HERACLITUS

The Complete Philosophical Fragments

William Harris, Prof. Em. Middlebury College

First, let me proceed with background material on this

amazing thinker, then a translation of all the fragments,
and finally the translated text againalong with a new,
exploratory commentary.

Heraclitus was born at Ephesus of aristocratic parentage

around 540 B.C. and lived until 475 B.C. We know
almost nothing finite about his life, except that he was
early known as difficult of comprehension, hence the
nickname "The Dark One" or in Greek skoteinos. There
is no absolute evidence for a Book of his philosophical
ideas, and the hundred or so "Fragments", which are
quoted from later sources, seem to derive from his
personal Sayings or Counsels, much in the manner of
Pythagoras' Symbola. Strangely many of the cited
fragments come from Christian sources, bent on
disproving or ridiculing Heraclitus' words, a bad effort
which has the good effect of giving us a few more of
Heraclitus' precious insights.

In another paper on Pythagoras, I have discussed the

Sayings or Counsels which have had almost no
recognition in the world of Western scholarship. I aimed
to get a better sense of their import by positing a
monastic order in Croton perhaps similar in function to
the Zen monasteries of the period after the 12 th c. A.D.,
feeling that the Japanese data may shed some indirect
light on the 6th c. B.C. Pythagorean school. But in
dealing with Heraclitus the situation is entirely different.
He had a strong and long-lasting effect on Greek
philosophy in the ancient period, and has been
commented and discussed fervently in modern times,
almost to the point of obscuring the text we are starting
with.

Heraclitus has been studied intensively and in true

academic fashion has been viewed in his historical
position, as a building block in the development of
ancient philosophy. This is natural in one sense, but
objectionable in another, because we may see him as a
link in the chain of Western Thought, rather than as an
independent mind. When you take up a book to read, you
normally read it for what it is and what it has to say,
rather than how it fits into a niche in the history of
writing. I am approaching Heraclitus in this latter
manner, first because I think we have overloaded the
scholarly apparatus regarding his place in history badly,
and second because many of his thoughts appeal to "the
Whole" as he says, and have a universal, at times
modern, meaning.

My purpose here is to take Heraclitus at his word, when

he says "Much learning does not teach understanding,
otherwise it would have taught......... (an impressive array
of modern critics)". I have worked with Heraclitus for
many years in the classroom, and have found many
personal insights into his statements, often occurring
years apart as my own ways of reasoning developed. So I
am going to take the bold step of offering a personal set
of commentaries to the fragmentary statements, thinking
of Heraclitus' insistence on all things being part of an
infinite, regulating Whole, which we often do not
perceive at all. At this end of time I too am searching for
the Whole, and since it is in the same universe with
Heraclitus, I make no apologies for introducing "modern"
notions along with the words of a philosopher now some
two and a half millennia old.

How can I compare Heraclitus with Einstein? Because

both were searching intuitively for "pattern" in the world,
and in Greek times intuition was the only possible way. I
believe that things true in one age are often true in
another, and I am not referring only to matters of law,
human dignity, or poetic insight. We are looking around
us today in the same world as was always there, we have
modified it on the surface a great deal, but the
underpinning and the original questions are largely
unchanged. In this spirit ---accept my commentary.

I have printed the bare translation first so you can read

Heraclitus without interruption, if you wish peruse the
same text down below, with interposed running comment.

HERACLEITOS
THE PATH OF INVESTIGATION

1. Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are

unable to understand it -- not only before hearing it, but
even after they have heard it for the first time. That is to
say, although all things come to pass in accordance with
this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience
of it - at least if they are judged in the light of such words
and deeds as I am here setting forth.

1a.. (cited as part of the above...) My own method is to

distinguish each thing according to its nature, and to
specify how it behaves; other men, on the contrary, are as
neglectful of what they do when awake as they are when
asleep. (1)

2. We should let ourselves be guided by what is common

to all. Yet, although the Logos is common to all, most
men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of
his own. (2)

3. Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves

with a great many particulars. (35)

4. Seekers after gold dig up much earth and find little.

(22)

5. Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the

greatest matters. (47)

6. Much learning does not teach understanding, otherwise

it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, Xenophanes
and Hecataeus. (40)

7. Of those whose discourses I have heard there is not

one who attains to the realization that wisdom stands
apart from all else. (108)

8.. I have searched myself. (101)

9. It pertains to all men to know themselves and to be

temperate. (116)

10. To be temperate is the greatest virtue. Wisdom

consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to
the nature of things. (112)

11.. The things of which there can be sight, hearing, and

learning ---- these are what I especially prize. (55)

12. Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears. (101a)

13. Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men having

barbarian souls. (107)

14. One should not act or speak as if he were asleep. (73)

15. The waking have one world. in common, whereas

each sleeper turns away to a private world of his own.
(89)

16. Whatever we see when awake is death; when asleep,

dreams. (21)

17. Nature loves to hide itself (123)

18. The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor

conceals, but gives signs. (93)

19. Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find
truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. (18)
THE IDEA OF THE CONTINUUM
20. Everything flows and nothing abides;. Everything
gives way and nothing stays fixed.

21. You cannot step twice into the same river, for other
waters and yet others go ever flowing on. (91, 12)

22. Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the
moist dries, the parched becomes moist. (126)

23. It is in changing that things find repose. (8~)

24. Time is a child moving counters in a game; the royal

power is a child's.(52)

25. War is both father and king of all; some he has shown
forth as gods and others as men, some he has made slaves
and others free. (53)

26. It should be understood that war is the common

condition, that strife is justice, and that all things come to
pass through the compulsion of strife. (80)

27. Homer was wrong in saying, "Would that strife might

perish from amongst gods and men. For if that were to
occur, then all things would cease to exist.
ON NATURE

28. There is exchange of all things for fire and of fire for
all things, as there is of wares for gold and of gold for
wares. (90)

29. This universe, which is the same for all, has not been
made by any god or man, but it always has been is, and
will be -- an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular
measures and going out by regular measures. (30)

30. The phases of fire are craving and satiety. (65)

31. It throws apart and then brings together again; it

advances and retires. (91)

32. The transformations of fire -- first, sea; and of sea,

half becomes earth and half the lightning-flash. (31)

33. When earth has melted into sea, the resultant amount
is the same as there had been before sea became hardened
into earth. (31,ctd.)

34. Fire lives in the death of earth, air in the death of fire,
water in the death of air, and earth in the death of water.
(76)

35. The thunderbolt pilots all things. (64)

36 The sun is new each day. (6)

37. The sun is the breadth of a man's foot. (3)

38. If there were no sun, the other stars would not suffice
to prevent its being night. (99)

39. The boundary line of evening and morning is the

Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright
Zeus. (120)

40. The fairest universe is but a heap of rubbish piled up

at random. (124)

41. Every beast is driven to pasture by a blow (11)

ON THE SPIRITUAL

42. You could not discover the limits of soul, even if you
traveled by every path in order to do so; such is the depth
of its meaning. (45)

43. Soul is the vaporization out of which everything else

is composed; more-over it is the least corporeal of things
and is in ceaseless flux, for the moving world can only be
known by what is in motion. ()

44. Souls are vaporized from what is moist. (12)

45. Soul has its own inner law of growth. (us)

46. A dry soul is wisest and best. (or) The best and wisest
soul is a dry beam of light. (11~)

47. Souls take pleasure in becoming moist. (77)

48. A drunken man has to be led by a boy, whom he

follows stumbling and not knowing whither he goes, for
his soul is moist. (117)

49. It is death to souls to become water, and it is death to

water to become earth. Conversely, water comes into
existence out of earth, and souls out of water. (36)

50. Even the sacred barley drink separates when it is not

stirred. (125)

51. It is hard to fight against impulsive desire; whatever it

wants it will buy at the cost of the soul. (85~

52. It would not be better if things happened to men just

as they wish. (110)

53. Although it is better to hide our ignorance, this is hard

to do when we relax over wine. (95)

54. A foolish man is a-flutter at every word. (87)

55. Fools, although they hear, are like the deaf: To them
the adage applies that when present they are absent. (34)

56. Bigotry is the sacred disease. (46)

57. Most people do not take heed of the things they

encounter, nor do they grasp them even when they have
learned about them, although they think they do. (17)

58. If all existing things were smoke, it is by smell that

we would distinguish them. (7)

59. In Hades souls perceive by smelling. (98)

60. Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than dung. (96)
ON THE DIVINE

61. Human nature has no real understanding; only the

divine nature has it.(78)

62. Man is not rational; there is intelligence only in what

encompasses him.

63. What is divine escapes men's notice because of their

incredulity. (86)

64. Although intimately connected with the Logos, men

keep setting themselves against it. (72)

65. As in the nighttime a man kindles for himself

(haptetai) a light, so when a living man lies down in
death with his vision extinguished he attaches himself
(haptetai) to the state of death; even as one who has been
awake lies down with his vision extinguished and
attaches himself to the state of Sleep. (26)

66. Immortals become mortals, mortals become

immortals; they live in each other's death and die in each
other's life. (62)

6?. There await men after death such things as they

neither expect nor have any conception of. (27)

68. They arise into wakefulness and become guardians of

the living and the dead. (63)

69. A man's character is his guardian divinity. (119)

70. Greater dooms win greater destinies. (25)

71. Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false

witnesses. (28)

72. Fire in its advance will catch all things by surprise

and judge them. (66)
73. How can anyone hide from that which never sets?
(16)

74. (When visitors unexpectedly found Heraclitus

warming himself by the cooking fire) Here, too, are gods.
(~)

75. They pray to images, much as if they were to talk to

houses; for they do not know what gods and heroes are.
(5)

76. Night-walkers, magicians, bacchantes, revelers, and

participants in the mysteries What are regarded as
mysteries among men are unholy rituals.(14)

77. Their processions and their phallic hymns would be

disgraceful exhibitions were it not that they are done in
honor 0[[sterling]] Dionysos. But Dionysos in whose
honor they rave and hold revels, is the same as Hades.
(15)

78e When defiled they purify themselves with blood, as

though one who had stepped into filth were to wash
himself with filth. If any of his fellow-men should
perceive him acting in such a way, they would regard him
as mad. (5,ctd.)

79. The Sibyl with raving mouth utters solemn,

unadorned, unlovely words, but she reaches out over a
thousand years with her voice because of the god within
her. (92)
COUNSELS

80. Thinking is common to all. (113)

81. Men should speak with rational mind and thereby

hold strongly to that which is shared in common ---- as a
city holds on to its law, and even more strongly. For all
human laws are nourished by the one divine law, which
prevails as far as it wishes, suffices for all things, and yet
is something more than they are (114)

82. The people should fight for their law as for their city
wall. (44)

83. Law involves obeying the counsel of one. (33)

84. To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-

rate. (49)

85. The best of men choose one thing in preference to all

else, immortal glory in preference to mortal good;
whereas the masses simply glut themselves like cattle.
(29)

86. Gods and men honor those slain in battle. (24)

87. Even those who are most in repute know and
maintain only what is reputed. (28)

88. To extinguish hybris is more needed than to

extinguish a fire. (43)

89. It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so

that one becomes ruled by them. (84b)

90. Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know. (97)

91. What sort of mind or intelligence have they? They

believe popular folk-tales and follow the crowd as their
teachers, ignoring the adage that the many are bad, the
good are few. (104)

92e Men are deceived in their knowledge of things that

are manifest, even as Homer was who was the wisest of
all the Greeks. For he was even deceived by boys killing
lice when they said to him: What we have seen and
grasped, these we leave behind; whereas what we have
not seen and grasped, these we carry away." (56)

93. Homer deserves to be thrown out of the contests and

flogged and Archilochus too. (42)

94. Hesiod distinguishes good days and evil days, not

knowing that every day is like every other. (106)

95. The Ephesians had better go hang themselves, every

man of them, and leave their city to be governed by
youngsters, for they have banished Hermadorus, the
finest man among them, declaring: "Let us not have
anyone among us who excels the rest; if there should be
such a one, let him go and live else-where." (121)

96. May you have plenty of wealth, you men of Ephesus,

in order that you may be punished for your evil ways
(125a)

97. After birth men have the wish to live and to accept
their dooms; then they leave behind them children to
become dooms in their turn. (20)
THIS PARADOXICAL UNIVERSE

98. Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the

fairest harmony. (8)

99. It is by disease that health is pleasant, by evil that

good is pleasant, by hunger satiety, by weariness rest.
(111)

100. Men would not have known the name of justice if

these things had not occurred. (23)
101. Sea water is at once very pure and very foul: it is
drinkable and healthful for fishes, but undrinkable and
deadly for men. (61)

102. Donkeys would prefer hay to gold. (9)

103. Pigs wash in mud, and domestic fowls in dust or

ashes. (37)

104. The handsomest ape is ugly compared with

humankind; the wisest man appears as an ape when
compared with a god --- in wisdom, in beauty, and in all
other ways. (82, 83)

105. Man is regarded as childish by a spirit (daemon),

just as a boy is by a man. (79)

106. To God all things are beautiful, good, and right.

Men, on the other hand, deem some things right and
others wrong. (102)

107. Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then
demand of them an undeserved fee for such services. (58)

108. The way up and the way down are one and the same.
(60)

109. In the circumference of the circle the beginning and

the end are common.(103)

110. Into the same rivers we step and do not step. (49a)

Ill. For wool-carders the straight and the winding way are
one and the same. (59)

112. The bones connected by joints are at once a unitary

whole and not a unitary whole. To be in agreement is to
differ; the concordant is the discordant. From out of all
the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness
comes all the many particulars. (10)

113. It is one and the same thing to be living and dead,

awake or asleep, young or old. The former aspect in each
case becomes the latter, and the latter becomes the
former, by sudden unexpected reversal (88)

114. Hesiod, whom so many accept as their wise teacher,

did not even understand the nature of day and night; for
they are one. (57)

115. The name of the bow is life, but its work is death.
(48)

116. The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. (54)

117. People do not understand how that which is at
variance with itself agrees with itself. There is a harmony
in the bending back, as in the cases of the bow and the
lyre. (51)

118. Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to

acknowledge that all things are one. (50)

119. Wisdom is one and unique; it is unwilling and yet

willing to be called by the name of Zeus. (32)

120. Wisdom is one ---- to know the intelligence by

which all things are steered through all things. (41)

121. God is day and night, winter and summer, war and
peace, satiety But he undergoes transformations, just as
(............) when mixed with is named according to the
particular aroma which it gives off. (67)

122. The sun will not overstep his measures; if he were to

do so, the Erinnyes, handmaidens of justice, would seek
him out for punishment (94)

123. All things come in their due season. (100)

124.. Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what

goes on in the universe

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William Harris
Prof. Em. Middlebury College
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