Heraclitus

For other people named Heracleitus, see Heracleitus The main source for the life of Heraclitus is Diogenes
(disambiguation).
Lartius, although some have questioned the validity of
his account as "a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of
[1]
Heraclitus of Ephesus (/hrklats/; Greek: - them obviously fabricated[6]on the basis of statements in
the preserved fragments. Diogenes said that Heracli , Hrkleitos ho Ephsios; c. 535
[7]
c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a tus ourished in the 69th Olympiad, 504501 BCE. All
native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of the rest of the evidence the people Heraclitus is said
Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is to have known, or the people who were familiar with his
known about his early life and education, but he regarded work conrms the oruit. His dates of birth and death
of 60 years, the age at which Diohimself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From are based on a life span
[8]
genes
says
he
died,
with
the oruit in the middle.
the lonely life he led, and still more from the apparently
riddled[2] and allegedly paradoxical[3] nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the needless unconsciousness
of humankind,[4] he was called The Obscure and the
Weeping Philosopher.

Heraclitus was born to an aristocratic family in Ephesus,

Anatolia, in what is now called present-day Efes, Turkey.
His father was named either Blosn or Herakn.[7] Diogenes says that he abdicated the kingship (basileia) in favor of his brother[2] and Strabo conrms that there was
a ruling family in Ephesus descended from the Ionian
founder, Androclus, which still kept the title and could
sit in the chief seat at the games, as well as a few other
privileges.[9] How much power the king had is another
question. Ephesus had been part of the Persian Empire
since 547 and was ruled by a satrap, a more distant gure, as the Great King allowed the Ionians considerable
autonomy. Diogenes says that Heraclitus used to play
knucklebones with the youths in the temple of Artemis
and when asked to start making laws he refused saying
that the constitution (politeia) was ponra,[10] which can
mean either that it was fundamentally wrong or that he
considered it toilsome. Two extant letters between Heraclitus and Darius I, quoted by Diogenes, are undoubtedly
later forgeries.[11]

Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present

change as being the fundamental essence of the universe,
as stated in the famous saying, No man ever steps in the
same river twice[5] (see panta rhei, below). This position
was complemented by his stark commitment to a unity
of opposites in the world, stating that the path up and
down are one and the same. Through these doctrines
Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of
contrary properties, whereby no entity may ever occupy a
single state at a single time. This, along with his cryptic
utterance that all entities come to be in accordance with
this Logos" (literally, word, reason, or account) has
been the subject of numerous interpretations.

Life

With regard to education, Diogenes says that Heraclitus

was wondrous (thaumasios, which, as Plato explains in
the Theaetetus and elsewhere, is the beginning of philosophy) from childhood. Diogenes relates that Sotion said
he was a hearer of Xenophanes, which contradicts Heraclitus statement (so says Diogenes) that he had taught
himself by questioning himself. Burnet states in any
case that "... Xenophanes left Ionia before Herakleitos
was born.[12] Diogenes relates that as a boy Heraclitus
had said he knew nothing but later claimed to know
everything.[13] His statement that he heard no one but
questioned himself, can be placed alongside his statement that the things that can be seen, heard and learned
are what I prize the most.[14]
Diogenes relates that Heraclitus had a poor opinion of
human aairs.[7] He believed that Hesiod and Pythagoras
lacked understanding though learned[15] and that Homer
and Archilochus deserved to be beaten.[16] Laws needed

Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor, birthplace of Heraclitus

3 ANCIENT CHARACTERIZATIONS

to be defended as though they were city walls.[17] Timon is

said to have called him a mob-reviler. Heraclitus hated
the Athenians and his fellow Ephesians, wishing the latter wealth in punishment for their wicked ways.[18] Says
Diogenes: Finally, he became a hater of his kind (misanthrope) and wandered the mountains ... making his diet
of grass and herbs.

of his work [are] half-nished, while other parts [made]

a strange medley.[2]
Diogenes also tells us that Heraclitus deposited his book
as a dedication in the great temple of Artemis, the
Artemisium, one of the largest temples of the 6th century BCE and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World. Ancient temples were regularly used for storing treasures, and were open to private individuals under exceptional circumstances; furthermore, many subsequent philosophers in this period refer to the work. Says
Kahn:[6] Down to the time of Plutarch and Clement, if
not later, the little book of Heraclitus was available in its
original form to any reader who chose to seek it out. Diogenes says:[2] the book acquired such fame that it produced partisans of his philosophy who were called Heracliteans.

Heraclitus life as a philosopher was interrupted by

dropsy. The physicians he consulted were unable to prescribe a cure. Diogenes lists various stories about Heraclitus death: In two versions, Heraclitus was cured of
the dropsy and died of another disease. In one account,
however, the philosopher buried himself in a cowshed,
expecting that the noxious damp humour would be drawn
out of him by the warmth of the manure, while another
says he treated himself with a liniment of cow manure
and, after a day prone in the sun, died and was interred in As with other pre-Socratics, his writings survive now only
the marketplace. According to Neathes of Cyzicus, after in fragments quoted by other authors.
smearing himself with dung, Heraclitus was devoured by
dogs.[19][20]

3 Ancient characterizations
2

Works

3.1 The Obscure

At some time in antiquity he acquired this epithet denoting that his major sayings were dicult to understand. According to Diogenes Lartius,[2] Timon of
Phlius called him the riddler ( ainikts), and
explained that Heraclitus wrote his book rather unclearly (asaphesteron) so that only the capable should
attempt it. By the time of Cicero he had become the
dark ( ho Skoteins)[21] because he had
spoken nimis obscur, too obscurely, concerning nature
and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood. The customary English translation of
follows the Latin, the Obscure.

3.2 The weeping philosopher

Heraclitus (with the face and in the style of Michelangelo) sits

apart from the other philosophers in Raphael's School of Athens.

Diogenes Lartius ascribes the theory that Heraclitus did

not complete some of his works because of melancholia
to Theophrastus.[2] Later he was referred to as the weeping philosopher, as opposed to Democritus, who is
known as the laughing philosopher.[22] If Stobaeus[23]
writes correctly, Sotion in the early 1st century CE was
already combining the two in the imaginative duo of
weeping and laughing philosophers: Among the wise,
instead of anger, Heraclitus was overtaken by tears,
Democritus by laughter. The view is expressed by the
satirist Juvenal:[24]

Main article: On Nature (Heraclitus)

Diogenes states that Heraclitus work was a continuous
treatise On Nature, but was divided into three discourses,
one on the universe, another on politics, and a third on
theology. Theophrastus says (in Diogenes) "...some parts

The rst of prayers, best known at all the

temples, is mostly for riches... Seeing this then
do you not commend the one sage Democritus for laughing... and the master of the other
school Heraclitus for his tears?

4.2

Panta rhei, everything ows

3
as I set out, distinguishing each in accordance
with its nature and saying how it is. But other
people fail to notice what they do when awake,
just as they forget what they do while asleep.
(DK 22B1)
For this reason it is necessary to follow
what is common. But although the Logos is
common, most people live as if they had their
own private understanding. (DK 22B2)
The meaning of Logos also is subject to interpretation:
word, account, principle, plan, formula, measure, proportion, reckoning.[30] Though Heraclitus
quite deliberately plays on the various meanings of logos",[31] there is no compelling reason to suppose that he
used it in a special technical sense, signicantly dierent
from the way it was used in ordinary Greek of his time.[32]
The later Stoics understood it as the account which
governs everything,[33] and Hippolytus, in the 3rd century CE, identied it as meaning the Christian Word of
God.[34]

Bust of Heraclitus, 'The Weeping Philosopher' by Johann

Christoph Ludwig Lcke ca. 1757.

4.2

Panta rhei, everything ows

The motif was also adopted by Lucian of Samosata

in his Sale of Creeds, in which the duo is sold together as a complementary product in the satirical auction of philosophers. Subsequently they were considered an indispensable feature of philosophic landscapes. Montaigne proposed two archetypical views of
human aairs based on them, selecting Democritus for
himself.[25] The weeping philosopher may have been
mentioned in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of
Venice.[26] Donato Bramante painted a fresco, Democritus and Heraclitus, in Casa Panigarola in Milan.[27]

4
4.1

Philosophy
Logos

Main article: Logos

The idea that all things come to pass in accordance
with this Logos"[28] and the Logos is common,[29] is ex- Heraclitus by Hendrick ter Brugghen
pressed in two famous but obscure fragments:
The phrase (panta rhei) everything ows[35]
This Logos holds always but humans always
either was spoken by Heraclitus or survived as a quotation
prove unable to understand it, both before hearof his. This famous aphorism used to characterize Heraing it and when they have rst heard it. For
clitus thought comes from Simplicius,[36] a neoplatonist,
and from Platos Cratylus. The word rhei (cf. rheology)
though all things come to be in accordance with
is the Greek word for to stream, and is etymologically
this Logos, humans are like the inexperienced
related to Rhea according to Platos Cratylus.[37]
when they experience such words and deeds

PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy of Heraclitus is summed up in his cryptic series of transformations: the , turnings
utterance:[38]
of re,[46] rst into sea, then half of sea to earth and half
to rareed air.
,
The transformation is a replacement of one element by
.
another: The death of re is the birth of air, and the
Potamoisi toisin autoisin embainousin, hetera
death of air is the birth of water.[47]
kai hetera hudata epirrei
Ever-newer waters ow on those who step into
This world, which is the same for all, no
the same rivers.
one of gods or men has made. But it always was
and will be: an ever-living re, with measures
The quote from Heraclitus appears in Plato's Cratylus
[39]
of it kindling, and measures going out.[48]
twice; in 401d as:

Ta onta ienai te panta kai menein ouden
All entities move and nothing remains still

This latter phraseology is further elucidated:

All things are an interchange for re, and
re for all things, just like goods for gold and
gold for goods.[49]

and in 402a[40]
" " "
"
Panta chrei kai ouden menei kai dis es ton auton potamon ouk an embaies
Everything changes and nothing remains still
... and ... you cannot step twice into the same
stream[41]

Heraclitus considered re as the most fundamental element. He believed re gave rise to the other elements and
thus to all things. He regarded the soul as being a mixture of re and water, with re being the noble part of
the soul, and water the ignoble part. A soul should therefore aim toward becoming more full of re and less full
of water: a dry soul was best. According to Heraclitus,
Instead of ow Plato uses chrei, to change place worldly pleasures made the soul moist, and he considered mastering ones worldly desires to be a noble pursuit
(chros).
which puried the souls re.[50] Norman Melchert interThe assertions of ow are coupled in many fragments preted Heraclitus as using re metaphorically, in lieu of
with the enigmatic river image:[42]
Logos, as the origin of all things.[51]

, .
We both step and do not step in the same
rivers. We are and are not.
Compare with the Latin adages Omnia mutantur and
Tempora mutantur (8 CE) and the Japanese tale Hjki,
(1200 CE) which contains the same image of the
changing river, and the central Buddhist doctrine of
impermanence.

4.4

Dike eris, strife is justice

If objects are new from moment to moment so that one

can never touch the same object twice, then each object
must dissolve and be generated continually momentarily
and an object is a harmony between a building up and a
tearing down. Heraclitus calls the oppositional processes
eris, strife, and hypothesizes that the apparently
stable state, dik, or justice, is a harmony of it:[52]

However, the German classicist and philosopher KarlMartin Dietz interprets this fragment as an indication by
We must know that war ( polemos)
Heraclitus, for the world as a steady constant: You will
is common to all and strife is justice, and that
not nd anything, in which the river remains constant. ...
all things come into being through strife necesJust the fact, that there is a particular river bed, that there
sarily.
is a source and a estuary etc. is something, that stays identical. And this is ... the concept of a river[43]
As Diogenes explains:[53]

4.3

Hodos ano kato, the way up and the

way down

All things come into being by conict of

opposites, and the sum of things ( ta
hola, the whole) ows like a stream.

In [44] the structure an kat is more accurately translated as a hyphenated word: the upward- In the bow metaphor Heraclitus compares the resultant to
downward path. They go on simultaneously and instan- a strung bow held in shape by an equilibrium of the string
taneously and result in hidden harmony.[45] A way is a tension and spring action of the bow:[54]

5
There is a harmony in the bending back
( palintropos) as in the case of the
bow and the lyre.

4.5

Hepesthai to koino, follow the common

People must follow the common (

hepesthai t koin)[55] and not live having their own
judgement (phronsis)". He distinguishes between human laws and divine law ( tou theiou of Crying Heraclitus and laughing Democritus, from a 1477 Italian
God).[56] By God Heraclitus does not mean the Judeo- fresco, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
Christian version of a single God as primum mobile of all
things, God as Creator, but the divine as opposed the hu5 Inuence
man, the immortal (which we tend to confuse with the
eternal) as opposed to the mortal, the cyclical as opposed to the transient. It is more accurate to speak of 5.1 Plato
the god and not of God.
He removes the human sense of justice from his concept In Heraclitus a perceived object is a harmony between
of God; i.e., humanity is not the image of God: To God two fundamental units of change, a waxing and a wanall things are fair and good and just, but people hold some ing. He typically uses the ordinary word to become
things wrong and some right.[57] Gods custom has wis- (gignesthai or ginesthai, present tense or aorist tense of
dom but human custom does not,[58] and yet both humans the verb, with the root sense of being born), which led
and God are childish (inexperienced): human opinions to his being characterized as the philosopher of becomare childrens toys[59] and Eternity is a child moving ing rather than of being. He recognizes the fundamental
changing of objects with the ow of time.
counters in a game; the kingly power is a childs.[60]
[65]
Wisdom is to know the thought by which all things are Plato argues against Heraclitus as follows:
steered through all things,[61] which must not imply that
people are or can be wise. Only Zeus is wise.[62] To
How can that be a real thing which is never
some degree then Heraclitus seems to be in the mystics
in the same state? ... for at the moment that the
position of urging people to follow Gods plan without
observer approaches, then they become other
much of an idea what that may be. In fact there is a
... so that you cannot get any further in knowing
note of despair: The fairest universe ( their nature or state .... but if that which knows
kallistos kosmos) is but a heap of rubbish (
and that which is known exist ever ... then I do
sarma, sweepings) piled up ( kechumenon, i.e.
not think they can resemble a process or ux
poured out) at random ( eik, aimlessly).[63]
....

4.6

Ethos anthropoi daimon, character is

fate

This inuential quote by Heraclitus "

" (DK 22B119) has led to numerous interpretations. Whether in this context, daimon can indeed be
translated to mean fate is disputed, however, it lends
much sense to Heraclitus observations and conclusions
about human nature in general. While the translation with
fate is generally accepted as in Kahns a mans character is his divinity, in some cases, it may also stand for
the soul of the departed.[64]

In Plato one experienced unit is a state, or object existing, which can be observed. The time parameter is set at
ever"; that is, the state is to be presumed present between
observations. Change is to be deduced by comparing observations and is thus presumed a function that happens to
objects already in being, rather than something ontologically essential to them (such that something that does not
change cannot exist) as in Heraclitus. In Plato, no matter
how many of those experienced units you are able to tally,
you cannot get through the mysterious gap between them
to account for the change that must be occurring there.
This limitation is considered a fundamental limitation of
reality by Plato and in part underpins his dierentiation
between imperfect experience from more perfect Forms.
The fact that this is no limitation for Heraclitus motivates
Platos condemnation.

5.2

5 INFLUENCE

Stoics

Stoicism was a philosophical school which ourished between the 3rd century BCE and about the 3rd century CE.
It began among the Greeks and became the major philosophy of the Roman Empire before declining with the rise
of Christianity in the 3rd century.
Throughout their long tenure the Stoics believed that the
major tenets of their philosophy derived from the thought
of Heraclitus.[66] According to Long, the importance of
Heraclitus to later Stoics is evident most plainly in Marcus
Aurelius.[67] Explicit connections of the earliest Stoics
to Heraclitus showing how they arrived at their interpretation are missing but they can be inferred from the Stoic Democriet (laughing) & Herakliet (crying) by Cornelis van Haarfragments, which Long concludes are modications of lem
Heraclitus.[68]
The Stoics were interested in Heraclitus treatment of re.
In addition to seeing it as the most fundamental of the
four elements and the one that is quantied and determines the quantity (logos) of the other three, he presents
re as the cosmos, which was not made by any of the
gods or men, but was and is and ever shall be everliving re.[69] Fire is both a substance and a motivator
of change, it is active in altering other things quantitatively and performing an activity Heraclitus describes as
the judging and convicting of all things.[70] It is the
thunderbolt that steers the course of all things.[71] There
is no reason to interpret the judgement, which is actually
to separate ( krinein), as outside of the context
of strife is justice (see subsection above).

The works of dozens of writers in hundreds of pages have

survived.

All of them had something to say about the Christian

form of the Logos. The Catholic Church found it necessary to distinguish between the Christian logos and that
of Heraclitus as part of its ideological distancing from
paganism. The necessity to convert by defeating paganism was of paramount importance. Hippolytus of Rome
therefore identies Heraclitus along with the other PreSocratics (and Academics) as sources of heresy. Church
use of the methods and conclusions of ancient philosophy as such was as yet far in the future, even though many
The earliest surviving Stoic work, the Hymn to Zeus of were converted philosophers.
Cleanthes,[72] though not explicitly referencing HeracliIn Refutation of All Heresies[74] Hippolytus says: What
tus, adopts what appears to be the Heraclitean logos modthe blasphemous folly is of Noetus, and that he devoted
ied. Zeus rules the universe with law (nomos) wielding
himself to the tenets of Heraclitus the Obscure, not to
on its behalf the forked servant, the re of the everthose of Christ. Hippolytus then goes on to present the
living lightning. So far nothing has been said that difinscrutable DK B67: God (theos) is day and night, winter
fers from the Zeus of Homer. But then, says Cleanthes,
and summer, ... but he takes various shapes, just as re,
Zeus uses the re to straighten out the common logos
when it is mingled with spices, is named according to the
that travels about (phoitan, to frequent) mixing with the
savor of each. The fragment seems to support pantheism
greater and lesser lights (heavenly bodies). This is Herif taken literally. German physicist and philosopher Max
aclitus logos, but now it is confused with the common
Bernard Weinstein classed these views with pandeism.[75]
nomos", which Zeus uses to make the wrong (perissa, left
or odd) right (artia, right or even)" and order (kosmein) Hippolytus condemns the obscurity of it. He cannot accuse Heraclitus of being a heretic so he says instead: Did
the disordered (akosma).[73]
not (Heraclitus) the Obscure anticipate Noetus in framing
The Stoic modication of Heraclitus idea of the Logos
a system ...?" The apparent pantheist deity of Heraclitus
was also inuential on Jewish philosophers such as Philo
(if that is what DK B67 means) must be equal to the union
of Alexandria, who connected it to Wisdom personied
of opposites and therefore must be corporeal and incoras Gods creative principle. Philo uses the term Logos
poreal, divine and not-divine, dead and alive, etc., and
throughout his treatises on Hebrew Scripture in a manner
the Trinity can only be reached by some sort of illusory
clearly inuenced by the Stoics.
shape-shifting.[76]
The Apologist Justin Martyr, however, took a much more
positive view of him. In his First Apology, he said both
Socrates and Heraclitus were Christians before Christ:
The church fathers were the leaders of the early Christian those who lived reasonably are Christians, even though
Church during its rst ve centuries of existence, roughly they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks,
contemporaneous to Stoicism under the Roman Empire. Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them. [77]

5.3

Church fathers

See also

[24] Satire X. Translation from Juvenal (1903). Thirteen

Satires of Juvenal. Sidney George Owen (trans.). London: Methuen & Co. p. 61.

The following articles on other topics contain non-trivial

information that relates to Heraclitus in some way.
[25] de Montaigne, Michel. Of Democritus and Heraclitus.
The Essays. Project Gutenberg.

Notes

[1] Hanks, Patrick; Urdang, Laurence, eds. (1979). Collins

English Dictionary. London, Glasgow: Collins. ISBN 000-433078-1.

[26] Act I Scene II Line 43.

[27] Levenson, Jay, editor (1991). Circa 1492: Art in the Age
of Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press. p.
229. ISBN 0-300-05167-0.
[28] DK B1.

[2] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 6

[29] DK B2.

[3] William Harris Heraclitus: The Complete Philosophical Fragments

[30] For the etymology see Watkins, Calvert (2000).

Appendix I: Indo-European Roots: leg-". The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
Edition.

[4] The waking have one common world, but the sleeping
turn aside each into a world of his own (DK B89).
[5] This is how Plato puts Heraclitus doctrine. See Cratylus,
402a.
[6] Kahn, Charles (1979). The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: Fragments with Translation and Commentary. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 123. ISBN 0521-28645-X.
[7] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 1
[8] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 3
[9] Strabo, Chapter 1, section 3.
[10] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 2
[11] G. S. Kirk (2010), Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments,
Cambridge University Press, p. 1. ISBN 0521136679
[12] Chapter 3 beginning.
[13] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 5
[14] DK B55.
[15] DK B40.
[16] DK B42.
[17] DK B44.
[18] DK B125a.
[19] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 4
[20] Fairweather, Janet (1973). Death of Heraclitus. p. 2.
[21] De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Chapter 2, Section 15.
[22] Seneca, Lucius Annaeus; John M. Cooper & J.F. Procop
(translators) (1995). Moral and Political Essays. Cambridge University Press. p. 50 note 17. ISBN 0-52134818-8. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors=
(help)
[23] III.20.53

[31] K.F. Johansen, Logos in Donald Zeyl (ed.), Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, Greenwood Press 1997.
[32] pp. 419. , W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1962.
[33] DK B72, from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations iv. 46
[34] DK B2, DK B50, from Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies, ix. 9
[35] Beris, A.N. and A.J. Giacomin, " : Everything
Flows, Cover Article, Applied Rheology, 24(5), 52918
(2014), pp. 1-13; Errata: In line 2 of each abstract,
"" should be "".
[36] Barnes (1982), page 65, and also Peters, Francis E.
(1967). Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon.
NYU Press. p. 178. ISBN 0814765521. Commentary on
Aristotle's Physics, 1313.11.
[37] For the etymology see Watkins, Calvert (2000).
Appendix I: Indo-European Roots: sreu. The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth ed.).
In pronunciation the -ei- is a diphthong sounding like the
-ei- in reindeer. The initial r is aspirated or made breathy,
which indicates the dropping of the s in *sreu.
[38] DK22B12, quoted in Arius Didymus apud Eusebius,
Praeparatio Evangelica, 15.20.2
[39] Cratylus Paragraph Crat. 401 section d line 5.
[40] Cratylus Paragraph 402 section a line 8.
[41] This sentence has been translated by Seneca in Epistulae,
VI, 58, 23.
[42] DK B49a, Harris 110. Others like it are DK B12, Harris
20; DK B91, Harris 21.
[43] Dietz, Karl-Martin (2004). Heraklit von Ephesus und die
Entwicklung der Individualitt. Stuttgart: Verlag Freies
Geistesleben. p. 60. ISBN 978-3772512735.
[44] DK B60
[45] DK B54.

[46] DK B31
[47] DK B76.
[48] DK B30.
[49] DK B90
[50] Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy
[51] Melchert, Norman (2006). The Great Conversation (5th
ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-5306828.
[52] DK B80: "
, ' ".
[53] Diogenes Lartius, ix. 8
[54] DK B51.
[55] The initial part of DK B2, often omitted because broken
by a note explaining that ksunos (Ionic) is
koinos (Attic).
[56] DK B114.
[57] DK B102.

8 FURTHER READING

[73] The ancient Greek can be found in Blakeney, E.H. The

Hymn of Cleanthes: Greek Text Translated into English:
with Brief Introduction and Notes. New York: The
MacMillan Company. Downloadable Google Books at .
[74] Book IX leading sentence.
[75] Max Bernhard Weinsten, Welt- und Lebensanschauungen, Hervorgegangen aus Religion, Philosophie und Naturerkenntnis (World and Life Views, Emerging From Religion, Philosophy and Nature) (1910), p. 233: Dieser
Pandeismus, der von Chrysippos (aus Soloi 280-208 v.
Chr.) herrhren soll, ist schon eine Verbindung mit dem
Emanismus; Gott ist die Welt, insofern als diese aus seiner
Substanz durch Verdichtung und Abkhlung entstanden
ist und entsteht, und er sich strahlengleich mit seiner
Substanz durch sie noch verbreitet. Da Gott als feurig
gedacht wird (jedoch auch als Atem oder ther) ist dem
Menschen entnommen, dessen Wrme sein Lebensprinzip
bedeutet; eine Idee, die sich schon bei den ersten griechischen Philosophen und namentlich bei Heraklit ndet.
[76] Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies. New Advent.
pp. Book IX Chapter 5. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
[77] Justin Martyr. First Apology of Justin. Early Christian
Writings.

[58] DK B78.
[59] DK B70.

8 Further reading

[60] DK B52.
[61] DK B41.
[62] DK B32.
[63] DK B124.
[64] Thomas L. Cooksey (2010). Platos 'Symposium': A
Readers Guide. p. 69. Continuum International Publishing Group (London & New York). ISBN 978-0-82644067-9
[65] Cratylus Paragraph 440 sections c-d.
[66] Long, A.A. (2001). Stoic Studies. University of California
Press. Chapter 2. ISBN 0-520-22974-6.

8.1 Editions and translations

Botten, Mick. (2012). Herakleitos Logos Made
Manifest, Upfront Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78035064-6 All fragments, in Greek and English, with
commentary and appendices.
Davenport, Guy (translator) (1979). Herakleitos
and Diogenes. Bolinas: Grey Fox Press. ISBN 0912516-36-4. Complete fragments of Heraclitus in
English.

[68] Long (2001), p. 51.

Heraclitus; Haxton (translator), Brooks; Hillman

(Forward), James (2001). Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus. New York: Viking
(The Penguin Group, Penguin Putnam, Inc.). ISBN
0-670-89195-9.. Parallel Greek & English.

[69] DK B60.

Irish, Tom (2016). Heraclitus translated.

[70] DK B66.

Kahn, Charles H. (1979). The Art and Thought of

Heraclitus. An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-21883-7.

[67] Long (2001), p. 56.

[71] DK B64.
[72] Dierent translations of this critical piece of literature,
transitional from pagan polytheism to the modern religions and philosophies, can be found at Rolleston, T.W.
Stoic Philosophers: Cleanthes Hymn to Zeus. www.
numinism.net. Archived from the original on 200908-05. Retrieved 2007-11-28. Ellery, M.A.C. (1976).
Cleanthes Hymn to Zeus. Tom Sienkewicz at www.
utexas.edu. Retrieved 2007-11-28. Translator not stated.
Hymn to Zeus. Holy, Holy, Holy at thriceholy.net: Hypatias Bookshelf.

Kirk, G.S. (1954). Heraclitus, the Cosmic Fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marcovich, Miroslav (2001). Heraclitus. Greek
Text with a Short Commentary. Sankt Augustin:
Academia Verlag. ISBN 3-89665-171-4. First edition: Heraclitus, editio maior. Mrida, Venezuela,
1967.

8.2

Selected bibliography

Patrick, G.T.W. (1889). Heraclitus of Ephesus: The

Fragments.
Robinson, T.M. (1987). Heraclitus: Fragments: A
Text and Translation with a Commentary. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6913-4.
Sallis, John; Maly, Kenneth, eds. (1980). Heraclitean fragments. University: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0027-9.
Wright, M.R. (1985). The Presocratics: The main
Fragments in Greek with Introduction, Commentary
and Appendix Containing Text and Translation of
Aristotle on the Presocratics. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 0-86292-079-5.

8.2

Selected bibliography

Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics: Analysis and
Fragments. Traord Publishing. pp. 2645 under
Heraclitus. ISBN 1-4120-4843-5.
Barnes, Jonathan (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers [Revised Edition]. London & New York:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 0-41505079-0.
Burnet, John (2003). Early Greek Philosophy.
Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-2826-1. First
published in 1892, this book has had dozens of editions and has been used as a textbook for decades.
The rst edition is downloadable from Google
Books.
Dietz, Karl-Martin (2004): Metamorphosen des
Geistes. Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 2004, Band
1: Prometheus der Vordenker: Vom gttlichen zum
menschlichen Wissen. Band 2: Platon und Aristoteles. Das Erwachen des europischen Denkens. Band
3: Heraklit von Ephesus und die Entwicklung der
Individualitt. Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart, 2004,
ISBN 3-7725-1300-X.
Dilcher, Roman (1995). Studies in Heraclitus.
Hildesheim: Olms. ISBN 3-487-09986-1.
Fairbanks, Arthur (1898). The First Philosophers of
Greece. New York: Scribner.
Graham, D. W. Heraclitus and Parmenides. In
Caston, V.; Graham, D. W. Presocratic Philosophy:
Essays in Honour of Alexander Mourelatos. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 2744. ISBN 0-7546-0502-7.
Graham, D. W. (2008). Heraclitus: Flux, Order,
and Knowledge. In Curd, P.; Graham, D. W. The
Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. New
York: Oxford University Press. pp. 169188. ISBN
978-0-19-514687-5.

9
Guthrie, W.K.C. (1962). A History of Greek Philosophy: The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans
1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, Martin; Fink, Eugen; Seibert (translator), Charles H. (1993). Heraclitus Seminar.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 08101-1067-9.. Transcript of seminar in which two
German philosophers analyze and discuss Heraclitus texts.
Kirk, G.S.; J.E. Raven (1957). The Pre-Socratic
Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of
Texts (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Lavine, T.Z. (1984). From Socrates to Sartre: The
Philosophic Quest. New York, New York: Bantam
Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (Bantam
Books). Chapter 2: Shadow and Substance; Section:
Platos Sources: The PreSocraticPhilosophers:
Heraclitus and Parmenides. ISBN 0-553-25161-9.
Luchte, James (2011). Early Greek Thought: Before
the Dawn. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN
978-0567353313.
Magnus, Magus; Fuchs, Wolfgang (introduction)
(2010). Heraclitean Pride. Towson: Furniture Press
Books. ISBN 978-0-9826299-2-5. Creative recreation of Heraclitus lost book, from the fragments.
McKirahan, R. D. (2011). Philosophy before
Socrates, An Introduction With Text and Commentary. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 978-1-60384183-2.
Mourelatos, Alexander, ed. (1993). The PreSocratics : a collection of critical essays (Rev. ed.).
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691-02088-4.
Pyle, C. M. (1997). 'Democritus and Heracleitus:
An Excursus on the Cover of this Book,' Milan
and Lombardy in the Renaissance. Essays in Cultural History. Rome, La Fenice. (Istituto di Filologia Moderna, Universit di Parma: Testi e Studi,
Nuova Serie: Studi 1.) (Fortuna of the Laughing
and Weeping Philosophers topos)
Rodziewicz, A. (2011). Heraclitus historicus
politicus. Studia Antyczne i Mediewistyczne 44: 5
35. ISSN 0039-3231.
Schoeld, Malcolm; Nussbaum, Martha Craven,
eds. (1982). Language and logos : studies in ancient
Greek philosophy presented to G.E.L. Owen. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P. ISBN 0-521-23640-1.
Taylor, C. C. W (ed.), Routledge History of Philosophy: From the Beginning to Plato, Vol. I, pp. 80
117. ISBN 0-203-02721-3 Master e-book ISBN,

10

9
ISBN 0-203-05752-X (Adobe eReader Format) and
ISBN 0-415-06272-1 (Print Edition).

Tarn, L. (1999). 337378. Elenchos 20: 952.

Vlastos, G. (1955). On Heraclitus. American Journal of Philology 76 (4): 337378.
doi:10.2307/292270.
Wheelwright, Philip (1959). Heraclitus. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press.

External links
Quotations related to Heraclitus at Wikiquote
Works related to Fragments of Heraclitus at Wikisource
Media related to Heraclitus at Wikimedia Commons
Laertius, Diogenes. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Life of Heraclitus, translated by Robert Drew
Hicks (1925).
Elpenor. Heraclitus: The Word is Common. The
Greek Word: Three Millennia of Greek Literature.
Elpenor. Retrieved 2007-10-10. Heraclitus bilingual anthology from DK in Greek and English, side
by side, the translations being provided by the organization, Elpenor.
Graham, Daniel W. (2006). Heraclitus. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The editors. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
Graham, Daniel W. (2011). Heraclitus. Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The editors. Retrieved
2013-08-25.
Harris, William, translator (1994). Heraclitus: The
Complete Fragments: Translation and Commentary
and The Greek Text (PDF). Humanities and the
Liberal Arts: Greek Language and Literature: Text
and Commentary. Middlebury College. Retrieved
2007-10-09. Greek and English with DK numbers
and commentary.
Heraclitus the Obscure: The Father of the Doctrine
of Flux and the Unity of Opposites. Archimedes
Laboratory. Retrieved 2007-11-09. Text and selected aphorisms in Greek, English, Italian and
French.
Hooker, Richard (1996). Heraclitus. World Civilizations: An Internet Classroom and Anthology:
Greek Philosophy. Washington State University.
Retrieved 2007-10-11. Selected fragments translated by Hooker.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Hoyt, Randy (2002). The Fragments of Heraclitus. Retrieved 2007-10-09. The fragments also
cited in DK in Greek (Unicode) with the English
translations of John Burnet (see Bibliography).
June, Daniel (2012). The Logos: a Modern
Adapted Translation of the Complete Fragments
of Heraclitus (PDF). Archived from the original
(PDF) on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
Knierim, Thomas (2007). Heraclitus: (Ephesus,
around 500 BC)". thebigview.com. Essay on the
ux and re philosophy of Heraclitus.
Lancereau, M. Daniel; M. Samuel Breau (2007).
Heraclitus. Philoctetes: . Retrieved 2007-10-10. Site with links to pdfs containing the fragments of DK in Greek (Unicode) with
the English translations of John Burnet (see Bibliography) and translations into French, either in parallel columns or interlinear, with links on the lexical
items to Perseus dictionaries. Includes also Heraclitus article from Encyclopdia Britannica Eleventh
Edition.
Magnus, Magus. The Turning.
Mailman, Joshua (2009). An Imagined Drama of
Competitive Opposition in Carters Scrivo in Vento
(with Notes on Narrative, Symmetry, Quantitative
Flux, and Heraclitus)". Music Analysis, v.28, 2-3.
Wiley.
Stamatellos, Giannis. Heraclitus of Ephesus: Life
and Work. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
Trix.
Heraclitus Epistemological Views.
symposia: u: the online philosophy
journal. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29.
Retrieved 2007-10-10.
Osho. Osho discourse on Heraclitus,The Hidden
Harmony (PDF).
Heraclitus Series. Heraclitus fragments rendered into the language of deductive logic on Triple
Canopy (online magazine).

11

10
10.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Heraclitus Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus?oldid=710814605 Contributors: Brion VIBBER, Vicki Rosenzweig, Mark

Christensen, Danny, XJaM, William Avery, Shii, Drbug, Youandme, Pit~enwiki, Llywrch, Nixdorf, Kalki, Cyde, GTBacchus, Mdebets,
Stan Shebs, Abou Ben Adhem, Djnjwd, Andres, Sethmahoney, Adam Conover, Charles Matthews, Dysprosia, Radgeek, Jjshapiro, PaulL~enwiki, Bevo, Wetman, Mrdice, Naturyl, Dimadick, Phil Boswell, Jaredwf, Vidyadhara, Goethean, Dittaeva, Auric, Blainster, Diderot,
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Damnreds, Pippu d'Angelo, Noosphere, Binabik80, Suruena, VivaEmilyDavies, AN(Ger), Nuno Tavares, Angr, Woohookitty, Mindmatrix,
FeanorStar7, BD2412, Jorunn, Rjwilmsi, Koavf, FlaBot, ChongDae, Chobot, Jaraalbe, Bgwhite, Satanael, YurikBot, RussBot, Martinhenz,
Pigman, Gaius Cornelius, Odysses, Anomie, Mersenne, Karl Meier, Bota47, Botteville, Zargulon, 2over0, Closedmouth, Joanmg, Caballero1967, ArgosDad, Bernd in Japan, Jonathonjones, Sardanaphalus, SmackBot, Ex0pos, InverseHypercube, Bomac, KocjoBot~enwiki,
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Davewho2, Skomorokh, Dsp13, Kerotan, Nikolaos Bakalis, Magioladitis, Connormah, JamesBWatson, J.B., Fred114, Shield2, Allstarecho, Hveziris, Cedricbear, GheistLBW, Gwern, Mtevfrog, Erkan Yilmaz, It Is Me Here, Chiswick Chap, Master shepherd, Student7,
Jamesontai, Vanished user 39948282, DorganBot, Inwind, CFGaussE, Rmih, Idioma-bot, Sergivs-en, VolkovBot, ABF, Philip Trueman, Rabio, Rei-bot, Ontoraul, LeaveSleaves, Giacomin, Billinghurst, Fifolle, JesterCountess, Bernstein2291, AlleborgoBot, EmxBot,
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AngBent, MusikAnimal, Davidiad, Blue Mist 1, Mick Botten, Supremeaim, CitationCleanerBot, Bob Re-born, Harizotoh9, Artailicous,
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WannaBeEditor, Moon Stove, Jadep97, Manpantsorphilosophy, Irish1975 and Anonymous: 255

10.2

Images

File:Bramante_heracleitus_and_democritus.jpeg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Bramante_
heracleitus_and_democritus.jpeg License: Public domain Contributors: [1] Original artist: Donato Bramante
File:Bust_of_Heraclitus,_'The_Weeping_Philosopher'_LACMA_M.83.4.jpg Source:
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commons/8/84/Bust_of_Heraclitus%2C_%27The_Weeping_Philosopher%27_LACMA_M.83.4.jpg License: Public domain Contributors:
Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31842823-O3.jpg Original artist: Vienna Porcelain
Manufactory (Austria, Vienna, active 18th century), Johann Christoph Ludwig Lcke (Germany, active Vienna, 1703-1780)
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Brugghen_-_Heraclitus.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: www.rijksmuseum.nl : Home : Info : Pic Original artist: Hendrick ter
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10.3

Content license

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