The Four Elements Theory – Earth, Fire, Water, Air
There has been a lot of misconception about who actually first acknowledged that there were four basic elements in nature. This is why this post is born.
Back in ancient Greece, an intelligent man came to an understanding that there were four substances that could explain all the other existing substances. Although he is not as famous as other philosophers such as Socrates (469 – 399 B.C), Plato (428-424 B.C) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C). His name was Empedocles and he lived even before Socrates, from 495 to 430 B.C. He was the discoverer of the 4 elements, the four basic elements of nature – earth, fire, air, water.
Empedocles was a Pre-Socratic philosopher, as he lived before Socrates, and Empedocle’s theories would greatly influence not only all the coming philosopher after him but also be a reference for many centuries to come.
Who was Empedocles of Akragas? – the man behind the four elements theory
Empedocles lived in 400 B.C. He was a philosopher, a poet and a doctor. He lived in Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily, situated in today’s Italy. It is said that he was rich and from a noble family. But not much else can we know about his life. As Greece at the time was not really just Greece, as it was a set of city-states and islands all round the Mediterranean.
A piece of the Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus in the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Strasbourg Empedocles was a firm believer in Orphic mysteries – also called Orphism, which was a religious cult of ancient Greece, prominent in the 6th century B.C. and was also into physics and science. Empedocles was a great deal important (even though not many of us can say we heard about him), he was featured in a super trendy book with other illuminated people, the Nuremberg Chronicle a book of great importance and significance at the time and even today, as it is one of the most densely illustrated and technically advanced works of the early beginning years of book printing. It was created by the Nuremberg doctor, humanist and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel, which is an illustrated encyclopedia that comprises world historical accounts, and accounts that were told in biblical ways. It was written in 1493 by Hartmann Schedel in Latin and then translated to German by Georg Alt. Take an online look at it here. 
Empedocles as portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle Being one of the best documented early printed books, called incunabulum – meaning basically that it was something of paper, either pamphlet, book or broadside (large sheet of paper printed only on one side, used to announce things in the streets), that was printed in Europe before the 16th century. However, don’t confuse incunable or incunabulum with manuscripts, as the later ones were written by hand, while the incunabula were not, they were printed with metal. This Nuremberg Chronicle is like an illustrated world history, and the content inside is divided into seven ages:
- First age: from creation to the Deluge
- Second age: up to the birth of Abraham
- Third age: up to King David
- Fourth age: up to the Babylonian captivity
- Fifth age: up to the birth of Jesus Christ
- Sixth age: up to the present time (the largest part)
- Seventh age: outlook on the end of the world and the Last Judgment
This book contains illustrations, 1,809 woodcut illustrations and the colors were added by hand, by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut. And it has 326 total pages.
The four elements theory
While interested in physics and science, he understood that there were ultimately 4 elements in nature or four substances in nature that comprise everything around us, and they were fire, air, water, earth. He also associated the elements with four gods, Zeus, Hera Nestis and Aidoneus.
And this theory came to be used and become a standard dogma up until the Renaissance, although it still survived later on in other fields of knowledge like astrology, psychology and different neo-pagan beliefs.
Because of the advances in science, we now know that we have at least 118 elements in nature, depicted in the periodic table, which was first depicted by Mendeleev in 1869. Although we can say air is just air, we scientifically know that it is comprised with nitrogen, oxygen and argon and other.
Because human thought and human research and discoveries are in constant shift, it’s important to understand that we are all interconnected, and so is the Periodic table with Empedocles.
Human history is all interconnected
Because we are all a collective, the 4 elements theory that Empedocles initialy discovered, was then extended to other fields of knowledge, other notions, other concepts, new and more complex ones, as other people had the contact with the four elements theory and then discovered other truths about it and so, altered it and carved it. Because knowledge is like a moving vortex, constantly evolving, but part of the same vortex, just in constant movement and evolution from the first steps to the more complex and matured ones.
For instance, Empedocles received some knowledge from Parmenides the principle that “that nothing can arise out of nothing,”, nor that anything can just disappear into nothing. And this was back in Ancient Greece times. But then, if some remember, this concept was taken and changed, “Matter is neither created nor destroyed” – back in the 18th century by the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier.
However, for Parmenides it meant that all motion and change must be illusory, while Empedocles saw it in a different way, that there is a real process in nature, “the mixture and separation of things mixed”. Empedocles was an early atomist, as he back then was able, with the help of this notion, to explain the natural changes in nature as a result of the combinations, separations and re groupings of the indestructible entities. In fact, he then could also explain that these four elements – water, air, fire, earth -, interact continuously under the influence of two cosmic powers on the other: Love and Strife. These two forces functioned as forces of attraction and repulsion, as opposite forces.
A little background story of those ancient times
Back in Ancient Greece, there were a lot of different understandings of the world. People would try to make sense of life and so, there were different religions, cults, philosophical ideas regarding human existence, human creation, human life. There were the known to us beliefs such as Stoicism, and Epicureanism, superstitious magic beliefs, Pythagoreanism and Orphism which was a very significant one. It was a bit of a secret religion, where mostly elite would take part in it and guard it.
Orphism – an important part of ancient Greece
The ones that followed this religion were called Orphics, and they would conduct yearly festivals on the Eleusinian plains west of Athens in celebration. The main focus of the religion is centered around the death and suffering of the god Dionysus at the hands of the Titans. Back then, the Egyptian world had great influence on Greece, with the interconnection of people through commerce. For instance, the Egyptian Cult of the Dead, influenced the Cult of Adonis and Dionysus, that mirror the Egyptian myth of Osiris. The most central ritual of Orphism was the sacrificing of animals, a symbolic dismembering and eating of Dionysus. Orphism also believed in the soul who is free from the physical body, later used in Christianity. They also conducted purification rituals to forgive the guilty, which then also could have influenced other similar religions. Orphics believed they would spend eternity with Orpheus and other heores. The Orphics would have to maintain a spiritual purity, so they would have to live an ascetic life, notable for having to be vegetarians. In fact, Empedocles himself was, of course, vegetarian because of this. The Orphics needed to live a prepared life for the human soul to be ready for life in eternity.
Empedocles’ Legacy in History
This is a painting of Empedocles alegedly dropping out of Mount Etna, in Sicily, by Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
His death was built up into a myth by ancient writers, as the painting of Salvator Rosa shows. Although Empedocles is not as well known as other philosophers for discovering the four elements of nature, he has greatly contributed to our world with his ideas and discoveries. His ideas have been recorded by Aristotle, Diogenes, Pliny and Horace. Aristotle had called Empedocles the father of rhetoric. Later in history, in 1826, Empedocles was referred to in a play by Friedrich Holderlin “Tod des Empedokles”, and also in a poem of 1852 of Matthew Arnold. ***
Segment of Stories on Theory of the Four Temperaments
This post is part of a series of short “stories” that are connected with the theory of the 4 temperaments or the four personalities that has prevailed through time. This is the first part of the story, considered the beginning, as Empedocles was considered to have been in the origins of the concept of humorism. If you are curious to understand the full story in a deeper level take a look at the following other posts. I have separated all the different findings in history about this topic, the first discoveries, then all the other ones that came after around this topic, so it would be clear where we are now and where we were before, so we can know how we evolved and what changed after all these centuries.
- the 1st part of the story is the one you just read – Empedocles (495 – 430 B.C)
- link to the 4th part of the story – Claudius Galenus (129 – 210 B.C)
More links to come. Stay tuned.
Reading Time 12 mins
The Four Elements Theory – Earth, Fire, Water, Air
There has been a lot of misconception about who actually first acknowledged that there were four basic elements in nature. This is why this post is born.
Back in ancient Greece, an intelligent man came to an understanding that there were four substances that could explain all the other existing substances. Although he is not as famous as other philosophers such as Socrates (469 – 399 B.C), Plato (428-424 B.C) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C). His name was Empedocles and he lived even before Socrates, from 495 to 430 B.C. He was the discoverer of the 4 elements, the four basic elements of nature – earth, fire, air, water.
Empedocles was a Pre-Socratic philosopher, as he lived before Socrates, and Empedocle’s theories would greatly influence not only all the coming philosopher after him but also be a reference for many centuries to come.
Who was Empedocles of Akragas? – the man behind the four elements theory
Empedocles lived in 400 B.C. He was a philosopher, a poet and a doctor. He lived in Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily, situated in today’s Italy. It is said that he was rich and from a noble family. But not much else can we know about his life. As Greece at the time was not really just Greece, as it was a set of city-states and islands all round the Mediterranean.
A piece of the Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus in the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Strasbourg Empedocles was a firm believer in Orphic mysteries – also called Orphism, which was a religious cult of ancient Greece, prominent in the 6th century B.C. and was also into physics and science. Empedocles was a great deal important (even though not many of us can say we heard about him), he was featured in a super trendy book with other illuminated people, the Nuremberg Chronicle a book of great importance and significance at the time and even today, as it is one of the most densely illustrated and technically advanced works of the early beginning years of book printing. It was created by the Nuremberg doctor, humanist and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel, which is an illustrated encyclopedia that comprises world historical accounts, and accounts that were told in biblical ways. It was written in 1493 by Hartmann Schedel in Latin and then translated to German by Georg Alt. Take an online look at it here. Empedocles as portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle
Being one of the best documented early printed books, called incunabulum – meaning basically that it was something of paper, either pamphlet, book or broadside (large sheet of paper printed only on one side, used to announce things in the streets), that was printed in Europe before the 16th century. However, don’t confuse incunable or incunabulum with manuscripts, as the later ones were written by hand, while the incunabula were not, they were printed with metal. This Nuremberg Chronicle is like an illustrated world history, and the content inside is divided into seven ages:
- First age: from creation to the Deluge
- Second age: up to the birth of Abraham
- Third age: up to King David
- Fourth age: up to the Babylonian captivity
- Fifth age: up to the birth of Jesus Christ
- Sixth age: up to the present time (the largest part)
- Seventh age: outlook on the end of the world and the Last Judgment
This book contains illustrations, 1,809 woodcut illustrations and the colors were added by hand, by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut. And it has 326 total pages.
The four elements theory
While interested in physics and science, he understood that there were ultimately 4 elements in nature or four substances in nature that comprise everything around us, and they were fire, air, water, earth. He also associated the elements with four gods, Zeus, Hera Nestis and Aidoneus.
And this theory came to be used and become a standard dogma up until the Renaissance, although it still survived later on in other fields of knowledge like astrology, psychology and different neo-pagan beliefs.
Because of the advances in science, we now know that we have at least 118 elements in nature, depicted in the periodic table, which was first depicted by Mendeleev in 1869. Although we can say air is just air, we scientifically know that it is comprised with nitrogen, oxygen and argon and other.
Because human thought and human research and discoveries are in constant shift, it’s important to understand that we are all interconnected, and so is the Periodic table with Empedocles.
Human history is all interconnected
Because we are all a collective, the 4 elements theory that Empedocles initialy discovered, was then extended to other fields of knowledge, other notions, other concepts, new and more complex ones, as other people had the contact with the four elements theory and then discovered other truths about it and so, altered it and carved it. Because knowledge is like a moving vortex, constantly evolving, but part of the same vortex, just in constant movement and evolution from the first steps to the more complex and matured ones.
For instance, Empedocles received some knowledge from Parmenides the principle that “that nothing can arise out of nothing,”, nor that anything can just disappear into nothing. And this was back in Ancient Greece times. But then, if some remember, this concept was taken and changed, “Matter is neither created nor destroyed” – back in the 18th century by the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier.
However, for Parmenides it meant that all motion and change must be illusory, while Empedocles saw it in a different way, that there is a real process in nature, “the mixture and separation of things mixed”. Empedocles was an early atomist, as he back then was able, with the help of this notion, to explain the natural changes in nature as a result of the combinations, separations and re groupings of the indestructible entities. In fact, he then could also explain that these four elements – water, air, fire, earth -, interact continuously under the influence of two cosmic powers on the other: Love and Strife. These two forces functioned as forces of attraction and repulsion, as opposite forces.
A little background story of those ancient times
Back in Ancient Greece, there were a lot of different understandings of the world. People would try to make sense of life and so, there were different religions, cults, philosophical ideas regarding human existence, human creation, human life. There were the known to us beliefs such as Stoicism, and Epicureanism, superstitious magic beliefs, Pythagoreanism and Orphism which was a very significant one. It was a bit of a secret religion, where mostly elite would take part in it and guard it.
Orphism – an important part of ancient Greece
The ones that followed this religion were called Orphics, and they would conduct yearly festivals on the Eleusinian plains west of Athens in celebration. The main focus of the religion is centered around the death and suffering of the god Dionysus at the hands of the Titans. Back then, the Egyptian world had great influence on Greece, with the interconnection of people through commerce. For instance, the Egyptian Cult of the Dead, influenced the Cult of Adonis and Dionysus, that mirror the Egyptian myth of Osiris. The most central ritual of Orphism was the sacrificing of animals, a symbolic dismembering and eating of Dionysus. Orphism also believed in the soul who is free from the physical body, later used in Christianity. They also conducted purification rituals to forgive the guilty, which then also could have influenced other similar religions. Orphics believed they would spend eternity with Orpheus and other heores. The Orphics would have to maintain a spiritual purity, so they would have to live an ascetic life, notable for having to be vegetarians. In fact, Empedocles himself was, of course, vegetarian because of this. The Orphics needed to live a prepared life for the human soul to be ready for life in eternity.
Empedocles’ Legacy in History
This is a painting of Empedocles alegedly dropping out of Mount Etna, in Sicily, by Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
His death was built up into a myth by ancient writers, as the painting of Salvator Rosa shows. Although Empedocles is not as well known as other philosophers for discovering the four elements of nature, he has greatly contributed to our world with his ideas and discoveries. His ideas have been recorded by Aristotle, Diogenes, Pliny and Horace. Aristotle had called Empedocles the father of rhetoric. Later in history, in 1826, Empedocles was referred to in a play by Friedrich Holderlin “Tod des Empedokles”, and also in a poem of 1852 of Matthew Arnold. ***
Segment of Stories on Theory of the Four Temperaments
This post is part of a series of short “stories” that are connected with the theory of the 4 temperaments or the four personalities that has prevailed through time. This is the first part of the story, considered the beginning, as Empedocles was considered to have been in the origins of the concept of humorism. If you are curious to understand the full story in a deeper level take a look at the following other posts. I have separated all the different findings in history about this topic, the first discoveries, then all the other ones that came after around this topic, so it would be clear where we are now and where we were before, so we can know how we evolved and what changed after all these centuries.
- the 1st part of the story is the one you just read – Empedocles (495 – 430 B.C)
- link to the 4th part of the story – Claudius Galenus (129 – 210 B.C)
More links to come. Stay tuned.
The Four Elements Theory – Earth, Fire, Water, Air
There has been a lot of misconception about who actually first acknowledged that there were four basic elements in nature. This is why this post is born.
Back in ancient Greece, an intelligent man came to an understanding that there were four substances that could explain all the other existing substances. Although he is not as famous as other philosophers such as Socrates (469 – 399 B.C), Plato (428-424 B.C) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C). His name was Empedocles and he lived even before Socrates, from 495 to 430 B.C. He was the discoverer of the 4 elements, the four basic elements of nature – earth, fire, air, water.
Empedocles was a Pre-Socratic philosopher, as he lived before Socrates, and Empedocle’s theories would greatly influence not only all the coming philosopher after him but also be a reference for many centuries to come.
Who was Empedocles of Akragas? – the man behind the four elements theory
Empedocles lived in 400 B.C. He was a philosopher, a poet and a doctor. He lived in Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily, situated in today’s Italy. It is said that he was rich and from a noble family. But not much else can we know about his life. As Greece at the time was not really just Greece, as it was a set of city-states and islands all round the Mediterranean.
A piece of the Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus in the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Strasbourg Empedocles was a firm believer in Orphic mysteries – also called Orphism, which was a religious cult of ancient Greece, prominent in the 6th century B.C. and was also into physics and science. Empedocles was a great deal important (even though not many of us can say we heard about him), he was featured in a super trendy book with other illuminated people, the Nuremberg Chronicle a book of great importance and significance at the time and even today, as it is one of the most densely illustrated and technically advanced works of the early beginning years of book printing. It was created by the Nuremberg doctor, humanist and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel, which is an illustrated encyclopedia that comprises world historical accounts, and accounts that were told in biblical ways. It was written in 1493 by Hartmann Schedel in Latin and then translated to German by Georg Alt. Take an online look at it here. Empedocles as portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle Being one of the best documented early printed books, called incunabulum – meaning basically that it was something of paper, either pamphlet, book or broadside (large sheet of paper printed only on one side, used to announce things in the streets), that was printed in Europe before the 16th century. However, don’t confuse incunable or incunabulum with manuscripts, as the later ones were written by hand, while the incunabula were not, they were printed with metal. This Nuremberg Chronicle is like an illustrated world history, and the content inside is divided into seven ages:
- First age: from creation to the Deluge
- Second age: up to the birth of Abraham
- Third age: up to King David
- Fourth age: up to the Babylonian captivity
- Fifth age: up to the birth of Jesus Christ
- Sixth age: up to the present time (the largest part)
- Seventh age: outlook on the end of the world and the Last Judgment
This book contains illustrations, 1,809 woodcut illustrations and the colors were added by hand, by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wolgemut. And it has 326 total pages.
The four elements theory
While interested in physics and science, he understood that there were ultimately 4 elements in nature or four substances in nature that comprise everything around us, and they were fire, air, water, earth. He also associated the elements with four gods, Zeus, Hera Nestis and Aidoneus.
And this theory came to be used and become a standard dogma up until the Renaissance, although it still survived later on in other fields of knowledge like astrology, psychology and different neo-pagan beliefs.
Because of the advances in science, we now know that we have at least 118 elements in nature, depicted in the periodic table, which was first depicted by Mendeleev in 1869. Although we can say air is just air, we scientifically know that it is comprised with nitrogen, oxygen and argon and other.
Because human thought and human research and discoveries are in constant shift, it’s important to understand that we are all interconnected, and so is the Periodic table with Empedocles.
Human history is all interconnected
Because we are all a collective, the 4 elements theory that Empedocles initialy discovered, was then extended to other fields of knowledge, other notions, other concepts, new and more complex ones, as other people had the contact with the four elements theory and then discovered other truths about it and so, altered it and carved it. Because knowledge is like a moving vortex, constantly evolving, but part of the same vortex, just in constant movement and evolution from the first steps to the more complex and matured ones.
For instance, Empedocles received some knowledge from Parmenides the principle that “that nothing can arise out of nothing,”, nor that anything can just disappear into nothing. And this was back in Ancient Greece times. But then, if some remember, this concept was taken and changed, “Matter is neither created nor destroyed” – back in the 18th century by the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier.
However, for Parmenides it meant that all motion and change must be illusory, while Empedocles saw it in a different way, that there is a real process in nature, “the mixture and separation of things mixed”. Empedocles was an early atomist, as he back then was able, with the help of this notion, to explain the natural changes in nature as a result of the combinations, separations and re groupings of the indestructible entities. In fact, he then could also explain that these four elements – water, air, fire, earth -, interact continuously under the influence of two cosmic powers on the other: Love and Strife. These two forces functioned as forces of attraction and repulsion, as opposite forces.
A little background story of those ancient times
Back in Ancient Greece, there were a lot of different understandings of the world. People would try to make sense of life and so, there were different religions, cults, philosophical ideas regarding human existence, human creation, human life. There were the known to us beliefs such as Stoicism, and Epicureanism, superstitious magic beliefs, Pythagoreanism and Orphism which was a very significant one. It was a bit of a secret religion, where mostly elite would take part in it and guard it.
Orphism – an important part of ancient Greece
The ones that followed this religion were called Orphics, and they would conduct yearly festivals on the Eleusinian plains west of Athens in celebration. The main focus of the religion is centered around the death and suffering of the god Dionysus at the hands of the Titans. Back then, the Egyptian world had great influence on Greece, with the interconnection of people through commerce. For instance, the Egyptian Cult of the Dead, influenced the Cult of Adonis and Dionysus, that mirror the Egyptian myth of Osiris. The most central ritual of Orphism was the sacrificing of animals, a symbolic dismembering and eating of Dionysus. Orphism also believed in the soul who is free from the physical body, later used in Christianity. They also conducted purification rituals to forgive the guilty, which then also could have influenced other similar religions. Orphics believed they would spend eternity with Orpheus and other heores. The Orphics would have to maintain a spiritual purity, so they would have to live an ascetic life, notable for having to be vegetarians. In fact, Empedocles himself was, of course, vegetarian because of this. The Orphics needed to live a prepared life for the human soul to be ready for life in eternity.
Empedocles’ Legacy in History
This is a painting of Empedocles alegedly dropping out of Mount Etna, in Sicily, by Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)
His death was built up into a myth by ancient writers, as the painting of Salvator Rosa shows. Although Empedocles is not as well known as other philosophers for discovering the four elements of nature, he has greatly contributed to our world with his ideas and discoveries. His ideas have been recorded by Aristotle, Diogenes, Pliny and Horace. Aristotle had called Empedocles the father of rhetoric. Later in history, in 1826, Empedocles was referred to in a play by Friedrich Holderlin “Tod des Empedokles”, and also in a poem of 1852 of Matthew Arnold. ***
Segment of Stories on Theory of the Four Temperaments
This post is part of a series of short “stories” that are connected with the theory of the 4 temperaments or the four personalities that has prevailed through time. This is the first part of the story, considered the beginning, as Empedocles was considered to have been in the origins of the concept of humorism. If you are curious to understand the full story in a deeper level take a look at the following other posts. I have separated all the different findings in history about this topic, the first discoveries, then all the other ones that came after around this topic, so it would be clear where we are now and where we were before, so we can know how we evolved and what changed after all these centuries.
- the 1st part of the story is the one you just read – Empedocles (495 – 430 B.C)
- link to the 4th part of the story – Claudius Galenus (129 – 210 B.C)
More links to come. Stay tuned.
Share with the world:
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on telegram
Telegram
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on reddit
Reddit
Share on email
Email
Share with the world:
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on pinterest
Share on telegram
Share on whatsapp
Share on reddit
On Key
Related Posts
Any comments? Add below
