SOURCE: Edward Hussey, "Heraclitus," in The Presocratics, Duckworth, 1972, pp. 32-59.

In the following excerpt, Hussey provides an overview of Heraclitus 's thought, particularly his concept of logos, and contends that the point of many of his paradoxical writings was to offer analogies.

In the middle of the sixth century, the Ionian cities of the Asiatic coast had for some time been tributaries of the kingdom of Lydia. The Lydian kings were not hard masters; the last of the line, Croesus, was distinctly phil-Hellene and was sincerely admired by many Greeks. But in 546 Croesus was defeated by the invading Persians under Cyrus, and the Ionians were faced with subjection to a new and much greater power. The new Persian empire was far more efficient and on a larger scale than anything these Greeks had yet seen. The Ionian territory would form an insignificant and peripheral part of the vast...