Kingship at Play

Abstract

AbstractDo the early Greek poets and thinkers really “play” with their language? What sort of “play” should we expect from part of the professional craftsmen they were of a basicallysoundlanguage? What did imply their awareness of thephono-syllabic nature of Greek language? And what about Heraclitus in particular, who is most concerned among them with theintrinsic virtuesof Greek discourse (λόγος)? An analysis of fr. 22 B 52 DK within the melodic and sonic state of archaic Greek language reveals, instead of “play of words”, a ratherspontaneousphenomenon of phono-syllabic generation, that is asnecessaryfor the political message of Heraclitus’ fragment as the meaning of each of its words and their superficial syntactic organization.