Abstract
The work is dedicated to the early Presocratics in the context of other genres and fields (non-philosophical) cultivated in the Greek archaic period. In particular it follows the context of lyric poetry and also the contexts of astronomy and meteorology.
It discusses the hypothesis by Diogenes Laertius about "two branches of philosophy", while dealing in detail with the beginnings of the eastern, "Ionian" one. It presents an overall exposition of the Milesians, with an emphasis on naturalist topics, which were the occasion for the birth of philosophy (although the name "philosophy" itself appears only later).
Compared to it, the alternative continuators of Hesiodic tradition seem to be "mytographs", upon whom Aristotle draws as regards the importance of "the beginnings". The continuation of the Milesian tradition is to be found in Heraclitus, to whom only few new points are dedicated here, though, that are not included in the previous book by the author - Delian Diver to the Speech of Heraclitus.