Panta Rhei Greek Letters

Panta Rhei Greek Letters – Panta Rhei translated as Everything Flows is one of the most famous philosophical quotes of all time. But what did the Greek philosopher Heraclitus mean?

A little over 2000 years ago, in the Ionian city of Ephesus, one of the most important figures in the history of philosophy was born. Heraclitus taught that the universe has become a constant, a process of change. Because the only book he wrote was lost, his work was preserved in fragments in the writings of other ancient authors. Due to the cryptic and often ambiguous nature of these fragments, he became known as the Obscure.

Panta Rhei Greek Letters

The philosophy of Heraclitus is one of movement and change. “Panta Rhei,” simply translated as “Everything flows,” is the most famous aphorism attributed to the Presocratic philosopher. Although it may not seem so profound at first, Heraclitus’ comment is one of the most profound and influential sayings in the history of Western civilization. So, what exactly did Heraclitus mean?

Ta Panta Rei

For Heraclitus, fire feeds life that moves upward in a path of creation. Then follows a downward path of destruction as life gives way to death in a circular path that never stops. Sri Aurobindo, the Indian philosopher, found many similarities between Heraclitus’ thought and various forms of Hindu mysticism. He even compared Heraclitus’ paths with

Fire is the fuel that enables the endless repetition of Heraclitus’ paths. Fire is also the primary element from which everything is made, and to which everything ultimately returns. During this infinite process of change, life becomes death, death becomes life, and everything gives its place to something else. In the philosophy of Heraclitus, nothing remains the same. Given enough time, all things eventually turn to their opposite, meaning that everything has become a constant.

That is why the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher also talks about the unity of opposites. Being and non-being are opposites but also two sides of the same coin. Without one, the other cannot exist. Therefore, the upward and downward paths, although they seem different, are in fact the same, because both become their opposites:

If we could stop time and examine up and down separately, we would calculate that they are something completely different. But in the flux of time, up and down are the same as one changes into the other and both are parts of the road. Once death has become life, the journey is not over. At that same moment life begins the journey to its previous state, like yin and yang in Taoism.

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(1892), believed that “Panta Rhei”, translated as “All Things Flowing”, perfectly encapsulated the Heraclitean philosophy of flux. However, Burnett also believed that Heraclitus himself never used this expression himself. Kostas Axelos, another modern scholar who studied Heraclitus in depth, agreed with Burnett. In fact, there is no ancient source that claims Heraclitus ever said Panta Rhei. But in any case, we can easily understand why later writers attributed the phrase to Heraclitus.

“Heraclitus says, you know, that all things move and nothing stays still, and he compares the universe to the flow of a river, saying you can’t step into the same stream twice.”

As Socrates seems to argue, this river of Heraclitus was not just a mere acceptance of a moving universe. More than that it was a cosmic flow. It was the flow of change:

“You cannot step into the same rivers twice; because fresh water always flows over you. DC, 12

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Everything around us changes just as fresh water ever flows, the flow renews. This is usually where most blogs stop their analysis. But Heraclitus did not simply say that the universe moves and changes. He also said that we will change accordingly. It’s not just that you can’t step into the same river twice, because the river is constantly changing. Even if the river remained static, there would never be two moments where you would be the same. The subject is not impartial to the universal process.

“every given thing, however stable in appearance, was merely a section in the flow, and that the material composing it was never the same in two successive moments”

But what is the driving force behind the flow of this cosmic river? Things get very complicated here because Heraclitus does not give a clear answer. There are fragments where Heraclitus talks about the term Logos in the sense of a cosmic law, a term that inspired early Christian thinkers who used Logos to describe the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.

Heraclitus also talks a lot about fire as the only dominant element that burns things. He also famously said that all things are an exchange for fire as gold is for goods (DK22).

Panta Rhei — Wouter Bongaerts

Finally, as we saw earlier, Heraclitus also discussed the unity of opposites. This is one of the most fascinating Heraclitean ideas. Heraclitus seems to have believed that the opposites (being and non-being, life and death, up and down, etc.) are constantly at war with each other. This process of war is not necessarily negative, because it is the one that gives birth to new things:

“War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bonds and some free. DK 53

Struggle is of great importance to the Greek philosopher because it is what keeps things moving. The absence of struggle would result in the destruction of the world.

If we want to understand the idea of ​​flux in the philosophy of Heraclitus, we must first understand briefly the following points in the previous section of this article: Logos, fire, unity of opposites, struggle. But that is not the only path to deciphering Panta Rhei. A second path is that of art.

Geomar Introduces New Deep Sea Rover Panta Rhei

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was a prominent figure of the literary movement of Magic Realism. He was an Argentinian writer interested in ancient philosophy and mythology of all kinds. The Greeks were especially dear to him and especially Herakleitos to whom he dedicated a series of poems.

, Borges completely tears down the walls of time and space, illustrating in the best way what Panta Rhei means. In Borges’s poems, subjects merge. The poet and Heraclitus appear as one. The same happens with places when Ephesus turns into Rome or Buenos Aires. The only constant is time and Janus, the Roman God of times and transitions, who wanders freely through time and space. In Borges’ poem, the river of Heraclitus becomes a river of words and meanings in a truly ingenious way.

, Heraclitus marvels beside a still river, where he catches the meaning that eventually leads him to proclaim that no man ever steps into the waters of the same river twice.

“To Ephesus. The afternoon has brought him, without his will, to the side of a quiet river. His fate and his name he ignored. There is a stone Janus and some poplars He sees in the running mirror And discovers and works the sentence That the generations of men will not fall. His voice declares: No man ever steps twice into the water from the same river…”

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This realization is met with horror as the philosopher realizes the fragility of his identity and begins to disappear within the great cosmic river. As he stares at the river, he realizes that he is also the river and sees clearly into the future.

“…He stops. He feels With the amazement of a holy horror That he too is a river and a leak…”

At the time when he understood the principle of the cosmic flux, Heraclitus became time. For Borges, he is no longer Heraclitus, the philosopher, but Janus, the Roman God of time and transitions, like Borges himself. He is no longer only in Ephesus, but also in Buenos Aires:

“Heraclitus knows no Greek. Janus, God of doors, is a Latin god. Heraclitus has neither yesterday nor now. He is just a work of art that dreamed A gray man on the banks of the Red Cedar, A man who’ t hendecasyllables weaves To not think so much about Buenos Aires And the dear faces. One he misses.”

Pdf) “panta Rhei—everything Flows”: Change In Hydrology And Society—the Iahs Scientific Decade 2013–2022

. This was a short poetic documentary that tried to visualize Heraclitus’ philosophy. Was the attempt successful? Yes, it was! On many different levels, the director manages to perfectly capture the concept of a moving world. A drop of water runs through a leaf, a stream rushes by, the sun rises behind some trees, flowers bloom, the wind. All that, on a first level.

On a second level, the movement is present in the film itself. Moreover, this is a moving picture. Just like you can’t step into the same river twice, you can’t watch the same movie twice either. Every time the film is different and every time the viewer is also different. If Borges managed to unlock our imaginations with his poetry, this documentary excites our senses with… philosophy.

By Antonis Chaliakopoulos MSc Museum Studies,