The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
and from the dark one the cold gains strength and produces winter; and
he also explains the causes of the other phenomena in a corresponding
manner.
But with respect to the earth, he does not explain at all of what
character it is, nor does he do so in the case of the vessels; and these
were his main doctrines.
VII. Now, what his opinion about Socrates was, and what expressions he
used when he met with a treatise of his which Euripides brought him,
according to the story told by Ariston, we have detailed in our account
of Socrates. Seleucus, the grammarian, however, says that a man of the
name of Croton, in his Diver, relates that it was a person of the name
of Crates who first brought this book into Greece; and that he said that
he wanted some Delian diver who would not be drowned in it. And the book
is described under several titles; some calling it the Muses, some a
treatise on Nature; but Diodotus calls it—
A well compacted helm to lead a man
Straight through the path of life.
Some call it a science of morals, the arrangement of the changes[122] of
unity and of everything.
VIII. They say that when he was asked why he preserved silence, he said,
“That you may talk.”
IX. Darius was very desirous to enjoy his conversation; and wrote thus to
him:—
KING DARIUS, THE SON OF HYSTASPES, ADDRESSES HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS, THE
WISE MAN, GREETING HIM.
“You have written a book on Natural Philosophy, difficult to understand
and difficult to explain. Accordingly, if in some parts it is explained
literally, it seems to disclose a very important theory concerning the
universal world, and all that is contained in it, as they are placed in a
state of most divine motion. But commonly, the mind is kept in suspense,
so that those who have studied your work the most, are not able precisely
to disentangle the exact meaning of your expressions. Therefore, king
Darius, the son of Hystaspes wishes to enjoy the benefit of hearing you
discourse, and of receiving some Grecian instruction. Come, therefore,
quickly to my sight, and to my royal palace; for the Greeks, in
general, do not accord to wise men the distinction which they deserve,
and disregard the admirable expositions delivered by them, which are,
however, worthy of being seriously listened to and studied; but with me
you shall have every kind of distinction and honour, and you shall enjoy
every day honourable and worthy conversation, and your pupils’ life shall
become virtuous, in accordance with your precepts.”
HERACLITUS, OF EPHESUS, TO KING DARIUS, THE SON OF HYSTASPES, GREETING.
“All the men that exist in the world, are far removed from truth and
just dealings; but they are full of evil foolishness, which leads them
to insatiable covetousness and vain-glorious ambition. I, however,
forgetting all their worthlessness, and shunning satiety, and who wish
to avoid all envy on the part of my countrymen, and all appearance of
arrogance, will never come to Persia, since I am quite contented with a
little, and live as best suits my own inclination.”
X. This was the way in which the man behaved even to the king. And
Demetrius, in his treatise on People of the same Name, says that he also
despised the Athenians, among whom he had a very high reputation. And
that though he was himself despised by the Ephesians, he nevertheless
preferred his own home. Demetrius Phalereus also mentions him in his
Defence of Socrates.
XI. There were many people who undertook to interpret his book. For
Antisthenes and Heraclides, Ponticus, and Cleanthes, and Sphærus the
Stoic; and besides them Pausanias, who was surnamed Heraclitistes, and
Nicomedes, and Dionysius, all did so. And of the grammarians, Diodotus
undertook the same task; and he says that the subject of the book is not
natural philosophy, but politics; and that all that is said in it about
natural philosophy, is only by way of illustration. And Hieronymus tells
us, that a man of the name of Scythinus, an iambic poet, attempted to
render the book into verse.
XII. There are many epigrams extant which were written upon him, and this
is one of them:—
I who lie here am Heraclitus, spare me
Ye rude unlettered men: ’Twas not for you
That I did labour, but for wiser people.
One man may be to me a countless host,
And an unnumbered multitude be no one;
And this I still say in the shades below.
And there is another expressed thus:—
Be not too hasty, skimming o’er the book
Of Heraclitus; ’tis a difficult road,
For mist is there, and darkness hard to pierce.
But if you have a guide who knows his system,
Then everything is clearer than the sun.
XIII. There were five people of the name of Heraclitus. The first
was this philosopher of ours. The second a lyric poet, who wrote a
panegyrical hymn on the Twelve Gods. The third was an Elegiac poet, of
Halicarnassus; on whom Callimachus wrote the following epigram:—
I heard, O Heraclitus, of your death,
And the news filled my eyes with mournful tears,
When I remembered all the happy hours
When we with talk beguiled the setting sun.
You now are dust; but still the honeyed voice
Of your sweet converse doth and will survive;
Nor can fell death, which all things else destroys,
Lay upon that his ruthless conquering grasp.
The fourth was a Lesbian, who wrote a history of Macedonia. The fifth was
a man who blended jest with earnest; and who, having been a harp-player,
abandoned that profession for a serio-comic style of writing.
LIFE OF XENOPHANES.
I. Xenophanes was the son of Dexius, or, as Apollodorus says, of
Orthomenes. He was a citizen of Colophon; and is praised by Timon.
Accordingly, he says:—
Xenophanes, not much a slave to vanity,
The wise reprover of the tricks of Homer.
He, having been banished from his own country, lived at Zancle, in Sicily,
and at Catana.
II. And, according to the statements made by some people, he was a pupil
of no one; but, as others say, he was a pupil of Boton the Athenian; or,
as another account again affirms, of Archelaus. He was, if we may believe
Sotion, a contemporary of Anaximander.
III. He wrote poems in hexameter and in elegiac verse; and also he wrote
iambics against Hesiod and Homer, attacking the things said in their
poems about the Gods. He also used to recite his own poems. It is said
likewise, that he argued against the opinions of Thales and Pythagoras,
and that he also attacked Epimenides. He lived to an extreme old age; as
he says somewhere himself:—
Threescore and seven long years are fully passed,
Since first my doctrines spread abroad through Greece:
And ’twixt that time and my first view of light
Six lustres more must added be to them:
If I am right at all about my age,
Lacking but eight years of a century.
His doctrine was, that there were four elements of existing things; and
an infinite number of worlds, which were all unchangeable. He thought
that the clouds were produced by the vapour which was borne upwards from
the sun, and which lifted them up into the circumambient space. That the
essence of God was of a spherical form, in no respect resembling man;
that the universe could see, and that the universe could hear, but could
not breathe; and that it was in all its parts intellect, and wisdom, and
eternity. He was the first person who asserted that everything which is
produced is perishable, and that the soul is a spirit. He used also to
say that the many was inferior to unity. Also, that we ought to associate
with tyrants either as little as possible, or else as pleasantly as
possible.
When Empedocles said to him that the wise man was undiscoverable, he
replied, “Very likely; for it takes a wise man to discover a wise
man.” And Sotion says, that he was the first person who asserted that
everything is incomprehensible. But he is mistaken in this.
Xenophanes wrote a poem on the Founding of Colophon; and also, on the
Colonisation of Elea, in Italy, consisting of two thousand verses. And he
flourished about the sixtieth olympiad.
IV. Demetrius Phalereus, in his treatise on Old Age, and Phenætius the
Stoic, in his essay on Cheerfulness, relate that he buried his sons
with his own hands, as Anaxagoras had also done. And he seems to have
been detested[123] by the Pythagoreans, Parmeniscus, and Orestades, as
Phavorinus relates in the first book of his Commentaries.
V. There was also another Xenophanes, a native of Lesbos, and an iambic
poet.
These are the Promiscuous or unattached philosophers.
LIFE OF PARMENIDES.
I. Parmenides, the son of Pyres, and a citizen of Velia, was a pupil of
Xenophanes. And Theophrastus, in his Abridgment, says that he was also a
pupil of Anaximander. However, though he was a pupil of Xenophanes, he
was not afterwards a follower of his; but he attached himself to Aminias,
and Diochaetes the Pythagorean, as Sotion relates, which last was a poor
but honourable and virtuous man. And he it was whose follower he became,
and after he was dead he erected a shrine, or ἡρῷον, in his honour. And
so Parmenides, who was of a noble family and possessed of considerable
wealth, was induced, not by Xenophanes but by Aminias, to embrace the
tranquil life of a philosopher.
II. He was the first person who asserted that the earth was of a
spherical form; and that it was situated in the centre of the universe.
He also taught that there were two elements, fire and earth; and that one
of them occupies the place of the maker, the other that of the matter.
He also used to teach that man was originally made out of clay; and that
they were composed of two parts, the hot and the cold; of which, in fact,
everything consists. Another of his doctrines was, that the mind and the
soul were the same thing, as we are informed by Theophrastus, in his
Natural Philosophy, when he enumerates the theories of nearly all the
different philosophers.
He also used to say that philosophy was of a twofold character; one kind
resting on certain truth, the other on opinion. On which account he says
some where:
And ’twill be needful for you well to know,
The fearless heart of all-convincing truth:
Also the opinions, though less sure, of men,
Which rest upon no certain evidence.
III. Parmenides too philosophizes in his poems; as Hesiod and Xenophanes,
and Empedocles used to. And he used to say that argument was the test
of truth; and that the sensations were not trustworthy witnesses.
Accordingly, he says:—
Let not the common usages of men
Persuade your better taught experience,
To trust to men’s unsafe deceitful sight,
Or treacherous ears, or random speaking tongue:
Reason alone will prove the truth of facts.
On which account Timon says of him:—
The vigorous mind of wise Parmenides,
Who classes all the errors of the thoughts
Under vain phantasies.
Plato inscribed one of his dialogues with his name—Parmenides, or an
essay on Ideas. He flourished about the sixty-ninth Olympiad. He appears
to have been the first person who discovered that Hesperus and Lucifer
were the same star, as Phavorinus records, in the fifth book of his
Commentaries. Some, however, attribute this discovery to Pythagoras. And
Callimachus asserts that the poem in which this doctrine is promulgated
is not his work.
IV. He is said also to have given laws to his fellow-citizens, as
Speusippus records, in his account of the Philosophers. He was also the
first employer of the question called the Achilles,[124] as Phavorinus
assures us in his Universal History.
V. There was also another Parmenides, an orator, who wrote a treatise on
the art of Oratory.
LIFE OF MELISSUS.
I. Melissus was a Samian, and the son of Ithagenes. He was a pupil