Part 17

Not accepted by Zeller, i. 676, who regards it as a Stoic version of Fr. 68.

26. Fire coming upon all things will test them, and lay hold of them.

Burnett suggests that the reference to a judgment (κρινέει) was inserted by Hippolytos to obtain the Christian idea of a judgment.

27. How could one escape the notice of that which never sets?

Cf. Schuster, p. 184; Zeller, i. 649 n. 2; Teichmüller, i. 184.

28. The thunderbolt directs the course of all things.

Cf. Fr. 19.

29. The sun will not overstep his bounds; if he does, the Erinnyes, allies of justice, will find him out.

30. The limit of the evening and the morning is the Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright Zeus.

Strabo regards this as a Homeric expression for the fact that the northern circle is the boundary of rising and setting. Zeus aithrios means the clear heavens.

31. If there were no sun, it would be night.

32. The sun is new every day.

33. (Herakleitos and Demokritos bear witness that Thales was an astronomer, and predicted eclipses, etc.)

34. The seasons bring all things.

‘Time is not motion of a simple sort, but, so to speak, motion in an order which has measure and limits and periods. The sun, guardian of these, ... appoints and announces the seasons, which, according to Herakleitos, bring all things.’

35. Hesiod is the teacher of most men; they suppose that his knowledge was very extensive, when in fact he did not know night and day, for they are one.

36. God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger; but he assumes different forms, just as when incense is mingled with incense; every one gives him the name he pleases.

37. If all things should become smoke, then perception would be by the nostrils.

Arist. ‘Some think that odour is a smoky exhalation, ... and that every one is brought in contact with this in smelling. So Herakleitos says that if all things,’ etc. The reference is originally to the conflagration of the universe [ἐκπύρωσις].

38. Souls smell in Hades.

Plutarch adds the reason: Because they retain a perception of what is fiery.

39. Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the wet dries, the parched becomes wet.

40. It scatters and brings together; it approaches and departs.

This follows the next fragment, as illustrating change.

41-42. You could not step twice in the same rivers; for other and yet other waters are ever flowing on.

43. Herakleitos blamed Homer for saying: Would that strife might perish from among gods and men! For then, said he, all things would pass away.

Aristotle assigns a different reason: For there could be no harmony without sharps and flats, nor living beings without male and female, which are contraries.

44. War is father of all and king of all; and some he made gods and some men, some slaves and some free.