The Four Elements
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 5 anchored passages
air · body of earth and water, air's light breath, And fiery exhalations · earth · fire · fire, water, air, earth · the elements · the four most mighty members the world · those four things · water
in the texts
Timaeus
Fire, earth, water, and air, the four basic constituents combined by proportion to form the body of the universe and later human bodies.
for which reason the god, in setting about to make the universe, first joined earth and fire.
And that will come to pass when, by reason, he has driven out those turbulent and reasonless things which from fire, air, water, and earth had settled within him, and has come through to the first and best condition of the soul.
And of those four things which I named above, all the parts were so disposed throughout the whole universe that no part of any one kind was left outside, and that within this universe were contained those kinds entire — and this for these reasons:
De Rerum Natura
Earth, water, air, and fire, treated as the four compounding members of the world whose perpetual strife and mortality Lucretius analyzes.
Aroused in an all unholy war,
And fiery exhalations (of which four
The four most mighty members the world,
On Anger
The classical physical doctrine of four elements (fire, water, air, earth) and their qualities, used to explain why certain natures are more prone to anger.
the portion of that element which prevails in a man will determine his character.
For since the elements are four—fire, water, air, earth—their powers correspond to these: