[335]. See Chap. II. p. 107, [n. 224]. The best attested reading is ἐποιήσατο, not ἐποίησεν, and ἐποιήσατο ἑαυτοῦ means “claimed as his own.” The words ἐκλεξάμενος ταύτας τὰς συγγραφάς have been doubted since the time of Schleiermacher, and Diels has now come to regard the whole fragment as spurious. This is because it was used to prove that Pythagoras wrote books (cf. Diels, Arch. iii. p. 451). As Mr. Bywater has pointed out, however, the fragment itself makes no such statement; it only says that he read books, which we may presume he did. I would further suggest that the old-fashioned συγγραφάς is rather too good for a forger, and that the omission of the very thing to be proved is remarkable. The last suggestion of a book by Pythagoras disappears with the reading ἐποιήσατο for ἐποίησεν. Of course a late writer who read of Pythagoras making extracts from books would assume that he put them into a book of his own, just as people did in his own days. For the rest, I understand ἱστορίη of science, which is contrasted with the κακοτεχνίη which Pythagoras derived from the συγγραφαί of men like Pherekydes of Syros.
[336]. The word κόσμος must mean “world” here, not merely “order;” for only the world could be identified with fire. This use of the word is Pythagorean, and there is no reason to doubt that Herakleitos may have known it.
[337]. It is important to notice that μέτρα is internal accusative with ἁπτόμενον, “with its measures kindling and its measures going out.”
[338]. On the word πρηστήρ, see below, p. 165, [n. 380].
[339]. The subject of fr. 23 is γῆ, as we see from Diog. ix. 9 (R. P. 36), πάλιν τε αὖ τὴν γὴν χεῖσθαι; and Aet. i. 3, 11 (Dox. p. 284 a 1; b 5), ἔπειτα ἀναχαλωμένην τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ τοῦ τυρὸς χύσει (Dübner: φύσει, libri) ὕδωρ ἀποτελεῖσθαι. Herakleitos might quite well say γῆ θάλασσα διαχέεται, and the context in Clement (Strom. v. p. 712) seems to imply this. The phrase μετρέεται εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον can only mean that the proportion of the measures remains constant. So practically Zeller (p. 690, n. 1), zu derselben Grösse.
[340]. With Diels I adopt the transposition (proposed by Tocco) of ἀέρος and γῆς.
[341]. I understand ἐπελθόν of the πυρὸς ἔφοδος, for which see below, p. 168. Diels has pointed out that καταλαμβάνειν is the old word for “to convict.” It is, literally, “to overtake,” just as αἱρεῖν is “to catch.”
[342]. In this fragment it is clear that οὖρος = τέρματα, and therefore means “boundary,” not “hill.” As αἴθριος Ζεύς means the bright blue sky, I do not think its οὖρος can be the South Pole, as Diels says. It is more likely the horizon. I am inclined to take the fragment as a protest against the Pythagorean theory of a southern hemisphere.
[343]. We learn from Diog. ix. 10 (quoted below, p. [164]) that Herakleitos explained why the sun was warmer and brighter than the moon, and this is doubtless a fragment of that passage. I now think the words ἕνεκα τῶν ἄλλων ἄστρων are from Herakleitos. So Diels.
[344]. Hesiod said Day was the child of Night (Theog. 124).