The Theology of Heraclitus: a Presocratic Pantheism

].44bodles. ODce the real referents are known, the 0rphlc interpre!ationbecoEes a1l but untena!1e, even though there havebeen sone modern connentators who have tried to shore up thispopular aIIcient explenat ion.I0iii) yen are gods. Seelng bo!h parts of the saying at'the same t1Ele, then, allor.rs us !o know that the subject underdiscussion is not souls but alhanatol and thnEtoi, As wasnentloned above, these rords have a wlde range of shsdes of meanin8dependlng upon ehere lre choose to understand sone sort ofcopula!ive. Io addltlon to this fact we Inust conslder the_polnt !hat athanatol tras connon parlance for !hlg!, lust asth.Ie-toi !'as for aothrdpol. This 1s so cornrnon a custoo fronllomer through all of anriquity that il hardly needs proof (1toccurs over one hundred tl,nes in ilomer). IndivldualIy, thewords dld ndt have to rnean rBods' and'hum3ns',but irhen pulslde by side this neaning could oot be absent from the nindsof the listeners. Hence it seeEs inconceivable to ne !hat H.should have used this particular pair of !rords and not to haveintLnded for then to stand, at least 1n part, for gods andl0th.ro.. extrene orphlc lnterpletatlons of this fr. are those ofAda,', SCfig-.--I!gg!e!9,(Edinbursh, 1908), 238 and Macchtoro, [raclito' (Barl,1922), 87-94; From orpheus to Paul, (|i.r.,1930), 172-3. Uore noderate andcaulious slale.nenEs can be found-in Gurhrie, I,478 and Pdpin,39' For crlticlsnof )tacchioro' general thesls naking H, a latter day orphlc see Cuthrie,Orpheus & ck, Rel1g,,(2na ea.; Lond on , 1952 ) , 228 ff. and I,478 n.2-ilarcovich calle? tris theory "far-fetched" (stud, Patr lst ica ,711966),262 n.2),and there are really very few scholars no\tadays uho belleve orphiclsr canbe sho!,'n to have exelted nruch of an influence on H, cuthrie Is probablythe nos! open to the ldea, saying "the parallel with orphic notlons isstrlking'I (T,480). But Klrk flatly states that "orphic influence is not.., appa.ent 1n lleraclitus" (355). Rannoux would reverse the Problen:"ne pas derander si Hereclite est un orpiique, nais sl 1es orphlques sontbdraclltdens" (Ramoux, H6rac11te, [2nd ed.; Paris,l968],407),