Abstract

This article applies and defends an intertextual approach to Heraclitus B51 DK, the ‘bow-lyre fragment’. It argues that the fragment alludes to the climactic scene of the Odyssey in which the hero strings the bow and is likened to an expert lyre-player. It then explores some implications of this point for our understanding of the significance of the fragment, of the sixth-century reception of the Odyssey and of Parmenides’ reception of Heraclitus.