The Theology of Heraclitus: a Presocratic Pantheism

C. The lnterpretation of 1r.67ttaving latd the necessary groundsork for the examinationof this collplex seying, we now turn to the lrtterp!etatlonof 1ts various statenents. And since every translation isl-tse1f an lnte!pretatlofi, often r.re will fiBd ourselves ln-'volved ln discussions of the best t!anslatloo Lnto Engltsh,though oever forgetttng tha! the real Deaning lies in G!eek.1) d 9eoeThe ftrst tlro I'ords are among the hardest, though in asense their translatlon 1s easy, Ho theo6 neans'rthe goilrr.Yet !,rhat does that nesn? If we could ans\rer !hat questlonnolr our job of studying Heraclitus' theology would be 1a!ge1ydone. So any detalled 6peclfic renarks about the neanlnS ofho theos fo! ll, rilI have-.to walt. Hol'ever, some lmportantgeneral coDr!en!s sti11 can be nade.Etrst, 1t ls almos! alirays vrong or at leas! nisleadlngto capl!alize'rgod"ln English when i! is a translatlon oftheos. Engllsh usage of "cod" or "the cod" lnplles both aoneness and personal quality that a!e very rare ln coDtexts ofpre-Chrlstian Greek literalure and philosophy, Nor do I thlnki!s capltallzatlon ts justlfied by stressing the "suptehacy"of one god over the others (as Gu!hrie clainslT) slnce in"cuthrie, 11,365 n.2. culhrle says this ln reference to Dlogenesof Apollonia for whon it is perhaps llore justifieal than in other6. It isfor this sane reason that "god" ls often capitalized when referring to thegod of Xenophanes, totally obscurlng the fact that Xenophaoes dellberatelyrefels to other gods even while desclibing tie suprene one (2lB 23). I-esscrltical scholars have even fouod a suprene "cod" in Thales -- the Godof I'ater (Hack, Cod in cree! Phllos., IPrlnceron,l93l], 42).