“For things pay one another penalty and retribution for their wickedness.” (Anaximander)

or

“they (beings) bestow compliance and correspondence on one another in consideration of the non-compliance.” (Anaximander)

Martin Heidegger and Medard Boss: “Our patients force us to see the human being in his essential ground because the modem ‘neuroses of boredom and meaninglessness’ can no longer be drowned out by glossing over or covering up particular symptoms of illness. If one treats those symptoms only, then another symptom will emerge again and again … They no longer see meaning in their life and … they have become intolerably bored (Heidegger and Boss, Zollikon Seminar, 160-161)”

We have lost our connection to the appearing of beings, the repose by being engrossed in a subject matter or at the palm tree swaying in the wind.  In Holderlin’s way of speaking the blueing of the sky is always there in a subtle way but is made conspicuous in transition with the beautiful blueing of the sky after the storm.  Similarly, the yellowing of the house goes unnoticed by its resident and neighbors, but when I turn down the strange street looking for the yellow house the yellowness leaps out at me when I discover it.  Homer thus says the gods don’t appear to everyone in their fullness.  So, Odysseus and another man both see the young woman, but she only appears as a goddess incarnate to Odysseus.  Calasso notes:

Yet there was a time when the gods were not just a literary clich?, but an event, a sudden apparition, an encounter with bandits perhaps, or the sighting of a ship. And it didn’t even have to be a vision of the whole. Ajax Oileus recognized Poseidon disguised as Calchas from his gait. He saw him walking from behind and knew it was Poseidon “from his feet, his legs.”

But how does a god make himself manifest? In the Greek language the word theos, “god,” has no vocative case, observed the illustrious linguist Jakob Wackernagel. Theos has a predicative function: it designates something that happens. There is a wonderful example of this in Euripides’ Helen: “O theoi. theos gar kai to gigno’ skein philous”–“O gods: recognizing the beloved is god.” Kerenyi thought that the distinguishing quality of the Greek world was this habit of “saying of an event: ‘It is theos.'” And an event referred to as being theos could easily become Zeus, the most vast and all-inclusive of gods, the god who is the background noise of the divine. So when Aratus set out to describe the phenomena of the cosmos, he began his poem thus: “From Zeus let our beginning be, from he whom men never leave unnamed. Full of Zeus are the paths and the places where men meet, full of Zeus the sea and the seaports. Every one of us and in every way has need of Zeus. Indeed we are his offspring.”

“Iovis omnia plena,” Virgil would later write, and in these words we hear his assurance that this was a presence to be found everywhere in the world, in the multiplicity of its events, in the intertwining of its forms. And we also hear a great familiarity, almost a recklessness, in the way the divine is mentioned, as though to encounter divinity was hardly unusual, but rather something that could be expected, or provoked. The word atheos, on the other hand, was only rarely used to refer to those who didn’t believe in the gods. More often it meant to be abandoned by the gods, meant that they had chosen to withdraw from all commerce with men. Aratus was writing in the third century b.c., but what became of this experience that for him was so obvious and all-pervasive in the centuries that followed? How did time affect it? Did it dissolve it, destroy it, alter and empty it beyond recognition? Or is it something that still reaches out to us, whole and unscathed? And if so, where, how?

A major theme in Greek thought is the appearing facilitated by the contrast of a passing away and coming to be.  Heidegger comments in the Anaximander and Parmenides lecture course:

Night gives way to day, and day to night (Aes, Choephoren, 320).  To darkness, light is the counter-destiny, a rising (of the day) and a disappearing (of the night), and conversely.  This is an appearance, which for the Greeks (above all others!) stood in an inconceivably clear importance in the broadest expanse of their experience.  And no less: winter and summer, tempest and calm, sleep and waking, youth and age, birth and death, fame and disgrace, shine and pallor, curse and blessing (Soph, Ajax, 670f).  The one gives way reciprocally to the other, and this giving way is at once arrival and departure, i.e., appearance.  Appearance oscillates in such a giving way before, and against, each otherof the stepping-forth and receding (Heidegger, 9).

The idea that what is current is also passing away is a common thought in Greek.  Something is current for a while, and then fades to be replaced by the next hot topic, so that human life is the tragedy of going from one distraction to the next.  For example, Greek goddess Pheme (or Fama in Roman mythology) indeed reflects the concept that fame is fleeting. Here’s how:

Pheme’s wings symbolize how quickly fame can spread, but also how swiftly it can vanish. Her speed in disseminating information underscores the transient nature of fame; what is celebrated today can be forgotten tomorrow.  Pheme’s association with echo suggests that fame often reverberates for a while but eventually fades away. The echoes of fame can linger, but like an echo, they grow fainter with time.

Pheme is not only the goddess of fame but also of rumor, highlighting the fragility of fame based on truth or falsehood. Rumors can elevate someone to fame, but they can also lead to a swift downfall when the truth or another rumor overtakes the initial one.  Her capricious nature shows that fame can be as unpredictable as the winds. It can elevate someone one moment and destroy them the next, which is a commentary on how fleeting and unstable fame can be.  Pheme’s influence on public opinion illustrates how fame is subject to the whims of the crowd. Public favor can change, and with it, the status of the famous can rise or fall rapidly.  In literature, like in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” Fama’s actions often result in dramatic shifts in reputation, further emphasizing the fleeting nature of fame. Her descriptions in these works capture the essence of fame’s impermanence.

Pheme’s portrayal in Greek and Roman mythology thus serves as a cautionary tale about the transient nature of fame, reminding us that what is celebrated today might not hold the same allure or relevance tomorrow. This reflects an ancient understanding of fame as something inherently unstable and ephemeral.

Let’s press forward in our reading of Anaximander and see how the tension from Justice to Injustice helps us understand the fragment.  .  In ancient Greek, the word “δίκη” (díkē) primarily refers to justice, moral order, or the custom by which justice is meted out. The term has deep roots in Greek mythology and philosophy, often personified as Dike, the goddess of justice. Here’s how “δίκη” could be used figuratively: It could be used to discuss the proper order or balance in society, where justice maintains harmony.  Its metaphorical implications in ancient Greek involve concepts of balance, retribution, and the moral framework of society.  Being in joint, jointure.  Thus, its use could be considered “figurative” in the sense that it extends beyond legal justice into philosophical, ethical, and societal contexts.

Adikia by contrast is Injustice or Out of Joint: this phrase is an idiomatic expression from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (“The time is out of joint”) and generally means something is disordered, disrupted, or not functioning correctly. In a literal sense, it refers to a dislocation of physical joints. Figuratively, it speaks to times or situations that are misaligned or in chaos.  Out of Joint describes a state where things are in disarray or disconnected, the opposite of being “joined” or “in order.”  By contrast dike would be jointure or coming into harmony.  Jointure in normal language represents an attempt to put things in order or to join together for the future stability of someone, thus metaphorically “putting something back into joint.”  Therefore, while not direct antonyms, “jointure” could be seen as an action or state aimed at correcting or preventing the condition described by “out of joint.” Jointure aims at creating or maintaining order, stability, or connection, which is the opposite of the chaos, disconnection, or misalignment implied by “out of joint.”

Remember for the Greeks laws and Justice/order Walker comments: “the Greeks loved their laws, the children of their ideals, above all else. Plato and Aristotle reiterate Herodotus when they describe the ideal state as one that controls every detail of a citizen’s life. In the Greek mind, there was no distinction between the state and the citizen. (Walker, 2014, np reprinted online).”

The Greeks, especially in Athens, held their laws in high regard. Laws were not just mechanisms for order but were seen as reflections of the ideal society. This reverence for law is highlighted in the works of Solon, who is credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy through his law reforms.

Plato, in his “Republic,” describes an ideal state where everything is meticulously controlled to achieve justice and harmony. In this utopian vision, the state’s role is not only to govern but to shape the moral and intellectual character of its citizens. The philosopher-king, as envisioned by Plato, would have absolute control over education, marriage, and even the economic activities of the state to ensure the welfare of all.  Aristotle, while differing from Plato in some aspects, also emphasized the unity between the individual and the state. In his “Politics,” he argues that man is by nature a political animal (zoon politikon), and the polis (city-state) is the highest form of community aimed at the good life. He believed in a state where laws govern to promote eudaimonia (human flourishing), but he also advocated for a balance where the state does not completely overshadow personal freedom.

Herodotus, often called the “Father of History,” while not directly a political philosopher, provides insights into how Greeks viewed their societal structures compared to others, like the Persians. His works reflect a Greek pride in their system where laws were seen as self-governed, in contrast to the autocratic rule of the Persian kings.  The idea that there was no distinction between the state and the citizen in Greek thought is somewhat nuanced. The city-state (polis) was indeed central to an individual’s identity, and civic life was where one’s moral and political virtues were expressed. However, this relationship also included the notion of civic responsibility and participation, which was fundamental in Greek democracy, particularly in Athens.

The key words for Anaximander are dike (justice), tisis (retribution) and adikia (injustice).  This does not refer to juridical moral ideas poetically being used to describe nature.  Beings-as-a-whole is what is at issue.  As I said previously, this time in antiquity is prior to the various spheres of beings having been fully delineated.  In this way a broader and deeper meaning of the words is intended.    The usual Anaximander translation is “for things pay one another penalty and retribution for their wickedness.”  Instead of this, Heidegger offers “they (beings) bestow compliance and correspondence on one another in consideration of the non-compliance.”  Beings as a whole, their Being: non-compliance.  And so, regarding adikia, we speak of an adikos hippos, a horse that is chaotic, not broken in and will not run in a harness, is not pliant, is without compliance, here a non-compliance reins – the horse is out of joint with respect to the world of the farmer/rancher.  The opposite of this disorder is compliance, dike, harmony and coordinization.  Compliance is interrelationship like day-night; birth-death, etc..  Likewise, tisis doesn’t mean retribution.  “Tio” means appreciate, to attend to how something coordinates with something else.  Dike means belonging together, while tisis means measuring off the correspondence. 

“Appearance” means the bestowal of compliance and correspondence in consideration of the non compliance.  Think previously of Anne of Green Gables whose world was out of joint because she had red hair and was an orphan etc., and she was angry at god, to where her hair matured to be auburn and she found a home and family at green gables and things fell into place / jointure: “God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.”  The regular state of things is that things are not quite right, adikia, either subtly or powerfully so, but some beings can come into our sphere that casts a warm blanket temporarily on all beings.  This contrasts with something negative like a headache/stomach ache that casts a pall on your sphere of beings and causes beings to presence/appear irritatingly.  Again, “beings” just refers to something that “is” or appears in some way or other: eg., physical entities, psychological entities, moral entities, historical entities, economic entities, anthropological entities, etc.