Heir to the throne of Ephesus, Heraclitus gave up his kingdom and chose, instead of the trappings of power, to seek the word of wisdom. Twent-five hundred years before Einstein, Heraclitus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity: "All things change to fire, /and fire exhausted/falls back into things". His great book, On Nature, the world's first coherent philosophical treatise, has been long lost to history -- but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years tantalized our greatest thinkers -- from Plato and Aristotle to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Jung.
Now Brooks Haxton brings together all of the surviving fragments in a powerful new free verse translation, with the ancient Greek originals beautifully presented en regard. James Hillman, author of The New York Times number one best-seller The Soul's Code, contributes an illuminating foreword, affirming the vitality of Heraclitus's teachings for twenty-first-century wisdom-seekers.
Description:
Heir to the throne of Ephesus, Heraclitus gave up his kingdom and chose, instead of the trappings of power, to seek the word of wisdom. Twent-five hundred years before Einstein, Heraclitus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity: "All things change to fire, /and fire exhausted/falls back into things". His great book, On Nature, the world's first coherent philosophical treatise, has been long lost to history -- but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years tantalized our greatest thinkers -- from Plato and Aristotle to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Jung.
Now Brooks Haxton brings together all of the surviving fragments in a powerful new free verse translation, with the ancient Greek originals beautifully presented en regard. James Hillman, author of The New York Times number one best-seller The Soul's Code, contributes an illuminating foreword, affirming the vitality of Heraclitus's teachings for twenty-first-century wisdom-seekers.