Water is best, but gold is a flaming fire,
says Pindar.
1 He, therefore, bluntly assigns the
second place to fire; and Hesiod
2 agrees with him
in the words
And first of all came Chaos into being;
for most people believe that this is his name for water
because it flows (
chysis).
3 Yet the balance of witnesses on both sides seems to be equal. There are,
in fact, some
4 who state that fire is the first principle
of the universe and, like a seed, creates everything out
of itself and receives all things into itself when the
conflagration occurs.
5 Ignoring the authors, let us
examine the arguments on both sides and see where
they will lead us.