Dogs bark at the unknown
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κύνες γὰρ καταβαΰζουσιν ὧν ἂν μὴ γινώσκωσι
For dogs bark at those they do not know.
Preserved by Plutarch (Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs / An seni respublica gerenda sit 787C), applied to the crowd's hostility toward the unfamiliar.
A plain observation turned against Heraclitus's own readers: dogs 'bark at' (<em>katabauzousin</em>) whatever they do not recognize. The unfamiliar is met not with attention but with noise. He means the many, who greet a strange truth — his own <em>logos</em>, which is 'ever true' yet leaves men uncomprehending (B1) — with hostility rather than inquiry.
The image is unsparing because it puts the crowd at the level of animals reacting on instinct. To bark at the unknown is the opposite of the effort he demands: to listen, to gather, to recognize that 'all things are one' (B50). Ignorance here is not passive but aggressive, and the philosopher, like any stranger at the gate, should expect to be barked at.
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