(21) The transformations of Fire are, first of all, sea; and half of the sea is earth, half whirlwind. . . .[1] R. P. 35 b.
(22) All things are an exchange for Fire, and Fire for all things, even as wares for gold and gold for wares. R. P. 35.
(23) It becomes liquid sea, and is measured by the same tale as before it became earth.[2] R. P. 39.
(24) Fire is want and surfeit. R. P. 36 a.
(25) Fire lives the death of air,[3] and air lives the death of fire; water lives the death of earth, earth that of water. R.P. 37.
(26) Fire in its advance will judge and convict[4] all things. R. P. 36 a.
(27) How can one hide from that which never sets?
(28) It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things. R. P. 35 b.
(29) The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of Justice, will find him out. R. P. 39.
(30) The limit of dawn and evening is the Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright Zeus.[5]
(31) If there were no sun it would be night, for all the other stars could do.[6]
(32) The sun is new every day.
- ↑ On the word πρηστήρ, see below, p. 149, n. 1.
- ↑ The subject of fr. 23 is γῆ as we see from Diog. ix. 9 (R.P. 36), πάλιν τε αὖ τὴν γῆν χεῖσθαι; and Aet. i. 3, 11 (Dox. p. 284 a 1; b 5), ἔπειτα ἀναχαλωμένην τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς χύσει (Dübner: φύσει, libri) ὕδωρ ἀποτελεῖσθαι. Herakleitos may have said γῆ θάλασσα διαχέεται, and Clement (Strom. v. p. 712) seems to imply this. The phrase μετρέεται εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον can only mean that the proportion of the measures remains constant. So Zeller (p. 690, n. 1), zu derselben Grösse. Diels (Vors. 12 B 31 n.) renders "nach demselben Wort (Gesetz)," but refers to Lucr. v. 257, which supports the other interpretation (pro parte sua).
- ↑ It is doubtful whether this fragment is quoted textually. It seems to imply the four elements of Empedokles.
- ↑ I understand ἐπελθόν of the πυρὸς ἔφοδος, for which see p. 151, n. 1. Diels has pointed out that καταλαμβάνειν is the old word for "to convict."
- ↑ Here it is clear that οὖρος = τέρματα, and therefore means "boundary," not "hill." Strabo, who quotes the fragment (i. 6, p. 3), is probably right in taking ἠοῦς καὶ ἑσπέρας as equivalent to ἀνατολῆς καὶ δύσεως and making the words refer to the "arctic" circle. As αἴθριος Ζεύς means the bright blue sky, it is impossible for its οὖρος to be the South Pole, as Diels suggests. It is more likely the horizon. I take the fragment as a protest against the Pythagorean theory of a southern hemisphere.
- ↑ We learn from Diog. ix. 10 (quoted below, p. 147) that Herakleitos explained why the sun was warmer and brighter than the moon, and this is doubtless a fragment of that passage.
