Plutarch Aquane an ignis sit utilior 2

[2] Is not that element the more useful of which most of all, everywhere, invariably, we stand in need as a household tool and, I swear, a friend, ready to help us at any time, in any emergency? Yet fire is not always useful; sometimes, indeed, we find it too much and interrupt our use of it. But water is used both winter and summer, sick and well, night and day: there is no time when a man does not need it. That, of course, is the reason why the dead are called alibantes, meaning that they are without libas, moisture, ¹ and for lack of that deprived of life. Man has often existed without fire, but without water never. Besides, that which, from the beginning, was coincidental with the inception of man is more useful than that which was discovered later; for it is obvious that Nature bestowed the one as vitally necessary, while the other was brought to light by luck or contrivance for a superfluous use. Now, none may tell of a time when water was unknown to man, nor is any god or hero said to be its discoverer; it was, in fact, at hand instantly when man appeared and was itself the cause of his appearance. But the use of fire, they say, ² was discovered only a day or twro ago by Prometheus; (consequently all our preceding life was deprived of) fire, though it was not without water. And that this is no poetic fiction is proved by present modes of living; for there are certain races of man who live without fire, with no house or hearth, under the open sky. And Diogenes ³ the Cynic reduced the use of fire to a minimum, so that he even swallowed a squid raw, remarking, Thus, gentlemen, do I risk my life for you. But without water no one ever thought it good, or even possible, to live.