IX. To the Same (p. 211)
This one seems more to our interests:

“But, in fact, no one will transgress if he will not go unnoticed when he has transgressed.”

Indeed, the idea of Cynic shamelessness, which even Stoics like Cato and Zeno practiced, is an attempt to show that what is commonly viewed as shameful is not, but what is truly shameful is vice.

Early on in my “from the outside” study of Cynicism, I found the practice of shamelessness distasteful.  I think some of it is maybe a bit grander than it needs to be, but the way Cato did it but where dark when light purple was fashionable, or going barefoot instead of being shod.

Seneca said in his letters:

“Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening.”

— Letter 10.

This seems like a good lens to view shamelessness.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

VIII. To the Same (p. 207)
Just a continued praise of Hermodorus.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

VII. To Hermodorus Part 2 (p. 205-207)
This epistle seems to touch upon some Cynic themes.  Everything in human civilization is contrary to nature.  At all times injustice is the rule and inspiration for all manner of human action.  Heraclitus cannot help but weep in the face of such an atrocity.

Generally, I’m surprised to find these Heraclitus letters in the volume, they seem to be an outlier.  But this one seems more firmly in the vein of “City of Pera.”

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

VII. To Hermodorus Part 1 (p. 201-203)
Interesting that in Heraclitus’ time, they had activist judges as well!  The Ps-Heraclitus sets up the Ephesians as a vicious people, whose city is rife with all manner of disgrace.

He lists a series of them: gluttony, rapine, promiscuity, faithlessness, and more besides.

The hallmark being that while city itself is steeped in evil, the purpose of the judge is to banish the one who shows it for what it is.  But the Ps-Heraclitus is not himself a judge:  he’s a mirror.  His dour countenance is not born of ill will, but is formed by the quality of the people.  He’s a mirror, not a scale.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

V. Heraclitus to Amphidamas (p. 195)
Heraclitus was sometimes called The Weeping Philosopher, or The Obscure.  The thing I take from this letter is humankind’s kinship to the gods, the soul we share with the rational and diving universal logos.

Again, Heraclitus dismisses the charge of impiety, and dismisses (in Cynic parlance) the νόμος of the society in favor of the divine perspective.  He weeps, then, because man is so situated in vice that his very soul is dyed by it.  The Ps-Heraclitus says he would be quick to smile were we to shuffle off a touch of our vice.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

IV. Heraclitus to Hermodorus (p. 191)
The Ps-Heraclitus makes a passionate defense of the charge of impiety.  His argument is based in several claims:
– How can you know impiety if you do not know the gods?
— He then shows the many ways in which his subject is ignorant of God.
– If Heracles can be made god-like through goodness, cannot also others?
— And Heraclitus states he is good, that his labors are against vice and suffering.

Heraclitus ends with an inflammatory statement that he and his goodness will last basically forever, while his subject will be lost to time even five-hundred years out.

The deist, or natural theological perspective in this letter are interesting, but seem to me more of a Stoic stripe.  There is a Cynic message, however, in pointing to a natural religion of goodness and virtue than the man-made temples and dogma found therein.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

III. King Darius to the Ephesians (p. 189)
This letter seems to be mostly context for the one that follows.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

I. King Darius greets Heraclitus of Ephesus, a wise man (p. 187)
Darius of Persia writes to convince Heraclitus to come to him and explain his teachings, since they seem to fly in the face of the common understanding but still bear the stamp of a reasoned position.  Not only does he make the request, but he offers what he suspects will be enticing benefits.

II. Heraclitus to King Darius, Son of father Hystaspes, greetings (p. 189)
Heraclitus replies:  “Nah.”

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.

Introduction: The Epistles of Heraclitus (p. 22)
This introduction is laying the scholarly and chronological context for the following letters.  While there are only 9, we’re still looking at multiple authors, at least two possibly more.

The fact that scholars were divided as to the Cynico-Stoic nature of the letters versus a Jewish authorship is interesting.  Heraclitus is an interesting figure, almost a zen poet of the west.  Reading his fragments is a very different experience than reading a Stoic treatise, for instance.

This is part of the Cynic Epistles Reading Plan.