The Four Elements
idea · 4 works · 4 mentions · 7 anchored passages
the elements · air · body of earth and water, air's light breath, And fiery exhalations · earth · fire · fire, water, air, earth · the four most mighty members the world · those four things · usṭuqusāt · 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.
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.
But since solidity was sought for the universe, and solid things are never joined by one middle term but always by two, it so came about that the god placed water and air between fire and earth, and set them in due relation to one another and joined them by proportion, so that, as fire stands to air, so air should render itself to water, and as air stands to water, so water should render itself to earth.
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.
The four most mighty members the world,
Since body of earth and water, air's light breath,
And fiery exhalations (of which four
Risālat baqāʼ al-nafs baʻda fanāʼ al-jasad
The four sublunary elements, contrasted with the celestial fifth, resolved by Empedocles into smaller parts that are elements of the elements, and produced for Arsalawus out of the limitless by condensation and rarefaction.
and he posits the elements (*usṭuqusāt*) as composed of those small parts, so that these are in the standing of elements of the elements — hence for him they are without limit;
and for him they are of a fifth element, other than the four elements, incorruptible, called “the aether”, and expressed as the divine substance — so it receives no influence, no alteration, and no passing away.
so part of it becomes fire and part of it becomes water.
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.
For since the elements are four—fire, water, air, earth—their powers correspond to these:
the portion of that element which prevails in a man will determine his character.