A fundametal law of physics says that everything 'runs down', the enthropy is always increasing.

A vase (or water-pithcher) which falls from the table down onto the floor going into zillions of pieces can never be restored again by the same forces which destroyed it.

Ancient man knew the answer to this puzzle. In a whirlpool all small pieces of flotsam will as if by magic assemble in the center, then they will go down under the surface.

In the dark waters below there is an unseen mysterious process which will restore the broken pieces into a new entity which later will be reborn.

The process is not possible to describe by physics, it is a process of life. Down it goes, everything, sooner or later. But it will come back, fresh as morning dew. The metabolism disintegrates but the pieces are reused like old bricks when a new wall is built.

This process of Mother Nature was harnessed by man entering the agricultural age. Raw manpower forced itself in between. It is no coincidence that Herakles met Polyphemus while frantically searching of Hylas.