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83-634: A magus is a priest in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. Magus or The Magus may also refer to: Magus Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos (μάγος) was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic , with a meaning expanded to include astronomy , astrology , alchemy , and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association

166-528: A " sacerdotal caste", but "whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned." According to Robert Charles Zaehner , in other accounts, "we hear of Magi not only in Persia , Parthia , Bactria , Chorasmia , Aria , Media , and among the Sakas , but also in non-Iranian lands like Samaria , Ethiopia , and Egypt . Their influence was also widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that

249-544: A "sage and philosopher-king" based on its Platonic notion. Once the magi had been associated with "magic" – Greek magikos – it was but a natural progression that the Greeks' image of Zoroaster would metamorphose into a magician too. The first century Pliny the Elder names "Zoroaster" as the inventor of magic ( Natural History xxx.2.3), but a "principle of the division of labor appears to have spared Zoroaster most of

332-502: A child plays. Similar to his views on rivers, Heraclitus believed "the Sun is new each day." He also said the Sun never sets . This was "obviously inspired by scientific reflection, and no doubt seemed to him to obviate the difficulty of understanding how the sun can work its way underground from west to east during the night". The physician Galen explains: "Heraclitus says that the sun

415-421: A dream they are warned not to return to Herod, and therefore return to their homes by taking another route. Since its composition in the late 1st century, numerous apocryphal stories have embellished the gospel's account. Matthew 2:16 implies that Herod learned from the wise men that up to two years had passed since the birth, which is why all male children two years or younger were slaughtered . In addition to

498-467: A dry soul is best. Heraclitus is said to have produced a single work on papyrus , which has not survived; however, over 100 fragments of this work survive in quotations by other authors. The title is unknown, but many later writers refer to this work, and works by other pre-Socratics, as On Nature . According to Diogenes Laërtius, Heraclitus deposited the book in the Artemision – one of

581-573: A generalization of all modern-day Iranians. "By referring to the Iranians in these documents as majus , the security apparatus [implied] that the Iranians [were] not sincere Muslims, but rather covertly practice their pre-Islamic beliefs. Thus, in their eyes, Iraq's war took on the dimensions of not only a struggle for Arab nationalism, but also a campaign in the name of Islam." In India, the Sakaldwipiya Brahmins are considered to be

664-619: A likely reference to an alleged similarity to Pythagorean riddles. Timon said Heraclitus wrote his book "rather unclearly" ( ασαφεστερον ; asaphesteron ); according to Timon, this was intended to allow only the "capable" to attempt it. By the time of Cicero , this epithet became in Greek "The Dark" ( ὁ Σκοτεινός ; ho Skoteinós ) or in Latin "The Obscure" as he had spoken nimis obscurē ("too obscurely") concerning nature and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood. The obscurity

747-528: A loan word from Median ). The meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta , the sacred literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which is in the Younger Avestan portion, the term appears in the hapax moghu.tbiš , meaning "hostile to the moghu ", where moghu does not (as was previously thought) mean "magus", but rather "a member of

830-487: A loanword from Old Persian * maguš "magician; magi". Mair reconstructs an Old Chinese * m ag . The reconstruction of Old Chinese forms is somewhat speculative. The velar final -g in Mair's * m ag (巫) is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions (Dong Tonghe's * m wag , Zhou Fagao's * mjwaγ , and Li Fanggui 's * mjag ), but not all ( Bernhard Karlgren 's * m wo and Axel Schuessler's * ma ). Mair adduces

913-487: A process of never-ending cycles. Plato and Aristotle attribute to Heraclitus a periodic destruction of the world by a great conflagration, known as ekpyrosis, which happens every Great Year – according to Plato, every 36,000 years. Heraclitus more than once describes the transformations to and from fire: Fire lives the death of earth, and air lives the death of fire; water lives the death of air, and earth that of water. The turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea half

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996-406: A public fact like a proposition or formula ; like Guthrie, he views Heraclitus as a materialist, so he grants Heraclitus would not have considered these as abstract objects or immaterial things. Another possibility is the logos referred to the truth , or to the book itself. Classicist Walther Kranz translated it as " sense ". Heraclitus's logos doctrine may also be the origin of

1079-413: A thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her". Kahn characterized the main features of Heraclitus's writing as "linguistic density", meaning that single words and phrases have multiple meanings, and "resonance", meaning that expressions evoke one another. Heraclitus used literary devices like alliteration and chiasmus . Aristotle quotes part of the opening line of Heraclitus's work in

1162-443: A wide variety of other uses, such that Heraclitus might have a different meaning of the word for each usage in his book. Kahn has argued that Heraclitus used the word in multiple senses, whereas Guthrie has argued that there is no evidence Heraclitus used it in a way that was significantly different from that in which it was used by contemporaneous speakers of Greek. Professor Michael Stokes interprets Heraclitus's use of logos as

1245-433: Is Deyr-e Moghan (literally "the monastery of the magi"). The oldest surviving Greek reference to the magi – from Greek μάγος ( mágos , plural: magoi ) – might be from 6th century BC Heraclitus (apud Clemens Protrepticus 2.22.2 ), who curses the magi for their "impious" rites and rituals. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, and there is nothing to suggest that Heraclitus

1328-399: Is a burning mass, kindled at its rising, and quenched at its setting." Heraclitus also believed that the Sun is as large as it looks, and said Hesiod "did not know night and day , for they are one." However, he also explained the phenomenon of day and night by if the Sun "oversteps his measures", then " Erinyes , the ministers of Justice, will find him out". Heraclitus further wrote

1411-561: Is also commonly rendered in English as "kings" and more often in recent times as "wise men"). The singular "magus" appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician . Hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood has survived in India and Iran. They are termed Herbad , Mobad (Magupat, i.e. chief of the Maga), and Dastur depending on

1494-568: Is at the same time a divine law." The Milesians before Heraclitus had a view called material monism which conceived of certain elements as the arche – Thales with water, Anaximander with apeiron , and Anaximenes with air. Since antiquity, philosophers have concluded that Heraclitus construed of fire as the arche , the ultimate reality or the fundamental element that gave rise to the other elements. Pre-Socratic scholar Eduard Zeller has argued that Heraclitus believed that heat in general and dry exhalation in particular, rather than visible fire,

1577-454: Is common, most people live as though they had an understanding peculiar to themselves." Heraclitus did not seem to like the prevailing religion of the time, criticizing the popular mystery cults , blood sacrifice , and prayer to statues. He also did not believe in funeral rites , saying "Corpses are more fit to be cast out than dung." He further criticized Homer , Hesiod , Pythagoras , Xenophanes , and Hecataeus . He endorsed

1660-431: Is earth, half fireburst. [Earth] is liquefied as sea and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth. However, it is also argued by many that Heraclitus never identified fire as the arche ; rather, he only used fire to explain his notion of flux, as the basic stuff which changes or moves the most. Others conclude he used it as the physical form of logos . On yet another interpretation, Heraclitus

1743-794: Is not a material monist explicating flux nor stability, but a revolutionary process philosopher who chooses fire in an attempt to say there is no arche . Fire is a symbol or metaphor for change, rather than the basic stuff which changes the most. Perspectives of this sort emphasize his statements on change such as "The way up is the way down", as well as the quote "All things are an exchange for Fire, and Fire for all things, even as wares for gold and gold for wares", which has been understood as stating that while all can be transformed into fire, not everything comes from fire, just as not everything comes from gold. While considered an ancient cosmologist , Heraclitus did not seem as interested in astronomy , meteorology , or mathematics as his predecessors. It

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1826-400: Is surmised Heraclitus believed that the earth was flat and extended infinitely in all directions. Heraclitus held all things occur according to fate . He said "Time ( Aion ) is a child playing draughts , the kingly power is a child's." It is disputed whether this means time and life is determined by rules like a game , by conflict like a game, or by arbitrary whims of the gods like

1909-562: Is tended by blows." A core concept for Heraclitus is logos , an ancient Greek word literally meaning "word, speech, discourse, or meaning ". For Heraclitus, the logos seems to designate the rational structure or ordered composition of the world. As well as the opening quote of his book, one fragment reads: "Listening not to me but to the logos , it is wise to agree ( homologein ) that all things are one." Another fragment reads: "[ hoi polloi ] ... do not know how to listen [to Logos ] or how to speak [the truth]." The word logos has

1992-457: Is that the work fell naturally into these parts when the Stoic commentators took their editions of it in hand". The Stoics divided their own philosophy into three parts: ethics, logic, and physics. The Stoic Cleanthes further divided philosophy into dialectics , rhetoric , ethics , politics, physics , and theology, and philologist Karl Deichgräber has argued the last three are the same as

2075-535: Is the central principle in Heraclitus' thought." Another of Heraclitus's famous sayings highlights the idea that the unity of opposites is also a conflict of opposites: "War is father of all and king of all; and some he manifested as gods, some as men; some he made slaves, some free"; war is a creative tension that brings things into existence. Heraclitus says further "Gods and men honour those slain in war"; "Greater deaths gain greater portions"; and "Every beast

2158-451: Is the earliest use of the concept of force . A quote about the bow shows his appreciation for wordplay: "The bow's name is life, but its work is death." Each substance contains its opposite, making for a continual circular exchange of generation, destruction, and motion that results in the stability of the world. This can be illustrated by the quote "Even the kykeon separates if it is not stirred." According to Abraham Schoener: "War

2241-492: The Rhetoric to outline the difficulty in punctuating Heraclitus without ambiguity; he debated whether "forever" applied to "being" or to "prove". Aristotle's successor at the lyceum Theophrastus says about Heraclitus that "some parts of his work [are] half-finished, while other parts [made] a strange medley". Theophrastus thought an inability to finish the work showed Heraclitus was melancholic. Diogenes Laërtius relays

2324-479: The Delphic maxim to know thyself . Heraclitus has been the subject of numerous interpretations. According to scholar Daniel W. Graham, Heraclitus has been seen as a " material monist or a process philosopher ; a scientific cosmologist , a metaphysician and a religious thinker; an empiricist , a rationalist , a mystic ; a conventional thinker and a revolutionary; a developer of logic – one who denied

2407-464: The Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching", and it seems that Avestan maga- is related to Sanskrit magha- , "there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning" as well. But it "may be, however", that Avestan moghu (which is not the same as Avestan maga- ) "and Medean magu were

2490-553: The Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon , who had first-hand experience at the Persian Achaemenid court. In his early 4th century BC Cyropaedia , Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters (8.3.11), and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Apuleius , a Numidian Platonist philosopher, describes magus to be considered as

2573-630: The Old and New Testaments . Ordinarily this word is translated "magician" or "sorcerer" in the sense of illusionist or fortune-teller, and this is how it is translated in all of its occurrences (e.g. Acts 13:6) except for the Gospel of Matthew , where, depending on translation, it is rendered "wise man" ( KJV , RSV ) or left untranslated as Magi , typically with an explanatory note ( NIV ). However, early church fathers, such as St. Justin , Origen , St. Augustine and St. Jerome , did not make an exception for

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2656-556: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – as a dedication. Classicist Charles Kahn states: "Down to the time of Plutarch and Clement , if not later, the little book of Heraclitus was available in its original form to any reader who chose to seek it out." Yet, by the time of Simplicius of Cilicia , a 6th-century neoplatonic philosopher, who mentions Heraclitus 32 times but never quotes from him, Heraclitus's work

2739-496: The Zo- , even as the living star. Later, an even more elaborate mytho-etymology evolved: Zoroaster died by the living ( zo- ) flux ( -ro- ) of fire from the star ( -astr- ) which he himself had invoked, and even that the stars killed him in revenge for having been restrained by him. The second, and "more serious" factor for the association with astrology was the notion that Zoroaster was a Chaldean . The alternate Greek name for Zoroaster

2822-406: The law of non-contradiction ; the first genuine philosopher and an anti-intellectual obscurantist ". The hallmarks of Heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and change, or flux . According to Aristotle, Heraclitus was a dialetheist , or one who denies the law of noncontradiction (a law of thought or logical principle which states that something cannot be true and false at

2905-561: The Gospel, and translated the word in its ordinary sense, i.e. as "magician". The Gospel of Matthew states that magi visited the infant Jesus to do him homage shortly after his birth ( 2:1–2:12 ). The gospel describes how magi from the east were notified of the birth of a king in Judaea by the appearance of his star. Upon their arrival in Jerusalem , they visited King Herod to determine

2988-470: The Great . However, this date can be considered "roughly accurate" based on a fragment that references Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Hecataeus as older contemporaries, placing him near the end of the sixth century BC. According to Diogenes Laertius, Heraclitus died covered in dung after failing to cure himself from dropsy . This may be to parody his doctrine that for souls it is death to become water, and that

3071-485: The Greeks supposed him to be – was for the Hellenists the figurehead of the 'magi', and the founder of that order (or what the Greeks considered to be an order ). He was further projected as the author of a vast compendium of "Zoroastrian" pseudepigrapha , composed in the main to discredit the texts of rivals. "The Greeks considered the best wisdom to be exotic wisdom" and "what better and more convenient authority than

3154-723: The Magas. Some classical astronomers and mathematicians of India such are Varahamihira are considered to be the descendants of the Magas. Varahamihira specifies that installation and consecration of the Sun images should be done by the Magas. al-Biruni mentions that the priests of the Sun Temple at Multan were Magas. The Magas had colonies in a number of places in India, and were the priests at Konark , Martanda and other sun temples. Victor H. Mair (1990) suggested that Chinese wū (巫 "shaman; witch, wizard; magician") may originate as

3237-585: The Magi as sorcerers and in several descriptions, they are negatively described as obstructing Jewish religious practices. Several references include the sages criticizing practices performed by various magi. One instance is a description of the Zoroastrian priests exhuming corpses for their burial practices which directly interfered with the Jewish burial rites. Another instance is a sage forbidding learning from

3320-690: The alleged division of Heraclitus. The philosopher Paul Schuster has argued the division came from the Pinakes . Scholar Martin Litchfield West claims that while the existing fragments do not give much of an idea of the overall structure, the beginning of the discourse can probably be determined, starting with the opening lines, which are quoted by Sextus Empiricus : Of the logos being forever do men prove to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this logos they are like

3403-646: The descendants of the ten Maga (Sanskrit मग ) priests who were invited to conduct worship of Mitra ( Surya ) at Mitravana ( Multan ), as described in the Samba Purana , Bhavishya Purana and the Mahabharata . Their original home was a mythological region called Śākadvīpa . According to Varahamihira (c. 505 – c. 587), the statue of the Sun god (Mitra), is represented as wearing the "northern" (Central Asian) dress, specifically with horse riding boots. Some Brahmin communities of India trace their descent from

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3486-494: The discovery of two figurines with unmistakably Caucasoid or Europoid features dated to the 8th century BC, found in a 1980 excavation of a Zhou dynasty palace in Fufeng County , Shaanxi Province. One of the figurines is marked on the top of its head with an incised ☩ graph. Mair's suggestion is based on a proposal by Jao Tsung-I (1990), which connects the " cross potent " bronzeware script glyph for wu 巫 with

3569-487: The distant – temporally and geographically – Zoroaster?" The subject of these texts, the authenticity of which was rarely challenged, ranged from treatises on nature to ones on necromancy . But the bulk of these texts dealt with astronomical speculations and magical lore. One factor for the association with astrology was Zoroaster's name, or rather, what the Greeks made of it. His name was identified at first with star-worshiping ( astrothytes "star sacrificer") and, with

3652-411: The doctrine of natural law . Heraclitus stated "People ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the city walls. For all human laws get nourishment from the one divine law." "Far from arguing like the latter Sophists, that the human law, because it is a conventional law, deserves to be abandoned in favor of the law of nature, Herakleitos argued that the human law partakes of the law of nature, which

3735-455: The epithets "the dark" and "the obscure". He was considered arrogant and depressed, a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia . Consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient philosopher Democritus , who was known as "the laughing philosopher". The central ideas of Heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and the concept of change . He also saw harmony and justice in strife . He viewed

3818-550: The genuine one. The river fragments (especially the second "we both are and are not") seem to suggest not only is the river constantly changing, but we do as well, perhaps commenting on existential questions about humanity and personhood. Scholars such as Reinhardt also interpreted the metaphor as illustrating what is stable, rather than the usual interpretation of illustrating change. Classicist Karl-Martin Dietz  [ de ] has said: "You will not find anything, in which

3901-416: The greatest warning against materialism". Several fragments seem to relate to the unity of opposites. For example: "The straight and the crooked path of the fuller 's comb is one and the same"; "The way up is the way down"; "Beginning and end, on a circle 's circumference, are common"; and "Thou shouldst unite things whole and things not whole, that which tends to unite and that which tends to separate,

3984-473: The harmonious and the discordant; from all things arises the one, and from the one all things." Over time, the opposites change into each other: "Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life"; "As the same thing in us is living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. For these things having changed around are those, and those in turn having changed around are these"; and "Cold things warm up,

4067-644: The hot cools off, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet." It also seems they change into each other depending on one's point of view , a case of relativism or perspectivism . Heraclitus states: "Disease makes health sweet and good; hunger, satiety; toil, rest." While men drink and wash with water, fish prefer to drink saltwater, pigs prefer to wash in mud, and fowls prefer to wash in dust. " Oxen are happy when they find bitter vetches to eat" and " asses would rather have refuse than gold ." Diogenes Laërtius summarizes Heraclitus's philosophy as follows: "All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and

4150-713: The location of the king of the Jews 's birthplace. Herod, disturbed, told them that he had not heard of the child, but informed them of a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem . He then asked the magi to inform him when they find the child so that he himself may also pay homage to the child. Guided by the Star of Bethlehem , the wise men found the child Jesus in a house. They paid homage to him, and presented him with "gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh." (2.11) In

4233-721: The magi. In Arabic, "Magians" ( majus ) is the term for Zoroastrians . The term is mentioned in the Quran, in sura 22 verse 17, where the "Magians" are mentioned alongside the Jews , the Sabians and the Christians in a list of religions who will be judged on the Day of Resurrection . In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein 's Ba'ath Party used the term majus during the Iran–Iraq War as

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4316-521: The more famous story of Simon Magus found in chapter 8, the Book of Acts ( 13:6–11 ) also describes another magus who acted as an advisor of Sergius Paulus , the Roman proconsul at Paphos on the island of Cyprus . He was a Jew named Bar-Jesus (son of Jesus), or alternatively Elymas . (Another Cypriot magus named Atomos is referenced by Josephus , working at the court of Felix at Caesarea .) One of

4399-716: The non-canonical Christian sources, the Syriac Infancy Gospel , provides, in its third chapter, a story of the wise men of the East which is very similar to much of the story in Matthew. This account cites Zoradascht (Zoroaster) as the source of the prophecy that motivated the wise men to seek the infant Jesus. In the Talmud , instances of dialogue between the Jewish sages and various magi are recorded. The Talmud depicts

4482-404: The opposites in conflict ἔρις ( eris ), " strife ", and theorized that the apparently unitary state, δίκη ( dikê ), " justice ", results in "the most beautiful harmony ", in contrast to Anaximander , who described the same as injustice. Aristotle said Heraclitus disagreed with Homer because Homer wished that strife would leave the world, which according to Heraclitus would destroy

4565-454: The preserved fragments; the anecdote that Heraclitus relinquished the hereditary title of "king" to his younger brother may at least imply that Heraclitus was from an aristocratic family in Ephesus. Heraclitus appears to have had little sympathy for democracy or the masses . However, it is unclear whether he was "an unconditional partisan of the rich", or if, like the sage Solon , he

4648-516: The rank. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BC, and only one of these can be dated with precision. This one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great , and which can be dated to about 520 BC. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute; in the Old Persian portion as maγu- (generally assumed to be

4731-588: The responsibility for introducing the dark arts to the Greek and Roman worlds. That dubious honor went to another fabulous magus, Ostanes , to whom most of the pseudepigraphic magical literature was attributed." For Pliny, this magic was a "monstrous craft" that gave the Greeks not only a "lust" ( aviditatem ) for magic, but a downright "madness" ( rabiem ) for it, and Pliny supposed that Greek philosophers – among them Pythagoras , Empedocles , Democritus , and Plato – traveled abroad to study it, and then returned to teach it (xxx.2.8–10). "Zoroaster" – or rather what

4814-431: The river remains constant ... Just the fact, that there is a particular river bed, that there is a source and an estuary etc. is something, that stays identical. And this is ... the concept of a river." According to American philosopher W. V. O. Quine , the river parable illustrates that the river is a process through time. One cannot step twice into the same river-stage. Professor M. M. McCabe has argued that

4897-493: The sacerdotal caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name." As early as the 5th century BC, Greek magos had spawned mageia and magike to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it was his or her art and practice. But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company. Thereafter, mageia was used not for what actual magi did, but for something related to

4980-459: The sage Bias of Priene , who is quoted as saying "Most men are bad". He praised a man named Hermodorus as the best among the Ephesians, who he says should all kill themselves for exiling him. Heraclitus is traditionally considered to have flourished in the 69th Olympiad (504–501 BC), but this date may simply be based on a prior account synchronizing his life with the reign of Darius

5063-454: The same idea, panta chorei , or "everything moves" is ascribed to Heraclitus by Plato in the Cratylus . Since Plato, Heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river, which cannot be stepped into twice. This fragment from Heraclitus's writings has survived in three different forms: The classicist Karl Reinhardt identified the first river quote as

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5146-527: The same shape found in Neolithic West Asia, specifically a cross potent carved in the shoulder of a goddess figure of the Halaf period . Heraclitus Heraclitus ( / ˌ h ɛr ə ˈ k l aɪ t ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἡράκλειτος Hērákleitos ; fl.   c.  500 BC ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus , which

5229-472: The same time). Also according to Aristotle, Heraclitus was a materialist . Attempting to follow Aristotle's hylomorphic interpretation, scholar W. K. C. Guthrie interprets the distinction between flux and stability as one between matter and form . On this view, Heraclitus is a flux theorist because he is a materialist who believes matter always changes. There are no unchanging forms like with Plato or Aristotle. As one author puts it, "Plato took flux as

5312-505: The same word in origin, a common Iranian term for 'member of the tribe' having developed among the Medes the special sense of 'member of the (priestly) tribe', hence a priest." Some examples of the use of magi in Persian poetry , are present in the poems of Hafez . There are two frequent terms used by him, first one is Peer-e Moghan (literally "the old man of the magi") and second one

5395-457: The story that the playwright Euripides gave Socrates a copy of Heraclitus's work and asked for his opinion. Socrates replied: "The part I understand is excellent, and so too is, I dare say, the part I do not understand; but it needs a Delian diver to get to the bottom of it." Also according to Diogenes Laërtius, Timon of Phlius called Heraclitus "the Riddler" ( αἰνικτής ; ainiktēs )

5478-399: The sum of things ( τὰ ὅλα ta hola ('the whole')) flows like a stream." Classicist Jonathan Barnes states that " Panta rhei , 'everything flows' is probably the most familiar of Heraclitus's sayings, yet few modern scholars think he said it". Barnes observes that although the exact phrase was not ascribed to Heraclitus until the 6th century by Simplicius , a similar saying expressing

5561-460: The three statements on rivers should all be read as fragments from a discourse. McCabe suggests reading them as though they arose in succession. The three fragments "could be retained, and arranged in an argumentative sequence". In McCabe's reading of the fragments, Heraclitus can be read as a philosopher capable of sustained argument , rather than just aphorism . Heraclitus said "strife is justice" and "all things take place by strife". He called

5644-528: The tribe" or referred to a particular social class in the proto-Iranian language and then continued to do so in Avestan. An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning "possessing maga- ", was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were coeval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha- ). While "in

5727-412: The unexperienced experiencing words and deeds such as I explain when I distinguish each thing according to its nature and declare how it is. Other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep. Heraclitus's style has been compared to a Sibyl , who "with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over

5810-585: The western coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey ). In the 6th century BC, Ephesus, like other cities in Ionia , lived under the effects of both the rise of Lydia under Croesus and his overthrow by Cyrus the Great c. 547 BC. Ephesus appears to have subsequently cultivated a close relationship with the Persian Empire; during the suppression of the Ionian revolt by Darius the Great in 494 BC, Ephesus

5893-534: The word 'magic' in the modern sense, i.e. using supernatural means to achieve an effect in the natural world, or the appearance of achieving these effects through trickery or sleight of hand. The early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens and dreams ( Histories 7.19, 7.37, 1.107, 1.108, 1.120, 1.128 ). Other Greek sources from before

5976-419: The world as constantly in flux, always "becoming" but never "being". He expressed this in sayings like "Everything flows " ( Greek : πάντα ρει , panta rhei ) and "No man ever steps in the same river twice". This insistence upon change contrasts with that of the ancient philosopher Parmenides , who believed in a reality of static " being ". Heraclitus believed fire was the arche , the fundamental stuff of

6059-538: The world. In choosing an arche Heraclitus followed the Milesians before him –  Thales with water , Anaximander with apeiron ( lit.  boundless or infinite), and Anaximenes with air . Heraclitus also thought the logos ( lit.   word, discourse, or reason) gave structure to the world. Heraclitus, the son of Blyson, was from the Ionian city of Ephesus, a port on the Cayster River , on

6142-485: The world; "there would be no harmony without high and low notes, and no animals without male and female, which are opposites". It may also explain why he disagreed with the Pythagorean emphasis on harmony, but not on strife. Heraclitus suggests that the world and its various parts are kept together through the tension produced by the unity of opposites, like the string of a bow or a lyre . On one account, this

6225-491: Was "probably with the idea that it is for us to seek within ourselves, as he sought for himself and found". Heraclitus seemed to pattern his obscurity after oracles . Heraclitus did state "nature loves to hide" and "a hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one". He also stated "The lord whose oracle is in Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign." Heraclitus is the earliest known literary reference to

6308-403: Was "withdrawn from competing factions". Since antiquity, Heraclitus has been labeled a solitary figure and an arrogant misanthrope. The skeptic Timon of Phlius called Heraclitus a "mob-abuser" ( ochloloidoros ). Heraclitus considered himself self-taught. He criticized fools for being "put in a flutter by every word". He did not consider others incapable, but unwilling: "And though reason

6391-545: Was Zaratas / Zaradas / Zaratos ( cf. Agathias 2.23–5, Clement Stromata I.15), which – according to Bidez and Cumont – derived from a Semitic form of his name. The Suda 's chapter on astronomia notes that the Babylonians learned their astrology from Zoroaster. Lucian of Samosata ( Mennipus 6) decides to journey to Babylon "to ask one of the magi, Zoroaster's disciples and successors", for their opinion. The word mágos (Greek) and its variants appear in both

6474-664: Was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for Pseudo-Zoroaster , who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words "magic" and " magician ". In the Gospel of Matthew , "μάγοι" ( magoi ) from the east do homage to the Christ Child , and the transliterated plural "magi" entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 CE (this particular use

6557-600: Was referring to foreigners. Better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BC Herodotus , who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia Minor uses the term "magi" in two different senses. In the first sense ( Histories 1.101 ), Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples ( ethnous ) of the Medes . In another sense (1.132 ), Herodotus uses the term "magi" to generically refer to

6640-531: Was so rare that it was unavailable even to Simplicius and the other scholars at the Platonic Academy in Athens. Diogenes Laërtius wrote that the book was divided into three parts: the universe , politics , and theology , but, classicists have challenged that division. Classicist John Burnet has argued that "it is not to be supposed that this division is due to [Heraclitus] himself; all we can infer

6723-453: Was spared and emerged as the dominant Greek city in Ionia. Miletus , the home to the previous philosophers, was captured and sacked. The main source for the life of Heraclitus is the doxographer Diogenes Laërtius . Although most of the information provided by Laertius is unreliable, and the ancient stories about Heraclitus are thought to be later fabrications based on interpretations of

6806-455: Was the arche . In one fragment, Heraclitus writes: This world-order ( kosmos ), the same for all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: ever-living fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures. This is the oldest extant quote using kosmos , or order, to mean the world. Heraclitus seems to say fire is the one thing eternal in the universe. From fire all things originate and all things return again in

6889-618: Was then part of the Persian Empire . He exerts a wide influence on ancient and modern Western philosophy , including through the works of Plato , Aristotle , Hegel , and Heidegger . Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, only fragments of which have survived, catalogued under philosopher number 22 in the Diels–Kranz numbering system. Already in antiquity, his paradoxical philosophy, appreciation for wordplay , and cryptic, oracular epigrams earned him

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