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Cratylus: Testimonia

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These Testimonia are ancient reports about Cratylus, an Athenian philosopher of the late fifth century BC, collected by Diels and Kranz. No writings of his survive. The passages come chiefly from Plato's dialogue Cratylus, in which he defends the natural correctness of names, and from Aristotle, who says that Plato knew Cratylus and his Heraclitean views in his youth and that Cratylus ended by merely moving his finger.

Cratylus is remembered as a radical follower of Heraclitus who carried the doctrine of flux to the conclusion that nothing can truly be said, correcting his master by claiming one could not step into the same river even once. Through Plato's dialogue, he became a lasting figure in the philosophy of language and the debate over whether names are natural or conventional.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 65 A). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy
Testimonia
Cratylus · every word parsed
1
PLATO Cratyl. 429 D Σω. Ἆρα ὅτι ψευδῆ λέγειν τὸ παράπαν οὐκ ἔστιν, ἆρα τοῦτό σοι δύναται ὁ λόγος; … Κρατ . Πῶς γὰρ ἄν, ὦ Σώκρατες, λέγων γέ τις τοῦτο ὃ λέγει μὴ τὸ ὂν λέγοι; ἢ οὐ τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ ψευδῆ λέγειν τὸ μὴ τὰ ὄντα λέγειν; —Κομψότερος μὲν ὁ λόγος ἢ κατʼ ἐμὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐμὴν ἡλικίαν, ὦ ἑταῖρε. ὅμως μέντοι εἰπέ μοι τοσόνδε· πότερον λέγειν μὲν οὐ δοκεῖ σοι εἶναι ψευδῆ, φάναι δέ; —Οὔ μοι δοκεῖ οὐδὲ φάναι. —Οὐδὲ εἰπεῖν οὐδὲ προσειπεῖν; οἷον εἴ τις ἀπαντήσας σοι ἐπὶ ξενίας, λαβόμενος τῆς χειρὸς εἴποι ʼχαῖρε, ὦ ξένε Ἀθηναῖε ὑὲ Σμικρίωνος Ἑρμόγενεσʼ, οὗτος λέξειεν ἂν ταῦτα ἢ φαίη ἂν ταῦτα ἢ εἴποι ἂν ταῦτα ἢ προσείποι ἂν οὕτω σὲ μὲν οὔ, Ἑρμογένη δὲ τόνδε; ἢ οὐδένα; — Ἐμοὶ μὲν δοκεῖ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἄλλως ἂν οὗτος ταῦτα φθέγξασθαι. 440 D Sokr. zu Krat. ἔτι γὰρ νέος εἶ καὶ ἡλικίαν ἔχεις.
ARISTOT. Rhetor. Γ 16. 1417b 1 καὶ ὡς περὶ Κρατύλου Αἰσχίνης [der Sokratiker, fr. 22 Krauss], ὅτι διασίζων καὶ τοῖν χεροῖν διασείων· πιθανὰ γάρ, διότι σύμβολα γίνεται ταῦτα ἃ ἴσασιν ἐκείνων ὧν οὐκ ἴσασιν.
—Metaph. A 6. 987a 29 μετὰ δὲ τὰς εἰρημένας φιλοσοφίας [Vorsokra— tik] ἡ Πλάτωνος ἐπεγένετο πραγματεία τὰ μὲν πολλὰ τούτοις [Pythagoreer] ἀκολουθοῦσα, τὰ δὲ καὶ ἴδια παρὰ τὴν τῶν Ἰταλικῶν ἔχουσα φιλοσοφίαν. ἐκ νέου τε γὰρ συνήθης γενόμενος πρῶτον Κρατύλωι καὶ ταῖς Ἡρακλειτείοις δόξαις, ὡς ἁπάντων τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀεὶ ῥεόντων καὶ ἐπιστήμης περὶ αὐτῶν οὐκ οὔσης, ταῦτα μὲν καὶ ὕστερον οὕτως ὑπέλαβεν· Σωκράτους δὲ κτλ. DIOG. III 6 τοὐντεῦθεν δὴ γεγονώς, φασίν, εἴκοσιν ἔτη διήκουσε Σωκράτους· ἐκείνου δʼ ἀπελθόντος προσεῖχε Κρατύλωι τε τῶι Ἡρακλειτείωι καὶ Ἑρμογένει τῶι τὰ Παρμενίδου φιλοσοφοῦντι.
—Metaphys. Γ 5. 1010a 7 ἔτι δὲ πᾶσαν ὁρῶντες ταύτην κινουμένην τὴν φύσιν, κατὰ δὲ τοῦ μεταβάλλοντος οὐθὲν ἀληθευόμενον, περί γε τὸ πάντηι πάντως μεταβάλλον οὐκ ἐνδέχεσθαι ἀληθεύειν. ἐκ γὰρ ταύτης τῆς ὑπολήψεως ἐξήνθησεν ἡ ἀκροτάτη δόξα τῶν εἰρημένων, ἡ τῶν φασκόντων ἡρακλειτίζειν καὶ οἵαν Κ. εἶχεν, ὃς τὸ τελευταῖον οὐθὲν ὤιετο δεῖν λέγειν, ἀλλὰ τὸν δάκτυλον ἐκίνει μόνον, καὶ Ἡρακλείτωι ἐπετίμα εἰπόντι [22 B 91], ὅτι δὶς τῶι αὐτῶι ποταμῶι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμβῆναι· αὐτὸς γὰρ ὤιετο οὐδʼ ἅπαξ.
5
PLATO Cratyl. 383 A Κρατύλος φησὶν ὅδε, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὀνόματος ὀρθότητα εἶναι ἑκάστωι τῶν ὄντων φύσει πεφυκυῖαν καὶ οὐ τοῦτο εἶναι ὄνομα ὃ ἄν τινες ξυνθέμενοι καλεῖν καλῶσι, τῆς αὑτῶν φωνῆς μόριον ἐπιφθεγγόμενοι, ἀλλὰ ὀρθότητά τινα τῶν ὀνομάτων πεφυκέναι καὶ Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις τὴν αὐτὴν ἅπασιν.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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