle your exact meanings.

I want you to explain them and to teach me in the Greek way. Come to my royal palace. The Greeks, in general, do not accord to wise men the distinction which they deserve, and disregard the admirable expositions delivered by them, which are, however, worthy of being seriously listened to and studied.

But with me you shall have every kind of distinction and honour.

Heraclitus

HERACLITUS, OF EPHESUS, TO KING DARIUS, THE SON OF HYSTASPES, GREETING.

“All men are far removed from truth and just dealings. But they are full of evil foolishness, which leads them to insatiable covetousness and vain-glorious ambition.

I, however, forgetting all their worthlessness, and shunning satiety, and who wish to avoid all envy on the part of my countrymen, and all appearance of arrogance, will never come to Persia, since I am quite contented with a little, and live as best suits my own inclination.”

⁹ This was the way in which the man behaved even to the king.

Demetrius, in his treatise on People of the same Name, says that he also despised the Athenians, among whom he had a very high reputation. And that though he was himself despised by the Ephesians, he nevertheless preferred his own home. Demetrius Phalereus also mentions him in his Defence of Socrates.

¹¹ Many people interpreted his book.

For Antisthenes and Heraclides, Ponticus, and Cleanthes, and Sphærus the Stoic; and besides them Pausanias, who was surnamed Heraclitistes, and Nicomedes, and Dionysius, all did so.

Of the grammarians, Diodotus undertook the same task; and he says that the subject of the book is not natural philosophy, but politics; and that all that is said in it about natural philosophy, is only by way of illustration. And Hieronymus tells us, that a man of the name of Scythinus, an iambic poet, attempted to render the book into verse.

¹² There are many epigrams extant which were written upon him, and this is one of them:

I who lie here am Heraclitus, spare me Ye rude unlettered men: ’Twas not for you That I did labour, but for wiser people. One man may be to me a countless host, And an unnumbered multitude be no one; And this I still say in the shades below.

And there is another expressed thus:— Be not too hasty, skimming o’er the book Of Heraclitus; ’tis a difficult road, For mist is there, and darkness hard to pierce. But if you have a guide who knows his system, Then everything is clearer than the sun.

¹³ There were 4 other people of the name of Heraclitus.

1. A lyric poet, who wrote a panegyrical hymn on the Twelve Gods.
2. An Elegiac poet, of Halicarnassus; on whom Callimachus wrote the following epigram:

I heard, O Heraclitus, of your death, And the news filled my eyes with mournful tears, When I remembered all the happy hours When we with talk beguiled the setting sun. You now are dust; but still the honeyed voice Of your sweet converse doth and will survive; Nor can fell death, which all things else destroys, Lay upon that his ruthless conquering grasp.

3. A Lesbian, who wrote a history of Macedonia.
4. The man who blended jest with earnest; and who, having been a harp-player, abandoned that profession for a serio-comic style of writing.