In Heraclitus’ time, thymos and psyche carried highly similar or even identical meanings, because both could refer to life, courage, personality, emotions, and reason. Heraclitus probably worked with all of these meanings. He may have been partly inspired by Homer and post-Homeric literature, where the two terms were likewise placed side by side and often used interchangeably. In Heraclitus, thymos and psyche are not opposites in terms of signification. Oftentimes, they can be “swapped,” and their meaning and “costs” exchanged. The (...) source and cause of this special exchange is desiring or wanting (thelein), which connects all these senses but is also the source of conflict and fighting. Desire—regardless of what it is and what is desired—is simultaneously the acquisition of the desired object or person and a way of paying for it. This struggle for the desired object is difficult not only because of its consequences (the price), but also because it is not possible to permanently stop desiring, which is why this struggle cannot be brought to an end. (shrink)

The article presents a reconstruction of Heraclitus’ saying in DK 22 B 14, which is generally thought to be two discontinuous statements (B 14a and B 14b), inorganically linked by a commentary by Clement of Alexandria. Although this sentence of Clement’s is almost unanimously rejected as a Christian misinterpretation of the pagan mysteries, the author of the article attempts to demonstrate that the core of the sentence does come almost certainly from Heraclitus. All that Clement did was to change the (...) meaning of the sentence by changing the subjects for the objects. This new reading of the fragment makes it possible to link the two parts of the saying in a meaningful way, and at the same time to shed light on what were probably Heraclitus’ main criticisms of the initiates of the four different mysteries and the initiatory cults (B 14a). This is supported by a detailed historical and religious analysis of the probable meaning of the different designations for the initiates and the possible interconnections between them. (shrink)

The intention of this paper is at least partly to reveal the background and the sources that inspired or could have inspired the Empedoclean conception of Sphairos. These sources have mostly been sought in the philosophical constructions of other pre-Socratics but the present paper aims to show that there are very interesting and sometimes also very narrow parallels and analogies in mythology. On the one hand, in the stories of the primordial man who is sacrificed in the world and whose (...) torn limbs created parts or elements of our world , and on the other hand, in the myth of the periodical death and ressurection of Adonis. While the inspiration with the destiny of Aphrodite’s lover Adonis seems be highly probable, whether Empedocles knew and utilized the myth of dismemberment of the primordial man remains unclear. The idea of Sphairos, in every case, was formed by dint of both genres or ways of thinking − philosophical as well as mythological ones − that both permeated all his verses. (shrink)

The intention of this paper is at least partly to reveal the background and the sources that inspired or could have inspired the Empedoclean conception of Sphairos. These sources have mostly been sought in the philosophical constructions of other pre-Socratics but the present paper aims to show that there are very interesting and sometimes also very narrow parallels and analogies in mythology. On the one hand, in the stories of the primordial man who is sacrificed in the world and whose (...) torn limbs created parts or elements of our world, and on the other hand, in the myth of the periodical death and ressurection of Adonis. While the inspiration with the destiny of Aphrodite’s lover Adonis seems be highly probable, whether Empedocles knew and utilized the myth of dismemberment of the primordial man remains unclear. The idea of Sphairos, in every case, was formed by dint of both genres or ways of thinking − philosophical as well as mythological ones − that both permeated all his verses. (shrink)