Passages Referring to Herakleitos in the ‘Doxographists.’

Ar. Did. Epit. 39, 2; Dox. 471. Zeno as well as Herakleitos says that the soul is a perceptive exhalation. The latter desiring to make it clear that souls always gain mental faculties by giving forth exhalations, likened them to rivers; and these are his words: (Fr. 42) ‘Other and yet other waters are flowing on upon those who step in the same rivers.’

Sim. in Phys. 6 r; Dox. 475. (Theophrastos says) [60]Hippasos of Metapontum and Herakleitos of Ephesos teach that the one is moved and limited, but they make fire the first principle and derive all things from fire by condensation and rarefaction, and again they resolve them into fire since this one thing is the essential nature underlying their appearance; for Herakleitos says that all things are transformations of fire [πυρὸς ἀμοιβὴν], and he finds a certain order and definite time in the changes of the universe according to a fated [εἱμαρμένην] necessity.

Theoph. de Sens. 1; Dox. 499. The followers of Anaxagoras and Herakleitos say that men perceive by the presence in themselves of the opposite quality.

Phil. de Piet. 14, 25; Dox. 548. (Chrysippos) in his third book says that the universe is one of the beings endowed with sense, fellow-citizen with men and gods, and that strife and Zeus are the same thing, as Herakleitos says.

Hipp. Phil. 44; Dox. 558. Herakleitos the Ephesian, a philosopher of the physical school, was always lamenting, charging all men with ignorance of the whole of life, but still he pitied the life of mortals. For he would say that he himself knew all things, but that other men knew nothing. His language agrees quite well with that of Empedokles when he says that strife and love are the first principles of all things, and that god is intelligent fire, and that all things enter into a common motion and do not stand still. And as Empedokles said that the whole region occupied by man is full of evils, and that the evils extend from the region about the earth as far as the moon but do not go farther, inasmuch as all the region beyond the moon is purer, so also it seemed to Herakleitos.

Epi. adv. Haer. iii. 20; Dox. 591. Herakleitos the Ephesian, son of Blyson, said that fire is the source of [61]all things, and that all things are resolved into fire again.

Galen, His. Phil. 62; Dox. 626. Herakleitos says that the sun is a burning mass, kindled at its rising, and quenched at its setting.

Herm. I. G. P. 13; Dox. 654. Perhaps I might yield to the arguments of noble Demokritos and want to laugh with him, unless Herakleitos led me to the opposite view as he said weeping: Fire is the first principle of all things, and it is subject to rarefaction and condensation, the one active, the other passive, the one synthetic, the other analytic. Enough for me, for I am already steeped in such first principles.

Aet. i. 3; Dox. 283. Herakleitos and Hippasos say that the first principle of all things is fire; for they say that all things arise from fire and they all end by becoming fire. As this is quenched all things come into the order of the universe; for first the dense part of it contracting into itself becomes earth, then the earth becoming relaxed by fire is rendered water in its nature, then it is sublimated and becomes air; and again the universe and all bodies are consumed by fire in the conflagration. [Fire then is the first principle because all things arise from this, and the final principle because all things are resolved into this.]

Aet. 1. 5; Dox. 292. Hippasos of Metapontum and Herakleitos the Ephesian say that the all is one, ever moving and limited, and that fire is its first principle.

Aet. i. 7; Dox. 303. Herakleitos says that the periodic fire is eternal, and that destined reason working through opposition is the creator [δημιουργὸν] of things.

Aet. i. 9; Dox. 307. H. et al. declare that matter is subject to change, variation, and transformation, and that it flows the whole through the whole.

Aet. i. 13; Dox. 312. H. introduces certain very [62]small and indivisible particles (or H. seems to some to leave particles, instead of the unity).

Aet. i. 23; Dox. 320. H. denies rest and fixed position to the whole; for this is the attribute of dead bodies; but he assigns eternal motion to what is eternal, perishable motion to what is perishable.

Aet. i. 27; Dox. 322. H. says that all things happen according to fate and that fate itself is necessity. Indeed he writes ‘For it is absolutely destined.’ (Frag. 63.)

Aet. i. 23; Dox. 323. H. declares that reason, pervading the essence of the all, is the essence of fate. And it is itself ethereal matter, seed of the generation of the all, and measure of the allotted period.

Aet. ii. 1; Dox. 327, Herakleitos et al. The universe is one. 4; Dox. 331. The universe is generated not according to time, but according to thought. 11; Dox. 340; H. et al. The heaven is of a fiery nature. 13; Dox. 342. H. and Parmenides. The stars are compressed bits of fire. 17; Dox. 346. H. and Parm. The stars are nurtured by an exhalation from the earth. 20; Dox. 351. H. and Hekataios. The sun is an intelligent burning mass rising out of the sea. (The same words are assigned to Stoics, Plut. 2, 890 A; Dox. 349.) 21; Dox. 351. It is as great ‘as the width of a human foot.’ 22; Dox. 352. It is bowl-shaped, rather gibbous. 24; Dox. 354. An eclipse takes place by the turning of the bowl-shaped body so that the concave side is upward, and the convex side downward toward our vision. [25; Dox. 356. The earth is surrounded with mist.] 27; Dox. 358. (The moon) is bowl-shaped.⁠[31] 28; Dox. 359. Sun and moon are subject to the same influences. For these heavenly bodies being bowl-shaped, receive bright rays from the moist exhalation, and give light in appearance [πρὸς τὴν φαντασίαν]; the sun more [63]brightly, for it moves in purer aether [ἀήρ], and the moon moves in thicker aether and so it shines more dimly. 29; Dox. 359. Eclipses of the moon are occasioned by the turning of the bowl-shaped body. 32; Dox. 364. The great year consists of eighteen thousand sun-years. According to Diogenes and Herakleitos the year consists of three hundred and sixty-five days.

Aet. iii. 3; Dox. 369. Thunder is occasioned by a gathering of winds and clouds, and the impact of gusts of wind on the clouds; and lightning by a kindling of the exhalations; and fiery whirlwinds [πρηστῆρας] by a burning and a quenching of the clouds.

Aet. iv. 3; Dox. 338. Parmenides and Hippasos and Herakleitos call the soul a fiery substance. 7; Dox. 392. H. says that souls set free from the body go into the soul of the all, inasmuch as it is akin to them in nature and essence.

Aet. v. 23; Dox. 434. Herakleitos and the Stoics say that men come to maturity at about fourteen years, with the beginning of sexual life; for trees come to maturity when they begin to bear fruit.... And at about the age of fourteen men gain understanding of good and evil, and of instruction as to these matters.

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