The ripe olive (ἐλαία πέπειρος) falls of itself, in its season, εὐφημοῦσα τὴν ἐνεγκοῦσαν (blessing the nature that bore it) and χάριν εἰδυῖα τῷ φύσαντι δένδρῳ (with thanks to the tree that grew it). It is the model of a gracious death in its season: death is neither violence nor loss but a natural ripening; the wise man does not cling to life but lets go easily, like ripe fruit, blessing and thanking the whole that produced him.

The image holds two facets at once: (1) to live by nature (DOGMAlive-according-to-nature) — that is, to "ripen" in one's season; (2) to depart in gratitude (DOGMAamor-fati) — to take the end not as an affront but as a fulfilment. The sharp contrast in 04-48 is with the tyrants who disposed of lives "as if immortal" and clung to power: they do not fall ripe but are torn off unripe.

04-48 — the image in pure form, crowning the memento mori. The cognate series of "the natural falling in its season":

• 04-15 — the grains of incense: sooner or later into the fire makes no difference (the indifference of the timing of death);
• 03-08 — a life is whole at any moment, by worth and not by span;
• Med. 10.34 — the generations of men like leaves (the Homeric image, Il. VI 146–149);
• the contrast: the tyrants "as if immortal" (04-48) who cling to life.

In 04-48 the olive completes the memory of death (meditatio-mortis): to pass the moment κατὰ TERMφύσιν and depart ἵλεων. Unlike the incense (04-15, where the stress falls on the indifference of the timing), the olive stresses the gratitude and naturalness of departure — the blessing and thanks owed to the nature that bore it. It serves the discipline of desire: DOGMAamor-fati (the acceptance of the end) grounded in DOGMAlive-according-to-nature (ripening according to nature).