Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 1
Plato · en
Parmenides (according to Theophrastus) thought that the dead body,
having lost its fiery element, had no perception of light, or heat, or
sound; but that it had perception of darkness, cold, and
silence--[Greek: kai\ o(/lôs de\ pa=n to\ o)\n e)/chein tina gnô=sin].]
Before we pass from Parmenides to his pupil and successor Zeno, who
developed the negative and dialectic side of the Eleatic doctrine, it
will be convenient to notice various other theories of the same
century: first among them that of Herakleitus, who forms as it were
the contrast and antithesis to Xenophanes and Parmenides.
[Side-note: Herakleitus--his obscure style, impressive metaphors,
confident and contemptuous dogmatism.]
Herakleitus of Ephesus, known throughout antiquity by the denomination
of the Obscure, comes certainly after Pythagoras and Xenophanes and
apparently before Parmenides. Of the two first he made special
mention, in one of the sentences, alike brief and contemptuous which
have been preserved from his lost treatise:--"Much learning does not
teach reason: otherwise it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras,
Xenophanes and Hekatæus." In another passage Herakleitus spoke of the
"extensive knowledge, cleverness, and wicked arts" of Pythagoras. He
declared that Homer as well as Archilochus deserved to be scourged and
expelled from the public festivals.[78] His thoughts were all embodied
in one single treatise, which he is said to have deposited in the
temple of the Ephesian Artemis. It was composed in a style most
perplexing and difficult to understand, full of metaphor, symbolical
illustration, and antithesis: but this very circumstance imparted to
it an air of poetical impressiveness and oracular profundity.[79] It
exercised a powerful influence on the speculative minds of Greece,
both in the Platonic age, and subsequently: the Stoics especially both
commented on it largely (though with many dissentient opinions among
the commentators), and borrowed with partial modifications much of its
doctrine.[80]
[Footnote 78: Diogen. L. ix. 1. [Greek: Polumathi/ê no/on ou)
dida/skei; Ê(si/odon ga\r a)\n e)di/daxe kai\ Puthago/rên, au)=tis te
Xenopha/nea kai\ E(katai=on], &c. Ib. viii. 1, 6. [Greek: Puthago/rês
Mnêsa/rchou i(stori/ên ê)/skêsen a)nthrô/pôn ma/lista pa/ntôn, kai\
e)klexa/menos tau/tas ta\s suggrapha\s e)poi/êsen e(ôu+tou= sophi/ên,
polumathi/ên, kakotechni/ên.]]
[Footnote 79: Diogen. Laert. ix. 1-6. Theophrastus conceived that
Herakleitus had left the work unfinished, from eccentricity of
temperament ([Greek: u(po\ melagcholi/as]). Of him, as of various
others, it was imagined by some that his obscurity was intentional
(Cicero, Nat. Deor. i. 26, 74, De Finib. 2, 5). The words of Lucretius
about Herakleitus are remarkable (i. 641):--
Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanes
Quamde graves inter Græcos qui vera requirunt:
Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque
Inversis quæ sub verbis latitantia cernunt.