Water/River
B12 | B13 | B31 | B36 | B61 | B76 | B77 | B91
Waterfall
  • How is the river constant yet changing?
  • What role does water play in Heraclitus' cosmology?
  • How can a soul become water and what happens when it does?
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    Water is not the main element in Heraclitus' cosmology: fire is.  But water plays an important role.  Fire turns into water.  This happens at sunset (when the fire from the sun turns into water and is absorbed into the sea).  Of the water, half turns back into fire (in the form of a hurricane of some kind) and half turns into earth (B31).  The exact details of the cosmic cycle are unclear, and they seem to be inconsequential.  What matters is that all the elements are in constant state of flux into one another.

        The cosmic cycle has consequences for souls.  Since souls are made of fire, water brings the death of souls.  This has large consequences for human ethics and happiness, and this seems to me to have been an important part of Heraclitus' theory.

    Heraclitus uses water in a few analogies.  Fore example, he shows that salt water is both pure and impure -- for fish, pure; for humans, lethal.  Also, pigs delight more in mud than in pure water.  These analogies serve as proofs or illustrations of doctrines (like the harmony of opposites).

    The most exciting analogy using water is the river.  Different versions of the so-called 'river fragment' exist.  I take B12 to be the authentic version.  It illustrates Heraclitus' idea of stability-through-change (see B84).  The river is constantly changing as the waters flow; at any given moment, the water at one location will be different than it was the previous moment.  And yet we call it the same river.  In fact, if the water stopped flowing, the river would not longer exist.  Like fire, the river is dependent upon change for its constant existence.