Editing Heraclitus (section)

=== Style ===
[[Image:Sibyl Domenichino.jpg|thumb|upright| Heraclitus's writing style has been compared to a [[sibyl]], as depicted here by Domenichino.]]

Heraclitus's style has been compared to a [[Sibyl]],{{sfn|Stokes|1961|p=477}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1qXOcPy-dYC&pg=PA100|title=The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry|first1=Jan|last1=Kwapisz|first2=David|last2=Petrain|first3=Mikolaj|last3=Szymanski|year=2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-027061-7}}</ref><ref name="Nietzsche">Nietzsche, Friedrich. ''Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks''. United States: Skyhorse Publishing. p. 64</ref> who "with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her".{{efn|{{harvnb|Plutarch, ''On the Pythian Oracle''|loc=B92}}}}{{NoteTag|This is the earliest reference to the Sibyl in extant literature.{{sfn|Kahn|1979|p=125}}}} 

Heraclitus also seemed to pattern his style after [[oracle]]s.{{sfn|Finkelberg|2017|p=36}} Heraclitus wrote "nature loves to hide"{{efn|{{harvnb|B123}}}} and "a hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one".{{efn|{{harvnb|Hippolytus|loc=B54}}}} He also wrote "The lord whose [[Pythia|oracle]] is in [[Delphi]] neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign."<ref>The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece. (2007). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 183</ref>{{efn|name=PythianO|{{harvnb|Plutarch, ''On the Pythian Oracle''|loc=B93}}}}  Heraclitus is the earliest known literary reference for the [[Delphic maxims|Delphic maxim]] to [[know thyself]].<ref name="robb">{{cite journal |last=Robb |first=Kevin |date=July 1986 |title='Psyche' and 'Logos' in the Fragments of Heraclitus: The Origins of the Concept of Soul |journal=The Monist |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=315–351 |doi=10.5840/monist198669320 |jstor=27902979}}</ref>{{efn|{{harvnb|Stobaeus|loc=B116}}}}

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.{{sfn|Kahn|1979|p=89}} Heraclitus used [[List of narrative techniques|literary devices]] like [[alliteration]] and [[chiasmus]].{{sfn|Graham|2019|loc=§2}}

==== The Obscure ====
[[Aristotle]] quotes part of the opening line of Heraclitus's work in the ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]'' to outline the difficulty in punctuating Heraclitus without ambiguity; he debated whether "forever" applied to "being" or to "prove".{{sfn|Graham|2019|loc=§2}}{{efn|{{harvnb| A4}}}} Aristotle's successor at the [[Lyceum (classical)|lyceum]] [[Theophrastus]] says about Heraclitus that "some parts of his work [are] half-finished, while other parts [made] a strange medley".{{efn|name=DiogLae}} Theophrastus thought an inability to finish the work showed Heraclitus was melancholic.{{efn|name=DiogLae}}

Diogenes Laërtius relays 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 [[Delos|Delian]] [[Underwater diving|diver]] to get to the bottom of it."<ref>Laërtius 2.5</ref>

Also according to Diogenes Laërtius, Timon of Phlius called Heraclitus "the Riddler" ({{lang|grc|αἰνικτής}}; {{transliteration|grc|ainiktēs}}).{{NoteTag|A likely reference to an alleged similarity to Pythagorean riddles.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8YiHqT6CWnUC&pg=PA193 Heresiography in Context] by Jaap Mansfeld p. 193</ref>}} Timon said Heraclitus wrote his book "rather unclearly" ({{lang|grc|ασαφεστερον}}; {{transliteration|grc|asaphesteron}}); according to Timon, this was intended to allow only the "capable" to attempt it.{{efn|name=DiogLae}} 

By the time of the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise ''[[On the Universe|De Mundo]]'', this epithet became in Greek "The Dark" ({{lang|grc|ὁ Σκοτεινός}}; {{transliteration|grc|ho Skoteinós}}).<ref>''De Mundo'', 396b</ref> In [[Latin]] this became "The Obscure". According to [[Cicero|Cicero,]] Heraclitus had spoken ''nimis obscurē'' ("too obscurely") concerning nature and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood.<ref>Cicero, ''De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'', Chapter 2, Section 15.</ref>{{sfn|Wheelwright|1959|p=116}} According to [[Plotinus]], it was "probably with the idea that it is for us to seek within ourselves, as he sought for himself and found".<ref>Plotinus, Enneads, IV, 8th Tractate</ref>{{efn|name=B101}}