Hi again. In support of my allegorical interpretation, I quote your article. Thales: ‘the earth is supported by water on which it rides like a ship.’

First point: from this we can assume that Thales does not believe that the earth is literally made of water, as you originally said. He is clearly saying that earth and water are different levels.

Second point: by ‘earth’ he presumably does not mean planet Earth, nor the earth beneath our feet. Neither of these would make sense in the context of what he says.

This statement of his is exactly how I understand the nature of physical reality in the language of symbolism and quantum physics. I did a quick search on the internet, and found this, which is probably a good a description as any of the sea on which the earth floats:

“Quantum gravity models predict that space-time is a seething foam of tiny regions where miniscule new dimensions unfurl and then furl back in on themselves, spontaneously appearing and disappearing with inconceivable quickness. These regions blink in and out of existence like the bubbles in the foam of a freshly poured beer. There is no such thing as empty space; there is only ‘quantum foam,’ everywhere. Such is space-time for a quantum physicist”. [https://phys.org/news/2016-01-quantum-foam.html]

best wishes.