Mouraviev, Serge N._the Words of Heraclitus. His Book Reconstructed. English Final Version_Selçuk_2013, 10, 10_23 Pp

8/9/2019 Mouraviev, Serge N._the Words of Heraclitus. His Book Reconstructed. English Final Version_Selçuk_2013, 10, 10_23 Pp.

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1 knowledge F 81A

of gods and of men

of the only arrangement of all

2 Outlaws would not have stood in need of Justice F 23if such was not the case.

3 For the most trustworthy F 28

{of the most famous men}from false appearances

knows how to avert.

And, mind you, Justice too will seize

builders and witnesses of fallacies.

4 If this here Sun by nature has F 3-94

the dimension of a human foot,

he

shall not transgress

his proper bounds.

If he his width exceeds,

the Erinyes, servants of Justice,

will capture him.

5 A foolish man F 87

is wont to flutter

about every speech (every logos).

6 Whose ever speeches have I heard F 108

not one went to the point of recognizingthat Wise is set apart

from any one {and any thing}.

7 I heard Xenophanes. F 107E

8 That the All is a God F 50

separable - inseparable,

begotten - unbegotten,

mortal - immortal

it is right


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who listened to his Dogma [his Belief]

to deem it wise>.

For those who listened not to me

but to the Logos [to the Discourse]it is right to agree

that Wise is to know all as One.

9 For Wise is one: F 41

establish the knowledge

by which to steer

all things through all.

!«

10 But even though F 1a

this here Discourse (this here logos) is extant...

always...

men fail to understand it both before they hear it

and having heard it once.

For although all occurs

according to this here Discourse,

they look inexpert when they experience

such words and deeds as I explain

dividing according to nature

and telling what's correct.

11 Dim-witted minds! F 34

When they do listen,

they are like deaf and dumb.

The idiom witnesses against them:

ÒPresent , but absent!Ó

12 The infidels!... Incapable to listen, F 19nor to speak.

13 From that with what continuously they associate, F 72

the Discourse *that pervades the whole world*,

from that they diverge.

And what they meet with every day,

that appears foreign to them.

14 For the many fail to realize F 17

the things they come across.


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Even when taught they recognize them not

though they believe they do.

15 As to other men F 1 b

all they do awake evades them

just as all asleep they forget.

16 One should not act and speak F 73-74

like the sleeping,

nor as children of one's parents.17 For dogs too bark at those F 97

whom none of them knows.

18 Men's opinions are children's playthings F 70

19 Men are deceived F 56

in the knowledge of the obviousas Homer was,

the wisest of all Greeks.

Even him did children killing lice

deceive by saying:

ÒWhat we saw and caught

that we leave behind.

What we neither saw nor caught,

that we carry.Ó

20 F 9A

ÒMay strife disappear from among gods and men!ÓFor he prays for the destruction of all.Harmonia would not have been born

without the female and the male that are opposites.

21 just as meat at random (= from miscarriage) F 124 would be the fairest of the begotten (= the world)

22 coming together F 122.

23


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53 For the best choose one thing F 29

out of all: glory for ever.

But most mortalsare glutted like cattle

and measure well-being

with their belly, their cock

and the most shameful in us.

54 May you keep hold of your wealth, F 125AEphesians,

so that you would be denounced

by your wretchedness!55 This people must fight for the law, F 44

for the verily lawful,

as for the walls of the city.

56 Law is also to obey F 33the will of one.

57 The Ephesians deserve F 121

to hang themselves all

and leave the city

to boys immature,

for they banished Hermodoros,

the most valuable among them,

saying:

ÒLet no one among us be most valuable!If there is one, let him be abroad

and among others.Ó

58 Hard it is to fight against anger: F 85

whatever it wishes

it buys at the expense of our soul.59 Fighting against pleasure is even harder F 7A

than against anger.

60 Conceit is a "sacred disease" (an epilepsy). F 46a

61 Impudence must be quenched F 43

faster than conflagration.

62 Better hide one's ignorance F 95-109

(hiding one's ignorance is safer

than making a show of it)

but it is not easy when relaxing and vinous.


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63 His ethos (his self) is man's daemon (man's genius) F 119

64 An adult looks like a babe in front of a daemon F 79

just like a child in front of an adult.65 For the human ethos has no knowledge F 78

while the godly one has.

66 Let us not conjecture at random F 49

on those subjects most sublime!

#«

67 The lord F 93whose is the oracle that is in Delphi

neither speaks, nor conceils,

but implies.

68 But the Sibyl F 92with her raving mouth

who utters words mirthless

unanointed unadorned,

reaches out with her voice

over a thousand years

thanks to her god.

69 Yet good disbelief F 86

hides the depths of knowledge,they escape us not to be known.

70 Nature likes hiding. F 123

71 Non obvious harmony F 54

is better than the obvious.

72 If he expects not F 18

the unexpected

he shall not find

the unfindable

that is unattainable and out of reach.

73 Seekers of gold F 22

dig up much earth

and find but little.


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74 I sought myself. F 101

75 Not as a human, F 16A

thanks to divine help,

more so than the SibylI reached clarity.

76 Whatever lends itself to seeing F 55

hearing learning

this I prefer.. 0

77 Eyes are more accurate witnesses F 101A

than ears.78 if everything turned into smoke, F 7

something would nostrils recognize.

79 F 101Bciting untrustworthy witnesses

in support of controversial facts.

80 bad witnesses to men F 107

are the eyes and ears of those

whose souls are barbarian.

81 F 117

82 For it is death to souls to become water. F 36 Hipp.

83 delight to souls, F 77a

not death,

to become moist.

84 An adult when drunk F 117

is led by an immature boyand stumbles, not knowing

whither he walks

for his soul is moist.

85 ... because of the vapours from wine; moisture blunts sight and hearing. cf. D 121

86 He forgot where the path leads.

87 Man according to nature has no rational thinking, his understanding is outside of the D 146, cf. body. Only the Ambient (that which encompasses us) has the power of thinking and D 148

reasoning.

88 The soul is diffused in the whole body and is itself everywhere... Through the senses it D 117


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streams out, rather dispersed than compact.

89 ...The Discourse with whom the soul communicates through the apertures of the cf. D 148senses, is the judge (criterion) of truth.

90 Not any discourse, but the common and divine... The Ambient encompassing us has D 148,the power of reasoning and thinking. We become conscious when we breathe in this F 107Aa divine Discourse... When we are asleep we forget it, but waking up we are conscious

again. During our sleep, since the apertures of the senses are closed, the mind which

is in us is separated from the Ambient with which it coalesced, there remains only the

link through breathing like a root. And it loses the mnemonic power it used to have

earlier. 91 Sleepers too are workers F 75

and collaborators

of things going on in the world.

92 Yet their rational power, thanks to this inseparable link through

breath [-e-], freed from the impressions of the resting senses, is able in sleep to perceivethe future .

0

95-96 And in the way in which embers, brought close to the fire, blaze up because of this D 148change, but go out when withdrawn...

Brought close to fire F 107A b

embers blaze up,

taken away, they go out.... similarly the part of the Ambient which is hosted by our bodies, becomes almost

totally irrational when it is withdrawn from the Ambient

and on the contrary becomes almost identical to the Whole when it coalesces with it

through its numerous apertures.

97 When we communicate with the Discourse's memory F 107B

we know the truth.

When we isolate ourselves from it,

we are mistaken.

98 Man in nighttime F 26

kindles himself a light

from his own self.

He is dead: eyes extinguished, though alive,he touches the dead.

He's asleep: eyes extinguished, awake,

he touches the sleeping.

99 F 21

death is whatever we see when awake

and whatever asleep, slumber.

93 the soul is like a spider in the middle of its web: F 67Awhen an organ is touched, it hastens there .


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94 And during vigilance, when it leans again through the apertures of the senses as if D 148through windows and restores its link with the Ambient, the mind recovers its

rational power. This common and divine Discourse, through our communionwith which we become reasonable, is the criterion of truth.

100 For the awaken F 89there is but one joint cosmos,

while of the sleeping

each one turns aside

into one of his own.

101 So one must follow F 2

the joint Discourse,

for the joint is the common.

Yet, though common it is, this Discourse,the many live just as if

they possessed their own

private understanding.

102 Understanding is common to all. F 113

103 It pertains to all men F 116

to know themselves and to think soundly.

104 Sound thinking is the greatest virtue and F 112

wisdom (is) to say things true and act

according to nature, listening to it.

105 Whoever speaks with sense ( xyn no™i) F 114

must rely firmly on the common ( xyn™i)

like the city on the law.

And the city, even more.For all human laws

are nurtured by the One divine,

for it rules as much as it wishes,

suffices for all

and never runs out.

$«

106 The One F 32

to be called Wise only wants not

and wants the name of Zeus Alive. //

The One, The Wise

wants not and wants


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to be only called by the name of Zeus Alive. //

The Wise wants not

to be called only One

and the name of Zeus Alive wants it

107 This God: daytime nighttime F 67

winter summer, war peace,

abundance famine.

And it changes {yet remains one}

like ,mingled with scents,

is named after the pleasure of each.

108 To this God all is beautiful, F 102

and fair, and just.

But men hold this for unjust

and that for just.109 The diverging ever converges. F 83B

110 fathom not F 51

how One diverging from itself

{with itself} concords:

a retroactive harmony

as of the bow and of the lyre.

111 It conjoined the crooked and not crooked F 10

{the whole and the not whole}

the consonant and dissonant.And one out of all,

and out of one all.

112 Same to the One are F 88

the living and the dead,

and the awoken and the sleepingand the young and the old.

For these, when upside down, are those

and those, when upside down again,

the former.

113 For when we live F 107D

our souls die

*and are buried in us*,

and when we die,

they revive and live.


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114 We live of their death, F 80C

but we die of their life.

115 They live of our death F 77.

116 Immortal{s are} mortal{s} F 62

mortal{s are} immortal{s},

living of each other's death,

of each other's life deceasing.

117 The name of the bow indeed is "life", but its deed, death.

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..................................................118 On his thirtieth year a man may become grandfather, for he reaches puberty around F 80B

the age of twice seven years and can emit his seed. And he whom he has sowed,

born in less than a year, may beget fifteen years later another offspring like him.

119 Thirty years is the time of a genea Ñ or wheel (cycle) of ages Ñ during F 80B

which the begetter begets an offspring from his own offspring and human naturereturns from insemination to insemination.

120 For beginning and end coincide F 103

on the rim of a wheel.

121 Same are the good and the evil, F 5A

122 Disease makes health F 111

pleasant and good,

hunger abundance,

weariness rest.

123 At any rate physicians F 58who cut and burn in any way

do not complain not to receive a worthy fee

for bringing one

the same Ògood thingsÓ

as the disease.

124 But hay would donkeys choose

rather than gold.


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125 If prosperity were in contentment, F 4 we would deem prosperous cows

finding bitter vetch .126 the goal of life is satisfaction. F 19A

127 What changes rests. F 84a

128 Rest is in motion. F 84A

129 Sore fatigue it is to toil at the same F 84 b

and be satisfied

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130 All gives way, nothing abides. F 81B..................................................

131 Counterrun. F 3Aa

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132 It is not possible to enter twice F 91a Plut.

in the same river,

nor to touch twice

one's mortal nature.For it scatters and gathers again, F 91

b

assembles and flows,it comes and it goes...

133 Into rivers the same F 49A

we both step and step not

we both are and are not.

For names remain while waters flow.134 Rest and immobility F 3B

is the property of corpses.

135 The mixture cyceon F 125

disintegrates

even when mixed.

136 0light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, cf. D 163,

large and small D 164 ..................................................


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137 0 the black and the white (?) cf. D 165,

the high tone and the low (?), the male and the female (?) D 171

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138 The fairest of monkeys F 82-83

is ugly before man...

the wisest of men

shall look like an ape before God.

139 Honey: both sweet and bitter F 107Csweet to the healthy, bitter to those ill of jaundice.

140 The sea, F 61

water purest and foulest:

to fish drinkable and salubrious,to men undrinkable and deleterious.

141 Hogs are fond of washing in mud, F 37

fowls in dust or cinderrather than in pure water.

%«

142 a delightful man F 13

must not delight in mud...

143 nightwanderers: F 14magi (-ghee), bacchi(-ee), lenae(-ay), mysts...

144 *Fire * F 14

145 For quite impiously F 14

they initiate themselves

into the secret rituals

*current among men*.

146 Pure sacrifices F 69

even from one man

are rare.

147 They vainly purify themselves F 5

with blood defiled,

as though someone,


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having stepped into clay

were to wash it with clay.

He would be deemed insane

if of men anyonenoticed him doing so.

And they pray to these statues

as though someone

were to talk to their homes,

not knowing the gods and the heroes

who are {who they are}.

148 They pray to the statues of divinities F 128

that hear notso as to make them hear,

they make offerings (?) to them

that grant nothing

as they had not asked.149 *If they are gods, F 127

why mourn you them?

And if you mourn them,

consider them not to be gods.*

150 remedies: F 68 phallic rites and obscene language.

151 If it was truly for Dionysos' sake F 15

they introduced procession

and chanted hymns to shameful parts,

shameless indeed the deed performed!

Same {shame} are Hades and Dionysos

for whom they rave and lenaeize.

152 From that never sets F 16how could anyone escape?

153 For any crawling creature F 11

is driven by Its blows

&«

154 This here cosmos (beautiful arrangement), F 30

the same for all

none of the gods and none of the humans


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created,

but always was, and is, and shall be

an everliving Fire

in measures kindling and in measuresgoing out.

155 And all is exchanged for Fire F 90

and Fire for all

just as coins for gold

and gold for coins.156 consist of F 5C

smelted gold dust...

157 all things are born from Fireand into Fire all pass away. F 107F

158 *This Fire is intelligent.* F 63A

160 At some time Fire turns into all. F 5B

159 Turnings of Fire: F 31a

first Sea,

and of Sea:

half is Earth,

half Pr•st•r (Aether)

161 shortage cf. F 64-65

162 Earth thaws as Sea F 31 b

and is measured

into the same ratio

as was

before Earth came to be.

163

164 And at some time all turns into Fire. F 5B

165 abundance cf. F 64-65

166 When it comes down upon them F 66


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Fire shall judge and seize all things.

167 Thunderbolt is the helmsman of all this: F 64-65

it is he who calls forthshortage and abundance (of Fire).

168 F 123Bab

War and Strifewho rule the coming to be of the (cosmic) arrangement (diacosmesis)

and Agreement and Peacewho are in charge of the conflagration (ekpyrosis).

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169 There is a definite order and time in the transformation of the cosmos according D 35-D 37to allotted necessity (fate) and certain cycles during the whole of eternity.

170 the Great Year lasting ten thousand eight hundred solar years. F 3Da

171 , the time spans of the transformations are not equal: the one called abun- Plut. M.dance is longer, that of the shortage, more brief... Three to nine, such is the ratio 389 BCof the length of the diacosmesis as compared to that of the ekpyrosis.

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172 All this is ruled by Fate which is a necessity. D 40

173 For it (necessity) is totally* allotted F 137(*or fixed for the All?).

174 The Lot is the rational Discourse originating from counterrace, the craftsman of what D 42, D 43

exists; the essence of the Lot is the Discourse disseminated through the substanceof the All; it is the etherian body, the semen of the generation of All and the measure

of the prescribed cycle.

'«

D 48

175 Death of Fire Ñ birth of Air F 76 b

and death of Air Ñ birth of Water

:

176 the Path down. cf. F 123Bc

177 Death of Earth Ñ Water is born, F 76c

and death of Water Ñ Air is born,

and death of Air Ñ Fire .

178 the Path up. cf. F 123Bc

179 The Path up down F 60

is one and the same:

cf. F 59


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213 A beam of light: a dry soul F 118

the wisest and the best.

214 The soul: a sparkle

of stellar nature.

I«

215 The sky is fiery. D 65

216 The sky is like an oven's lid. D 66

217 Thales : cf. F 39

218 ÒAll is full of godsÓ cf. F 44A, heavenly bodies are immortal gods. D 71

219 heavenly bodies are masses of felted Fire in the Ambient, ,

undercurved (concave) bowls, F 123C, F 3C

220 ...turning toward us their hollow, where bright exhalations gather and D 67emit flames.

221 The heavenly bodies feed themseves with the exhalation rising up from earth. D 69

222 The most shining and hot flame is that of the sun. For the other heavenly bodies, D 70those more distant from earth, shine and heat less, while the moon, which is closer to

Earth, passes through an impure space. The sun, however, moves through a

transparent and unmixed space, is at a balanced distance from us, and therefore emits

more heat and light.

223 The sun feeds with the exhalation from the sea..., the moon with that from D 72, D 73,spring and river waters... ...And this is why the sun is a rational torch from the D 75

sea, and the moon, from river waters... 224 The sun and the moon are like bowls, undercurved, they shine for our vision. D 72ÐD 75

225 The moon is like a bowl, its flame consists only of fire, is earth wrapped D 77ÐD 79up with mist.

226 The sun and the moon are eclipsed because of the turning (and the moon because of D 80the inclinations) of their bowllike , so that their hollow looks upward and

their bulge downward with respect to our sight. 227 The monthly eclipses of the moon (= new moons) occur exactly like those of the sun D 81

because its bowllike chariot turns upside down. And the monthly phases of the moon

are due to the slow rotation of its bowl around itself.

228 Day and night, months, seasons and years, rains and winds, and similar phaenomena D 84 according to the different exhalations.

229 When the bright exhalation lights up in the hollow of the sun it produces day, when D 85the opposite exhalation gets the upper hand, it produces night.

230 Sun is new every day. F 6

231 Sun goes out and lights up again. F 83A232 goes out every day at sunset in the western sea because of the cold F 4A, F 83A

there, *then passes below the earth* and lights up again at sunrise

because of the heat there. And this goes on continuously.


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239 The shaft of the Chariot F 122A(the Plough constellation)...

..................................................

240 Time is the last and first of all things, F 105Ait holds all in itself (en heaut™i) and always is.

The bygone year (eniautos) does not desert

the present one

but comes back to itself (en heaut™i) by the opposite path.

Indeed, the tomorrow of the day-before-yesterday

was yesterdayand the yesterday of the day-after-tomorrow

will be tomorrow.

241 The Aeon (the ever existing) is a playful child playing pessoi.

It is a child's kingdom.

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242 And other phaenomena can be explained in the same fashion. D 87

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243 [see Arist. D 88]

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244 Make draught out of downpour [por]... F 88A

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245 Thunder is due to the accumulation of winds and clouds and to gushes of winds F 3E breaking through the clouds.

246 Lightnings are due to igniting exhalations. F 3E

247 Fulgurations are due to clouds flaming up and going out. F 3E 248 Fulguration ressembles the attemps of our fires on earth to light up and their first F 106A

uncertain flame which now goes out and now resurges.

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Mouraviev, Serge N._the Words of Heraclitus. His Book Reconstructed. English Final Version_Selçuk_2013, 10, 10_23 Pp