<P> Diogenes relates that Heraclitus had a poor opinion of human affairs . He believed that Hesiod and Pythagoras lacked understanding though learned and that Homer and Archilochus deserved to be beaten . Laws needed to be defended as though they were city walls . Timon is said to have called him a "mob - reviler ." Heraclitus hated the Athenians and his fellow Ephesians, wishing the latter wealth in punishment for their wicked ways . Says Diogenes: "Finally, he became a hater of his kind (misanthrope) and wandered the mountains...making his diet of grass and herbs ." </P> <P> Heraclitus' life as a philosopher was interrupted by dropsy . The physicians he consulted were unable to prescribe a cure . Diogenes lists various stories about Heraclitus' death: In two versions, Heraclitus was cured of the dropsy and died of another disease . In one account, however, the philosopher "buried himself in a cowshed, expecting that the noxious damp humour would be drawn out of him by the warmth of the manure", while another says he treated himself with a liniment of cow manure and, after a day prone in the sun, died and was interred in the marketplace . According to Neathes of Cyzicus, after smearing himself with dung, Heraclitus was devoured by dogs . </P> <P> Diogenes states that Heraclitus' work was "a continuous treatise On Nature, but was divided into three discourses, one on the universe, another on politics, and a third on theology ." Theophrastus says (in Diogenes) "...some parts of his work (are) half - finished, while other parts (made) a strange medley ." </P> <P> Diogenes also tells us that Heraclitus deposited his book as a dedication in the great temple of Artemis, the Artemisium, one of the largest temples of the 6th century BC and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Ancient temples were regularly used for storing treasures, and were open to private individuals under exceptional circumstances; furthermore, many subsequent philosophers in this period refer to the work . Says Kahn: "Down to the time of Plutarch and Clement, if not later, the little book of Heraclitus was available in its original form to any reader who chose to seek it out ." Diogenes says: "the book acquired such fame that it produced partisans of his philosophy who were called Heracliteans ." </P>

Who thought everything was made from fire earth air and water