A Prolegomena to the Study of Heraclitus of Ephesus

A PROLEGOMENA TO THE STUDY OF HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS I IT may be well to remember at this point that many of the early Greek fragments-poetic, " orphic," hieratic or "philosophical "-are cast in a language difficult and perhaps impossible for us to understand. The vocabulary of these fragments, to be sure, seems to be our own; the diction sounds somewhat familiar; but the mold, the literary formulas in which they are cast are definitely alien to the ideological mold in which modern secular thought is advanced. Thus, apparently familiar words become symbols of unfamiliar ideas with the result that we are little qualified to grasp the traditional, as distinguished from the lexographical, meaning or value of word and phrase-to interpret properly the traditional figurative diction, or to know when the author does, or does not, intend us to place a literal interpretation on his words. The task of properly interpreting the figurative diction of the earliest transmitted Greek" sayings" is further complicated by the fact that many of these " sayings " belong to, or at least are carry-overs from, the twilight zone of myth and history. In addition, it must be borne in mind that " the wise men " of early Greek lore include seers, poets, sages and " philosophers." It is even permissible to maintain that "the wise man" of old was a seer (prophet) , poet and sage ("philosopher") all in one. Suffice it to recall that the " philosopher " Democritus was called by his disciples a prophet, the Voice of Zeus; that he allegedly prayed that he might meet with favorable specters of the gods; that he invoked his Sicilian 1\Iuse (poetic) to speed his chariot from the Abode of Holiness; and that tradition has depicted him as a contemplative ascetic, subject to fits of "madness.'' But "madness " is traditiondly the divine 470 STUDY OF HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS 471 inspiration of poets and, hence, links Democritus to the poet. For does not Plato insist: " He who knocks at the gates of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses . . . will be denied access to the mysteries, and his sober compositions win be eclipsed by the creation of inspired madness." 1 And Democritus himself is said to have stated: "Truly noble poetry is written with the breath of divine inspiration." 2 Unfortunately, in keeping with the nineteenth (and twentieth) century obsession to pit science (philosophy) against religion, scholars have only too wen succeeded in creating a complete though wholly unwarranted cleavage in the originally homogeneous work of Democritus. Hence the first prerequisite for 'a fuller understanding of Democritus is emphatically to deny that there is or ever was a gulf between his religious beliefs, poetic inspirations , and scientific views. The work of Democritus, it must be remembered, is, and always has been, a single uniform whole in which religion, poetry and philosophy are indissolubly one. Early Greek traditions make abundantly clear the essential association, close affinity and ultimate identity of the visions the prophet, the inspirations of the poet, and the intuitive msights of the original sage or "philosopher." Prophetic " madness," we are told, reveals the means by which men may be delivered from evil and be absolved from their sins, a theme which is still reflected in the religious poem of Empedocles, the Purification. Thus Epimenides,3 the Cretan 'Plato, Phaedrus 245A. Cf. also Ion 534B and ibid. at 535C, where we are told that poets work by divine possession: " The god deprives them of their sober senses and uses them as instruments, like the singers of oracles :md inspired seers [here we have the association of the poet and the seer or prophet, note by the author], in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who speak things of such high worth, but the god himself who speaks to us through them." 2 Diels-Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (6th edit.) 2.146, frags. B 17; B 18. Cicero also maintained that there cannot be a good poet without a fiery spirit touched with madness. De divinatione 1.80. Cf. also De oratore 2.194. Similar ideas can be found in Horace, Ars poetica 295. 3 According to ancient legend the...