L'arco e la lira: Eraclito, Apollo, Odisseo

The fragment VS 22 B 51 of Heraclitus, preserved in a plenior version in the "Refutation of all Heresies", mentions the bow and the lyre as means of comparison to express the harmonìa of reality, described as palìntonos (or palìntropos, depending on the source). Beyond the philosophical significance of the fragment, however, few interpreters have emphasised the connection between these two instruments and Apollo. The aim of this paper is to develop this link, and also to consider the possibility that Heraclitus may have wished to evoke myths and attributes of Apollo that were traditionally known, and had already featured in poetry (e.g. in epos).