Cosmic Fire: Heraclitus and Universal Conflagration

This work aims to assess whether a doctrine of Universal Conflagration can be derived from the extant fragments of Heraclitus. The fragments will be analysed through three main interpretations: i) cosmogonical, which holds that the fragment refers to cosmic cycles of destruction and regeneration, which might imply conflagration; ii) cosmological, which maintains that the fragment describes the transmutation of the elements between each other, without implying that there is a period of time when only fire exists and iii) astronomical, which understands the fragment as referring to celestial phenomena. Through the analysis of the fragments traditionally related to conflagration (B30, B65, B67, B94, B66), this article will propose that, although Heraclitus displays a doctrine related to the cosmic fire in his fragments, this doctrine cannot be equated with the notion of Universal Conflagration. This assessment does not preclude the possibility that Heraclitus may have subscribed to this doctrine, as certain non-Heraclitean sources tend to point out, but rather demonstrates that such a notion finds no support from the extant fragments of Heraclitus.