<The words of Heraclitus,

Bloson's son,
Heracion's (?) grandson (?),
of Ephesus:>
1

<Should there be [?]> knowledge

of gods and of men
of the only arrangement of all <?>

Outlaws would not have stood in need of Justice

if such was not the case.
For the most trustworthy
{of the most famous men}
from false appearances
knows how to avert.
And, mind you, Justice too will seize
builders and witnesses of fallacies.

If this here Sun by nature has

<but> the dimension of a human foot,
he <even then>
shall not transgress
his proper bounds.
If he his width exceeds,
the Erinyes, servants of Justice,
will capture him.

A foolish man
is wont to flutter
about every speech (every logos).
Whose ever speeches have I heard
not one went to the point of recognizing
that Wise is set apart
from any one {and any thing}.

7
8

I heard <the speeches of> Xenophanes.

That the All is a God

separable - inseparable,
begotten - unbegotten,
mortal - immortal
it is right <for people

F 81A

F 23
F 28

F 3-94

F 87

F 108

F 107E
F 50

who listened to his Dogma [his Belief]

to deem it wise>.
For those who listened not to me
but to the Logos [to the Discourse]
it is right to agree
that Wise is to know all as One.
For Wise is <but> one:
establish the knowledge
by which to steer
all things through all.

F 41

!
10

But even though

this here Discourse (this here logos) is extant...
always...
men fail to understand it
both before they hear it
and having heard it once.
For although all occurs
according to this here Discourse,
they look inexpert when they experience
such words and deeds as I explain
dividing <all> according to <its> nature
and telling what's correct.

F 1a

11

Dim-witted minds!
When they do listen,
they are like deaf and dumb.
The idiom witnesses against them:
Present <bodily>, but absent<minded>!

F 34

12

The infidels!... Incapable to listen,

nor <are they capable> to speak.
From that with what continuously they associate,
the Discourse *that pervades the whole world*,
from that they diverge.
And what they meet with every day,
that appears foreign to them.
For the many fail to realize
the things they come across.

F 19

13

14

F 72

F 17

Even when taught they recognize them not

though they believe they do.
15

As to other men
all they do awake evades them
just as all asleep they forget.

16

One should not act and speak

like the sleeping,
nor <yelp> as children of one's parents.
For dogs too bark at those
whom none of them knows.

17

F 1b

F 73-74

F 97

18

Men's opinions are <but> children's playthings

F 70

19

Men are deceived

in the knowledge of the obvious
as Homer was,
the wisest of all Greeks.
Even him did children killing lice
deceive by saying:
What we saw and caught
that we leave behind.
What we neither saw nor caught,
that we carry.

F 56

20

<He also errs when he exclaims:>

F 9A

May strife disappear from among gods and men!

For he prays for the destruction of all.
Harmonia would not have been born
without the female and the male that are opposites.

21
22

<And> just as meat at random (= from miscarriage)

would be the fairest of the begotten (= the world)
<without the going asunder
and> coming together
<of Ares and Aphrodite,
Eris (Strife) and Eros (Love),
Polemos (War) and Dike (Justice)>.

23

<Says not the same Homer Common to all is Enyalios? and repeats
not his imitator Archilochos of Paros Truly, common to mankind
is Ares?>

F 124

F 122

24

25

26

So well in love must be War,

this common one, and Justice.
And all is brought forth
in accordance with Strife
and by her retained under duress.
The confronting gathers.
From different <parents>
the fairest harmony <is born>.
And all is begotten according to Strife.
War is the father of all
and the king of all.
And some he proclaims gods,
some others men,
some he makes slaves,
some others freemen.

F 80

F8

F 53

27

*War and Zeus are the same being*

F 13B

28

<Homer complains as well that>

No human being... escapes his doom,
neither the coward nor the brave, insofar he be born.
<And Archilochos follows suit:>
Worst of all is ever <what occurs> to the dying, says he.

F 105b

29

30

31

32

Il. VI, 488

0
fr. 133 W.

A weird awaits
men at death
they expect not
nor can imagine.
For men to get
the <fates> they wish
is not the best.
Long once born they wish to live
and suffer fatal dooms
or rather rest in peace.
And they leave offsprings
for <other> fatal dooms to come.

F 27

Yet greater dooms

are alotted greater fates.

F 25

F 110

F 20

33
34
35

36

37

Honours enslave both gods and men,

<but> gods and men do honour
those slain by Ares.
Souls slain by Ares
are purer than <souls dead> of diseases;
<...The body is the grave of the soul>
That <soul> which is in the tomb <of the body>
can still rise up
and become vigilant guardian
of the living and the cadaver.
But corpses are to be thrown away
quicker than shit.

F 130
F 24
F 136

F 63

F 96

38

This Homer truly deserves

to be expelled from contests
and whipped.
And Archilochos alike.

F 42

39

The teacher of almost everyone,

Hesiod,
is reputed for knowing almost everything,
he who neither day nor night
did recognize. For they are one.
And some days he made lucky,
others unlucky,
ignoring that of any day
nature is one <and the same>:

F 57

40

F 106

*One day equals any day.*

41

If there were no Sun,

for all the other stars
it would be night.

42

<Despite the fact that> Night

is, <so he said,> the foremost goddess...
... the Sun is the <true> source of heavenly light.

43
44

The limits of morn and of eve are:

the Bear,
and opposite the Bear,
the abundance of the radiant Zeus.

F 99

F 13A
F 70B
F 120

45

(<Whereas> Homer believed that <the same night differed even

F 105a

from itself. He told us that> Hector and Amphidamas were born

on the same night. <but were so different!>)

46

47
48

49

50

Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos,

practiced enquiry {of men}
beyond anybody
and having chosen these
writings he made
his private sageness,
his muchlearnedness,
his wickedcraftiness.
For very much a wisdom lover
must be informed of many things.
He is the ancestor
of sacrificial knives {and knaves}

F 129

Muchlearnedness teaches no intelligence

It would have taught it
both to Hesiod and Pythagoras
and again
both to Xenophanes and Hecataios
For where are their wits and where their senses?
The one is wailing songs of the demos,
The other auspicating as a teacher to the mob,
while ignoring both that
the many are wicked and few are the good.

F 40

F 35
F 81

"
51

In Priena lived Bias, son of Teutames

whose speech is superior
to that of the rest.

F 39

And the Prienians dedicated to him a precinct called Teutameion.

It is he who proclaimed: Most people are wicked.

52

One to me
is ten thousand
if he be best.
And the countless, no one.

F 49

53

For the best choose one thing

out of all: glory for ever.
But most mortals
are glutted like cattle
and measure well-being
with their belly, their cock
and the most shameful in us.

54

May you keep hold of your wealth,

Ephesians,
so that you would be denounced
by your wretchedness!
This people must fight for the law,
for the verily lawful,
as for the walls of the city.
Law is also to obey
the will of one.
The Ephesians deserve
to hang themselves all
and leave the city
to boys immature,
for they banished Hermodoros,
the most valuable among them,
saying:
Let no one among us be most valuable!
If there is one, let him be abroad
and among others.

55

56
57

58

59
60
61
62

Hard it is to fight against anger:

whatever it wishes
it buys at the expense of our soul.
Fighting against pleasure is even harder
than against anger.
Conceit is a "sacred disease" (an epilepsy).
Impudence must be quenched
faster than conflagration.
Better hide one's ignorance
(hiding one's ignorance is safer
than making a show of it)
but it is not easy when relaxing and vinous.

F 29

F 125A

F 44

F 33
F 121

F 85

F 7A
F 46a
F 43
F 95-109

63
64
65

66

His ethos (his self) is man's daemon (man's genius)

An adult looks like a babe in front of a daemon
just like a child in front of an adult.
For the human ethos has no knowledge
while the godly one has.

F 119
F 79

Let us not conjecture at random

on those subjects most sublime!

F 49

F 78

#
67

68

69

70
71

72

73

The lord
whose is the oracle that is in Delphi
neither speaks, nor conceils,
but implies.
But the Sibyl
with her raving mouth
who utters words mirthless
unanointed unadorned,
reaches out with her voice
over a thousand years
thanks to her god.

F 93

Yet good disbelief

hides the depths of <her?> knowledge,
they escape us not to be known.
Nature likes hiding.
Non obvious harmony
is better than the obvious.

F 86

<He who seeks knowledge must expect>

If he expects not
the unexpected
he shall not find
the unfindable
that is unattainable and out of reach.
Seekers of gold
dig up much earth
and find but little.

F 92

F 123
F 54

F 18

F 22

74
75

I sought myself.
Not as a human,
thanks to divine help,
more so than the Sibyl
I reached clarity.

76

Whatever lends itself to seeing

hearing learning
this I prefer.
<Eyes and ears are witnesses of truth>.
Eyes are more accurate witnesses
than ears.
<But> if everything turned into smoke,
something would nostrils recognize.

77
78

79

80

81

F 101
F 16A

F 55

0
F 101A
F7

<Yet beware of people>

citing untrustworthy witnesses
in support of controversial facts.
<For> bad witnesses to men
are the eyes and ears of those
whose souls are barbarian.

F 101B

<For the judges to men are their souls.

cf. D 14

Still even souls when damp are deceitful judges>

82
83

For it is death to souls to become water.

<But it is> delight to souls,
not death,
to become moist.

84

An adult when drunk

is led by an immature boy
and stumbles, not knowing
whither he walks
for his soul is moist.

F 107

F 117
F 36 Hipp.

F 77a

F 117

85
86

...because of the vapours from wine; moisture blunts sight and hearing.
He forgot where the path leads.

cf. D 121

87

Man according to nature has no rational thinking, his understanding is outside of the
body. Only the Ambient (that which encompasses us) has the power of thinking and
reasoning.

D 146, cf.
D 148

88

The soul is diffused in the whole body and is itself everywhere... Through the senses it D 117

streams out, rather dispersed than compact.

89

...The Discourse with whom the soul communicates through the apertures of the
senses, is the judge (criterion) of truth.

cf. D 148

90

Not any discourse, but the common and divine... The Ambient encompassing us has
the power of reasoning and thinking. We become conscious when we breathe in this
divine Discourse... When we are asleep we forget it, but waking up we are conscious
again. During our sleep, since the apertures of the senses are closed, the mind which
is in us is separated from the Ambient with which it coalesced, there remains only the
link through breathing like a root. And it loses the mnemonic power it used to have
earlier.

D 148,
F 107Aa

91

Sleepers too are workers

F 75

and collaborators

of things going on in the world.

92

<But all this escapes to the sleepers since their eyes and ears are closed. Only their
D 149
mind keeps vigil.> Yet their rational power, thanks to this inseparable link through
breath [-e-], freed from the impressions of the resting senses, is able in sleep to perceive
the future <which is known to the Discourse of the world>.

<By night the fire of the Ambient withdraws from us>

95-96

And in the way in which embers, brought close to the fire, blaze up because of this
change, but go out when withdrawn...

Brought close to fire

embers blaze up,
taken away, they go out.

0
D 148

F 107Ab

... similarly the part of the Ambient which is hosted by our bodies, becomes almost
totally irrational <even if we are awake> when it is withdrawn from the Ambient
and on the contrary becomes almost identical to the Whole when it coalesces with it
through its numerous apertures.

97

When we communicate with the Discourse's memory

we know the truth.
When we isolate ourselves from it,
we are mistaken.

98

Man in nighttime
kindles himself a light
from his own self.
He is dead: eyes extinguished, though alive,
he touches the dead.
He's asleep: eyes extinguished, <though> awake,
he touches the sleeping.
<For by night>
death is whatever we see when awake
and whatever asleep, slumber.

99

93

<Yet> the soul <of the sleepers> is like a spider in the middle of its web:
when an organ is touched, it hastens there <and wakes them up>.

F 107B

F 26

F 21

F 67A

94

And during vigilance, when it leans again through the apertures of the senses as if
through windows and restores its link with the Ambient, the mind recovers its
rational power. This common and divine Discourse, through our communion
with which we become reasonable, is the criterion of truth.

D 148

100

For the awaken

there is but one joint cosmos,
while of the sleeping
each one turns aside
into one of his own.

F 89

101

So one must follow

the joint Discourse,
for the joint is the common.
Yet, though common it is, this Discourse,
the many live just as if
they possessed their own
private understanding.
Understanding is common to all.
It pertains to all men
to know themselves and to think soundly.
Sound thinking is the greatest virtue and
wisdom (is) to say things true and act
according to nature, listening to it.

F2

102
103
104

105

Whoever speaks with sense (xyn noi)

must rely firmly on the common (xyni)
like the city on the law.
And the city, even more.
For all human laws
are nurtured by the One divine,
for it rules as much as it wishes,
suffices for all
and never runs out.

F 113
F 116
F 112

F 114

$
106

The One
to be called Wise only wants not
and wants the name of Zeus Alive. //
The One, The Wise
wants not and wants

F 32

to be only called by the name of Zeus Alive. //

The Wise wants not
to be called only One
and the name of Zeus Alive wants it
107

This God: daytime nighttime

winter summer, war peace,
abundance famine.
And it changes {yet remains one}
like <fire which>,
mingled with scents,
is named after the pleasure of each.

F 67

108

To this God all is beautiful,

and fair, and just.
But men hold this for unjust
and that for just.
The diverging ever converges.
<The many> fathom not
how One diverging from itself
{with itself} concords:
a retroactive harmony
as of the bow and of the lyre.
It conjoined the crooked and not crooked
{the whole and the not whole}
the consonant and dissonant.
And <made> one out of all,
and out of one all.

F 102

Same to the One are

the living and the dead,
and <same> the awoken and the sleeping
and the young and the old.
For these, when upside down, are those
and those, when upside down again,
the former.
For when we live
our souls die
*and are buried in us*,
and when we die,
they revive and live.

F 88

109
110

111

112

113

F 83B
F 51

F 10

F 107D

114
115
116

117

We live of their death,

but we die of their life.
They live of our death
<and they die of our life>.
Immortal{s are} mortal{s}
mortal{s are} immortal{s},
living of each other's death,
of each other's life deceasing.
The name of the bow indeed is "life",
but its deed, death.
<Same to the One are
the awoken and the sleeping>
..................................................
<Same to the One are
the young and the old>
..................................................

F 80C
F 77
F 62

0, cf. F 88

0, cf. F 88

118

On his thirtieth year a man may become grandfather, for he reaches puberty around
the age of twice seven years and can emit his seed. And he whom he has sowed,
born in less than a year, may beget fifteen years later another offspring like him.

F 80B

119

Thirty years is the time <span> of a genea or wheel (cycle) of ages during
which the begetter begets an offspring from his own offspring and human nature
returns from insemination to insemination.

F 80B

120

121
122

123

124

For beginning and end coincide

on the rim of a wheel.
Same <to the One> are the good and the evil, <the pleasant and the painful>

Disease makes health

pleasant and good,
hunger abundance,
weariness rest.
At any rate physicians
who cut and burn in any way
do not complain not to receive a worthy fee
for bringing one
the same good things
as the disease.
<To men the remedy against misfortune
is gold.>
But hay would donkeys choose
rather than gold.

F 103

F 5A
F 111

F 58

125
126

127
128
129

130
131
132

133

134

135

136

If prosperity were in contentment,

we would deem prosperous cows
finding bitter vetch <to eat>.
<Since for them> the goal of life is satisfaction.

<Same to the One are

weariness and rest, immobility and motion>
What changes rests.
Rest is in motion.
Sore fatigue it is to toil at the same <tasks>
and be satisfied <with them>
..................................................
All gives way, nothing abides.
..................................................
Counterrun.
..................................................
It is not possible to enter twice
in the same river,
nor to touch twice
one's mortal nature.
For it scatters and gathers again,
assembles and flows,
it comes and it goes...
Into rivers the same
we both step and step not
<and inside rivers the same>
we both are and are not.
For names remain while waters flow.
Rest and immobility
is the property of corpses.
<But even corpses change and decompose:>
The mixture cyceon
disintegrates
even when mixed.
<Same to the One are>
light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance,
large and small

..................................................

F4
F 19A
0
F 84a
F 84A
F 84b

F 81B
F 3Aa
F 91a Plut.

F 91b

F 49A

F 3B

F 125

0
cf. D 163,
D 164

137

<Same to the One are>

the black and the white (?)
the high tone and the low (?), the male and the female (?)

138

139

..................................................
<Same to the One are
the ugly and the fair, the pure and the impure,
the sweet and the bitter>
The fairest of monkeys
is ugly before man...
<but> the wisest of men
shall look like an ape before God.
Honey: both sweet and bitter

0
cf. D 165,
D 171

F 82-83

F 107C

sweet to the healthy, bitter to those ill of jaundice.

140

141

The sea,
water purest and foulest:
to fish drinkable and salubrious,
to men undrinkable and deleterious.
Hogs are fond of washing in mud,
fowls in dust or cinder

F 61

F 37

rather than in pure water.

%
142

<But> a delightful man

must not delight in mud...
<...like> nightwanderers:
magi (-ghee), bacchi(-ee), lenae(-ay), mysts...
*Fire <will chastise them.>*
For quite impiously
they initiate themselves
into the secret rituals
*current among men*.

F 13

146

Pure sacrifices

F 69

147

even from one man

are rare.
They vainly purify themselves
with blood defiled,
as though someone,

F5

143
144
145

F 14
F 14
F 14

having stepped into clay

were to wash it with clay.
He would be deemed insane
if of men anyone
noticed him doing so.
And they pray to these statues
as though someone
were to talk to their homes,
not knowing the gods and the heroes
who are {who they are}.
148

149

150

They pray to the statues of divinities

that hear not
so as to make them hear,
they make offerings (?) to them
that grant nothing
as <though> they had not asked.
*If they are gods,
why mourn you them?
And if you mourn them,
consider them not to be gods.*

F 128

<They resort to shameful> remedies:

F 68

F 127

phallic rites and obscene language.

151

If it was truly for Dionysos' sake

they introduced procession
and chanted hymns to shameful parts,
shameless indeed the deed performed!
Same {shame} are Hades and Dionysos
for whom they rave and lenaeize.

F 15

152

From <Fire> that never sets

how could anyone escape?
For any crawling creature
is driven by Its blows

F 16

153

F 11

&
154

This here cosmos (beautiful arrangement),

the same for all
none of the gods and none of the humans

F 30

created,
but always was, and is, and shall be
an everliving Fire
in measures kindling and in measures
going out.
155

And all is exchanged for Fire

and Fire for all
just as coins for gold
and gold for coins.

F 90

156

<And as coins> consist of

F 5C

157

smelted gold dust...

<...so> all things are born from Fire
and into Fire all pass away.

158
160
159

161

*This Fire is intelligent.*

At some time Fire turns into all.

Turnings of Fire:
first Sea,
and of Sea:
half is Earth,
half Prstr (Aether)
<and half of Earth is sweet Water,
half of Prstr is Air.>
<This is> shortage <of Fire.>

F 107F
F 63A

F 5B
F 31a

cf. F 64-65

Earth thaws as Sea

and is measured
into the same ratio
as was <from Fire>
before Earth came to be.
<And Air heats up into Prstr
that thickens into Sea
and is measured
into the same ratio
as was from Fire
before Prstr came to be.
And Sea sublimates into Fire.>

F 31b

164

And at some time all turns into Fire.

F 5B

165
166

<This is> abundance <of Fire.>

When it comes down upon them

162

163

cf. F 64-65

F 66

Fire shall judge and seize all things.

167

168

Thunderbolt is the helmsman of all this:

it is he who calls forth
shortage and abundance (of Fire).
<He is assisted by>
War and Strife

F 64-65
F 123Bab

who rule the coming to be of the (cosmic) arrangement (diacosmesis)

and Agreement and Peace

who are in charge of the conflagration (ekpyrosis).

..................................................
169

There is a definite order and time in the transformation of the cosmos according
to allotted necessity (fate) and certain cycles during the whole of eternity.

D 35-D 37

<for instance between two conflagrations, the cycle of...>

170
171

the Great Year lasting ten thousand eight hundred solar years.

F 3Da

<Yet>, the time spans of the transformations are not equal: the one called abundance is longer, that of the shortage, more brief... Three to nine, such is the ratio
of the length of the diacosmesis as compared to that of the ekpyrosis.

Plut. M.
389 BC

..................................................
172
173

All this is ruled by Fate which is a necessity.

For it (necessity) is totally* allotted

D 40

F 137

(*or fixed for the All?).

174

The Lot is the rational Discourse originating from counterrace, the craftsman of what
exists; the essence of the Lot is the Discourse disseminated through the substance
of the All; it is the etherian body, the semen of the generation of All and the measure
of the prescribed cycle.

D 42, D 43

'
<The elements of All Earth, Water, etc. are constantly revolving and mutually
swopping along the same path up and down, straight or crooked.>

175

Death of Fire birth of Air

and death of Air birth of Water
<and death of Water birth of Earth>:

176

the Path down.

177

Death of Earth Water is born,

and death of Water Air is born,
and death of Air Fire <is born>.

178

the Path up.

179

The Path up down

is one and the same:
<the Straight path.>

cf. T 331,
D 48

F 76b
cf. F 123Bc

F 76c
cf. F 123Bc

F 60
cf. F 59

0179

180

[see Philo, T 331]

<Conversely>, first, the most heavy parts of the Fire... become Earth. Then,
softening,... Earth becomes Water and, evaporating, becomes Air. And from Air
comes Fire:

<the Crooked path>

181

Fire lives of the death of Earth

and Air lives of the death of Fire,
Water lives of the death of Air
and of the death of Water lives Earth:
<The Crooked path again, the other way round.>

182

Of the elements the Straight path

and the Crooked
are one and the same path.

183

The cold heats,

the hot cools,
the damp dries,
the withered gets wet.

D 54, D 55

cf. F 59
F 76a

cf. F 59
F 59

F 126

184
185

Almost all the changes are produced by the exhalation from the sea.

D 61

There are exhalations from earth and from the sea,

the ones bright and
<either> pure <(those from the sea and the dry parts of earth)
or turbid (those from the watery parts of earth)>,
the others dark.

D 63
w. comm.

186

Fire is increased by the bright exhalations, dampness by the dark ones.

D 64
w. comm.

(
187

Thales, <the son of Examyos>,

F 38

*the first man to practise astronomy* <said:>

188
189
190

All is full of souls

Indeed, souls <also> travel along the Path Up Down <of elementary changes>

191

Soul is similar to Fire or to Air.

Death to souls to become Water

and death to Water to become Earth
and from Earth is Water born,
and from Water Soul.
0191

192
193

cf. F 44A
D 113

F 36 Clem.

D 92, D 99

[see Eus. PE XV, 20, 4 = Ar. Did. fr. 39]

The World soul of the cosmos is an exhalation from its damp parts.

D 105

The soul which dwells in the living beings consists of the external exhalation and
of the inner exhalation and it is homogeneous <with the World soul>.

D 107,
D 108

0193

194

[see Tertull. De an. 25?]

<Individual souls> when they leave the body return to the Soul of the whole with
which they are homogeneous and consubstantial.

0194

D 109

[see Galian, In Epid. 6]

195

...but the pure <souls> refuse to be born... Because here too sexual desire wets and
moistens <the soul>.

D 115

196
197

...Slumber and death is the descent of the soul into the body.

D 114

...we <must> be content with the lightest and purest food... to make our soul pure
and dry.

D 118

198

Thus (the soul) remains contemplative and is not moistened by the vapours
from wine.

D 121

199
200

(Soul) recalls the native country it descended from.

D 112

But mixed up with the body and saturated by it, heavy and vaporous like a (damp?)
exhalation, (the soul) hardly manages to kindle and to rise, becoming heavy and
humid, it recedes in the depths of the earth.

D 125,
D 126

201

The uneducated soul perishes immediately after leaving the body, the educated one,
case hardened by virtues, survives up to the conflagration of the whole cosmos.

D 123

202
203

(The soul) leaps out of the body like a lightning out of the clouds.

F 85A

(The pure, most incorporeal and just soul) will leap into the hights of the Sky toward
its native country.

D 128

204

<Perhaps it will partake of the destiny> *of the Golden <age> generation among the
gods in heaven on the sphere of the fixed stars*.

D 130

205

*The best souls pass from <the rank of> men to <that> of heroes, and from heroes to
<that> of daimones.*

D 131

0205a
0205b

206
207
208
209

210
211

212

[see Sextus AM IX 71-73]

[see Plut. T 508]

In Hades (when dead) souls

sustain themselves with fumes

F 98

Souls sustaining themselves with exhalations resemble rivers and permanently recover D 98, D 147
their conscience (awareness).

Into the same river

you will not enter twice.
And when going to the limits of soul
you shall not find them,
so deep is its logos (Discourse).
<For> to souls belongs a logos
which increases its own self.
When into the selfsame rivers they enter
new and new waters flow by.
And the souls <that are wise>
away from the damp
sustain themselves upward.
The dryness... of the soul is the cause of its conscience: the heavenly bodies, which
are simultaneously bright and dry, possess a supreme conscience.

F 91a
F 45

F 115

D 120

213

A beam of light: a dry soul

the wisest and the best.
The <wisest of> soul<s>: a sparkle
of stellar nature.

214

F 118

I
215
216
217
218

The sky is fiery.

D 65

The sky is like an oven's lid.

D 66

Thales <said also>:

cf. F 39

219

<These> heavenly bodies are masses of felted Fire in the Ambient, <between sky

All is full of gods

<that is of> heavenly bodies <that> are immortal gods.

cf. F 44A,
D 71
D 68, D 67

and earth>, <they are like>

undercurved (concave) bowls,

F 123C, F 3C

220

...turning toward us their hollow, where bright <and pure> exhalations gather and
emit flames.

D 67

221
222

The heavenly bodies feed themseves with the exhalation rising up from earth.

D 69

The most shining and hot flame is that of the sun. For the other heavenly bodies,
those more distant from earth, shine and heat less, while the moon, which is closer to
Earth, passes through an impure space. The sun, however, moves through a
transparent and unmixed space, is at a balanced distance from us, and therefore emits
more heat and light.

D 70

223

The sun feeds with the exhalation from the sea..., the moon with that from
spring and river waters... ...And this is why the sun is a rational torch from the
sea, and the moon, <a torch> from river waters...

D 72, D 73,
D 75

224
225

The sun and the moon are like bowls, undercurved, they shine for our vision.

D 72D 75

The moon is like a bowl, its flame consists only of fire, <its bowl> is earth wrapped
up with mist.

D 77D 79

226

The sun and the moon are eclipsed because of the turning (and the moon because of
the inclinations) of their bowllike <vessels>, so that their hollow looks upward and
their bulge downward with respect to our sight.

D 80

227

The monthly eclipses of the moon (= new moons) occur exactly like those of the sun
because its bowllike chariot turns upside down. And the monthly phases of the moon
are due to the slow rotation of its bowl around itself.

D 81

228

Day and night, months, seasons and years, rains and winds, and similar phaenomena
<occur> according to the different exhalations.

D 84

229

When the bright exhalation lights up in the hollow of the sun it produces day, when
the opposite exhalation gets the upper hand, it produces night.

D 85

<This is why>

230
231
232

Sun is new every day.

Sun goes out and lights up again.
<For it> goes out every day at sunset in the western sea because of the cold
there, *then passes below the earth* and <an)ther sun> lights up again at sunrise
<in the eastern sea> because of the heat there. And this goes on continuously.

F6
F 83A
F 4A, F 83A

233

<And every day too>

F 123A

The <other> heavenly bodies light up and go out.

..................................................
234

235

When months meet

<the crescent (of the moon)> disappears for three days:
the eve, the new moon, and the second.
<But> sometimes in fewer days
it changes shape,
sometimes in more.
..................................................
Having become invisible for an uneven time
the crescent once again displays itself
before the <solar> rays...
..................................................
The crescent that appears on the third <day>
becomes full moon on the sixteenth,
when fourteen days have passed.
It catches up the time forlorn
when thirteen days elapse.
..................................................
The heat which is increased by the bright exhalation produces summer while
dampness which grows because of the dark exhalation produces winter.

F 80A

D 86

..................................................
236

237

238

The Sun is controller of periods

to limit the changes and seasons
that bring us everything.
..................................................
Counterversion (solstice?).
..................................................
According to the ratio (the logos) of cycles
<time> (?) is clustered in hebdomads
according to the <seven phases of> the Moon,
but is divided <into seasons>
according to the 7 <stars> of the Bear,
immortal signs of Remembrance.
..................................................

F 100

F 3A

F 126A

239

240

241

242

The shaft of the Chariot

F 122A
(the Plough constellation)...
..................................................
Time is the last and first of all things,
F 105A
it holds <them> all in itself (en heauti) and always is.
The bygone year (eniautos) does not desert
the present one
but comes back to itself (en heauti) by the opposite path.
Indeed, the tomorrow of the day-before-yesterday
was yesterday
and the yesterday of the day-after-tomorrow
will be tomorrow.
The Aeon (the ever existing) is a playful child
playing pessoi.
It is a child's kingdom.
..................................................
And other phaenomena can be explained in the same fashion.

D 87

..................................................
243

[see Arist. D 88]

..................................................
244

Make draught out of downpour [por]...

..................................................

F 88A

245

Thunder is due to the accumulation of winds and clouds and to gushes of winds
breaking through the clouds.

F 3E

246
247
248

Lightnings are due to igniting exhalations.

F 3E

Fulgurations are due to clouds flaming up and going out.

F 3E

Fulguration ressembles the attemps of our fires on earth to light up and their first
uncertain flame which

F 106A

now goes out and now resurges.

..................................................
THE REST IS LOST