HERACLITUS

‘This world-order,’ says Heraclitus, ‘the same for all things, was not made by god or man, but always was and is and will be an ever-living fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures (metra … metra)’. Another description of this balanced cycle is ‘fire's turnings: first sea, and of sea the half is earth, the half prēstēr (lightning or fire) … <earth> is dispersed as sea, and is measured to the same formula (logon) as existed before it became earth’ (b31). Logos here clearly means something like measure or formula, making metra … metra in b30 more specific: the quantities of earth etc. remain the same throughout (and despite) the cycle of transformation. Logos of quantity means quantity expressed as an abstraction (reckoning or measure, an account of quantity). It is accordingly found of a monetary account in the fifth century, and probably had this meaning even earlier. For Heraclitus all things occur according to the logos (b1). And so, given all this, his statement ‘all things are an exchange (antamoibē) for fire and fire for all things, like goods for gold and gold for goods’ (b90) has two points of comparison: fire resembles precious metal money as universal equivalent, but also as effecting universal transformation according to the logos. The compound antamoibē reinforces the idea (implicit in purchase) of an exact exchange. It is this constant universal transformation that is expressed in his famous doctrine that all things flow.