Fragments 81–90
Original Ancient Greek
81 (ἡ δὲ τῶν ῥητόρων εἰσαγωγὴ πάντα τὰ θεωρήματα πρὸς τοῦτ’ ἔχει τείνοντα καὶ κατὰ τὸν Ἡράκλειτον) κοπίδων ἐστὶν ἀρχηγός.
82 πιθήκων ὁ κάλλιστος αἰσχρὸς ἀνθρώπων γένει συμβάλλειν.
83 ἀνθρώπων ὁ σοφώτατος πρὸς θεὸν πίθηκος φανεῖται καὶ σοφίαι καὶ κάλλει καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν.
84 μεταβάλλον ἀναπαύεται (καὶ) κάματός ἐστι τοῖς αὐτοῖς μοχθεῖν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι.
85 θυμῶι μάχεσθαι χαλεπόν· ὅ τι γὰρ ἂν θέληι, ψυχῆς ὠνεῖται.
86 ἀπιστίηι διαφυγγάνει μὴ γιγνώσκεσθαι.
87 βλὰξ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ παντὶ λόγωι ἐπτοῆσθαι φιλεῖ.
88 ταὐτό τ’ ἔνι ζῶν καὶ τεθνηκὸς καὶ τὸ ἐγρηγορὸς καὶ τὸ καθεῦδον καὶ νέον καὶ γηραιόν· τάδε γὰρ μεταπεσόντα ἐκεῖνά ἐστι κἀκεῖνα πάλιν μεταπεσόντα ταῦτα.
89 τοῖς ἐγρηγορόσιν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν κόσμον εἶναι, (τῶν δὲ κοιμωμένων ἕκαστον εἰς ἴδιον ἀποστρέφεσθαι).
90 πυρός τε ἀνταμοιβὴ τὰ πάντα καὶ πῦρ ἁπάντων ὅκωσπερ χρυσοῦ χρήματα καὶ χρημάτων χρυσός.
Musean translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation of all 130 genuine fragments in Hermann Diels’s Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (4th ed., 1922), made directly from the Ionic Greek and Latin and checked against the printed page. Words of the ancient authors who quote Heraclitus stand in round parentheses.
81 (The rhetoricians’ introductory teaching aims all its principles at this and, in Heraclitus’ words,) is the ringleader of swindlers.
82 The most beautiful ape is ugly beside the human race.
83 The wisest human will seem an ape beside a god, in wisdom, beauty, and all else.
84 It rests in change (and) it is weariness to toil for the same people and be ruled by them.
85 Passion is hard to fight: whatever it wants, it buys with the soul.
86 Through disbelief it escapes being known.
87 A fool takes fright at every word.
88 The same: living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. These, changed, are those; those, changed again, are these.
89 For the waking there is one common world-order (but each sleeper turns aside into a private one).
90 All things are given in exchange for fire, and fire for all things, as goods for gold and gold for goods.
Plain English translation
Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the same 130 fragments. Words of the ancient authors who quote Heraclitus stand in round parentheses.
81 (The orators’ introductory teaching aims all its lessons at this and, according to Heraclitus,) is the ringleader of cheats.
82 The most beautiful ape is ugly compared with the human race.
83 The wisest human will seem like an ape compared with a god, in wisdom, beauty, and everything else.
84 It rests by changing (and) it is exhausting to work for the same people and be ruled by them.
85 It is hard to fight passion. It buys whatever it wants at the price of the soul.
86 It escapes recognition because of disbelief.
87 A stupid person tends to get worked up over every report.
88 The same thing is alive and dead, awake and asleep, young and old. For these change into those, and those change back into these.
89 Those who are awake have one common world-order (but each person asleep turns away into a private one).
90 All things are exchanged for fire, and fire for all things, just as goods are exchanged for gold and gold for goods.
About this section
Fragments 81–90 is part of Fragments by Heraclitus. This page sets the Ancient Greek original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is section 9 of 13 in the work, which is kept in the Greek tradition.
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