Heraclitus Fr.62

Greek Learning Greek
1

ἀθάνατοι θνητοί, θνητοὶ ἀθάνατοι, ζῶντες τὸν ἐκείνων θάνατον, τὸν δὲ ἐκείνων βίον τεθνεῶτες
(Diels, Heraclitus 62)
I came across this flipping through Diels, and I knew all the words and forms, so tried to make some meaning:

My translation: “Immortals are mortal, mortals immortal. Living they have their death, but having died have their life.”

Checked on the Kathleen Freeman translation: “Immortals are mortal, mortals are immortal: (each) lives the death of the other, and dies their life.”

I do not get Freeman’s translation, but suspect my own understanding is lacking. Any comments? Looking up repetition of demonstratives in a grammar in the meantime.

2

The verbs ζῶ and θνῄσκω (like to live and to die) can be transitive and hence take a direct object, although people normally live lives and die deaths and not vice versa.
I remember my philosophy teacher in high school declaiming Heraclitus’s obscure fragments to a spellbound class of 16 years old. :laughing: