Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient

by West, M. L.

• ISBN13: 9780198142898
• ISBN10: 0198142897
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Oxford Scholarly Classics is a new series that makes available again great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Reissued in uniform series design, the reissues will enable libraries, scholars, and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Explanation of Abbreviations	xiii
Pherecydes and His Book	1	(27)
Biographical data	1	(3)
The book	4	(3)
Transmission, title	7	(2)
The three pre-existing deities	9	(2)
Chaos	11	(1)
The five nooks	12	(3)
The wedding of Zas and Chthonie	15	(5)
Ophioneus, the theomachy	20	(4)
Cosmography, eschatology	24	(3)
The tree	27	(1)
Pherecydes the Syncretist	28	(48)
The seed of Time	28	(2)
Zurvan	30	(3)
Kala	33	(1)
Oriental antecedents	34	(2)
The five nooks	36	(4)
The theomachy	40	(10)
The names Ogenos and Zas	50	(2)
The wedding	52	(3)
The tree	55	(5)
Metempsychosis	60	(2)
Ambrosia in the moon	62	(6)
The theomachy paralleled in Greek cult	68	(2)
The victor's crown	70	(2)
The tree and the robe	72	(2)
Pherecydes the syncretist	74	(2)
Anaximander and Anaximenes	76	(35)
The Boundless	78	(2)
Worlds	80	(1)
Time's ordinance	81	(2)
The formation of the present world	83	(2)
The arrangement of the rings. The earth	85	(2)
Oriental elements in Anaximander's world-model	87	(6)
Oriental elements in the cosmogony	93	(3)
Anaximander the debtor	96	(1)
Meteorology	97	(2)
Anaximenes' Aer	99	(2)
Aer's progeny	101	(1)
The motion of the heavenly bodies	102	(2)
Anaximenes' affinities	104	(7)
Heraclitus (1): ΠγΣKOΣ ΛOΓOΣ	111	(26)
What was Heraclitus?	111	(2)
A conjectural opening sequence of fragments	113	(1)
Fragment 1 (B 1)	114	(3)
Fragment 23(a) (B 114 and 2)	117	(2)
Fragment 24 (B 89)	119	(1)
Fragments 51, 53, 54, 33 (B 30, 31, 90, 60)	120	(4)
No 'Logos-doctrine' in Heraclitus	124	(5)
The world a fire	129	(1)
The changes of fire	130	(1)
The `exhalations'	131	(4)
The cycle completed	135	(2)
Heraclitus (2): Gods and Men	137	(28)
Dike and Eris	137	(1)
Opposites	138	(2)
τo σoφov	140	(2)
The thunderbolt	142	(2)
God and fire not the same	144	(1)
Other gods	144	(3)
Sleep	147	(2)
The soul	149	(2)
Birth and death	151	(3)
The cycle of generation	154	(1)
The great year	155	(3)
Aion	158	(2)
Consequences for morality	160	(5)
Heraclitus and Persian Religion	165	(38)
Quaestio perpetua	165	(5)
Pitfalls	170	(1)
Fire	170	(3)
The interchange of elements	173	(2)
The sun	175	(1)
Dike	176	(4)
The Wise	180	(3)
Sleep	183	(1)
Death	183	(5)
Hades	188	(1)
Strife	189	(1)
The great year	190	(2)
Resurrection	192	(1)
The prophet	192	(4)
`All this'	196	(1)
The death of Heraclitus	196	(5)
Conclusion	201	(2)
The Gift of the Magi	203	(40)
Hesiod and Homer	203	(3)
Alcman	206	(2)
Thales	208	(5)
The period, of Iranian influence. Pythagoras	213	(5)
Parmenides	218	(8)
The closing of the sluice	226	(3)
`Pythagoreans'	229	(2)
Anaxagoras	231	(2)
Empedocles	233	(2)
Eleatics, atomists, and others	235	(2)
Astronomy in the late fifth century	237	(2)
Conclusion	239	(4)
Addenda	243	(2)
Index of Passages Discussed	245	(7)
General Index	252