The 4ens in greek philosophy and mythology

1. THE FOUR ELEMENTS IN
GREEK PHILOSOPHY

2. • The Greek classical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) date from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle
Ages and into the Renaissance, deeply influencing European thought and culture. The Greek four elements are sometimes
associated with the five platonic solids.
• Plato characterizes the elements as being pre-Socratic in origin from a list created by
the Sicilian philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four "roots" . Plato seems to have been the
first to use the term "element in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for
element, stoicheion meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote
a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.

3. Plato Man: a being in search of meaning.

4. Empedocles was a Greek pre- Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Argigentum , a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is
best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. Empedocles is generally
considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than in the case of any other
Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of
literary treatments. It was Empedocles who established four ultimate elements which make all the structures in the world -
fire, air , water , earth Empedocles called these four elements "roots", which he also identified with the mythical names
of Zeus, Hera , Nestis , and Aidoneus . Empedocles never used the term "element" which seems to have been first used
by Plato. According to the different proportions in which these four indestructible and unchangeable elements are combined with
each other the difference of the structure is produced. It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that
Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is popularly termed growth, increase or
decrease. Nothing new comes or can come into being; the only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element
with element. This theory of the four elements became the standard dogma for the next two thousand years.

5. Air is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. According to Plato, it is associated with
the octahedron; air is considered to be both hot and wet. The ancient Greeks used two words for air: aer meant the dim lower
atmosphere, and aether meant the bright upper atmosphere above the clouds. Plato, for instance writes that "So it is with air: there
is the brightest variety which we call aether, the muddiest which we call mist and darkness, and other kinds for which we have no
name...."Among the early Greek Pre-Socratic philosophers, Anaximenes (mid-6th century BCE) named air as the arche. A similar
belief was attributed by some ancient sources to Diogenes Apolloniates (late 5th century BCE), who also linked air with intelligence
and soul (psyche), but other sources claim that his arche was a substance between air and fire. Aristophanes parodied such
teachings in his play The Clouds by putting a prayer to air in the mouth of Socrates.

6. Anaximenes was a 6th century philosopher, a younger contemporary of Anaximander,
who believed that air was the underlying component of everything. Density and heat
or cold change air so that it contracts or expands. For Anaximenes, the earth was
formed by such processes and is an air-made disk that floats on air above and below.

7. EARTH
• Though the earliest evidence of a spherical Earth comes from ancient Greek sources, there is
no account of how the sphericity of the Earth was discovered. A plausible explanation is that
it was "the experience of travellers that suggested such an explanation for the variation in
the observable altitude and the change in the area of circumpolar stars, a change that was
quite drastic between Greek settlements" around the eastern Mediterranean Sea,
particularly those between the Nile Delta and the Crimea.
• According to Diogenes Laertius, "[ Pythagoras] was the first [Greek] who called the earth
round; though Theophrastus attributes this to Parmenides, and Zeno to Hesiod."

8. Plato (427–347 BC) travelled to southern Italy to study Pythagorean mathematics. When he returned to Athens and
established his school, Plato also taught his students that Earth was a sphere though he offered no justifications. "My
conviction is that the earth is a round body in the centre of the heavens, and therefore has no need of air or of any
similar force to be a support". If man could soar high above the clouds, Earth would resemble "one of those balls which
have leather coverings in twelve pieces, and is decked with various colours, of which the colours used by painters on
earth are in a manner samples." In Timaeus his one work that was available throughout the Middle Ages in Latin, we
read that the Creator "made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every
direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures",] though the word "world"
here refers to the heavens.

9. Aristotle provided physical and observational arguments supporting the idea of a spherical Earth:
Every portion of the Earth tends toward the center until by compression and convergence they form a sphere.
Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon; and
The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round.
The concepts of symmetry, equilibrium and cyclic repetition permeated Aristotle's work. In his Meteorology he
divided the world into five climatic zones: two temperate areas separated by a torrid zone near the equator,
and two cold inhospitable regions, "one near our upper or northern pole and the other near the southern
pole," both impenetrable and girdled with ice .Although no humans could survive in the frigid zones,
inhabitants in the southern temperate regions could exist.

10. Aristotle Love is composed of a single soul inhabitingtwo bodies.

11. Thales' most famous philosophical position was his cosmological thesis, which comes down to us through a passage
from Aristotle's Metaphysics. In the work Aristotle unequivocally reported Thales’ hypothesis about the nature of matter –
that the originating principle of nature was a single material substance: water. Aristotle then proceeded to proffer a number
of conjectures based on his own observations to lend some credence to why Thales may have advanced this idea (though
Aristotle didn’t hold it himself). Aristotle considered Thales’ position to be roughly the equivalent to the later ideas
of Anaximenes, who held that everything was composed of air.

12. Aristotle conjectured that Thales reached his conclusion by contemplating that the "nourishment of all things
is moist and that even the hot is created from the wet and lives by it."
While Aristotle’s conjecture on why Thales held water was the originating principle of water is his own
thinking, his statement that Thales held it was water is generally accepted as genuinely originating with Thales
and he is seen as an incipient matter-and-formist.
Heraclitus Homericus. states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance turn into air,
slime and earth. It seems likely that Thales viewed the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it
floated and the oceans that surround it.
Writing centuries later Diogenes Laertius also states that Thales taught "Water constituted the principle of
all things."

13. Fire is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with
the qualities of energy, assertiveness, and passion. In one Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods to protect
the otherwise helpless humans, but was punished for this charity.
Fire was one of many archai proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom sought to reduce the cosmos, or its creation,
by a single substance. Heraclitus (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE) considered fire to be the most fundamental of all elements.
He believed fire gave rise to the other three elements: "All things are an interchange for fire, and fire for all things,
just like goods for gold and gold for goods.“ He had a reputation for obscure philosophical principles and for speaking in
riddles. He described how fire gave rise to the other elements as the: "upward-downward path", a "hidden
harmony" or series of transformations he called the "turnings of fire", first into sea, and half that sea into earth, and
half that earth into rarefied air. This is a concept that anticipates both the four classical
elements of Empedocles andAristotle's transmutation of the four elements into one another.

14. A Greek philosopher of the late 6th century BC, Heraclitus criticizes his predecessors and
contemporaries for their failure to see the unity in experience. He claims to announce an
everlasting Word (Logos) according to which all things are one, in some sense. Opposites are
necessary for life, but they are unified in a system of balanced exchanges. The world itself consists
of a law-like interchange of elements, symbolized by fire. Thus the world is not to be identified
with any particular substance, but rather with an ongoing process governed by a law of change. The
underlying law of nature also manifests itself as a moral law for human beings. Heraclitus is the first
Western philosopher to go beyond physical theory in search of metaphysical foundations and moral
applications.

15. Heraclitus There is nothing permanent except change

16. PHILOSOPHERS THALIS ANAXIMANDROS ANAXIMENIS HERACLITUS EBEDOCLIS
ELEMENTS WATER WATER,EARTH
FIRE,AIR
AIR FIRE WATER,EARTH
FIRE,AIR

17. Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy
called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is
known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.
For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace
and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by
friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body
and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods neither reward nor punish humans; the universe is infinite
and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in
empty space.

18. Epicurus's teachings represented a departure from the other major Greek thinkers of his period, and before, but was
nevertheless founded on many of the same principles as Democritus. Like Democritus, he was an atomist, believing that the
fundamental constituents of the world were indivisible little bits of matter flying through empty space (kenos). Everything that
occurs is the result of the atoms colliding, rebounding, and becoming entangled with one another, with no purpose or plan behind
their motions. (Compare this with the modern study of particle physics. His theory differs from the earlier atomism of Democritus
because he admits that atoms do not always follow straight lines but their direction of motion may occasionally exhibit a 'swerve'
(clinamen). This allowed him to avoid the determinism implicit in the earlier atomism and to affirm free will.(Compare this with the
modern theory of quantum physics, which postulates a non-deterministic random motion of fundamental particles, which do not
swerve absent an external force; randomness originates in interaction of particles in incompatible eigenstates.)

19. Epicurus Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not
here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

20. Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece.A pupil of Leucippus , he was an
influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory for the universe.
His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned
together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the
nineteenth-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist
than other Greek philosophers; however, their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens
Democritus was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Plato is said to have
disliked him so much that he wished all his books burned. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern
science".

21. Democritus Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else
is just opinion

22. The four elements in Greek
Mythology

23. Element: Earth (Gaia)
In the ancient Greek cosmology earth was
conceived as a flat disk encirced by the river
Okeanos, and topped above by the solid dome
of heaven and below by the great pit of
Tartaros. She herself supported the sea and
moutains upon her breast.
Gaia was depicted as a buxom, matronly
woman, half risen from the earth (as in the
image right) in Greek vase painting. She was
portrayed as inseperable from her native
element. In mosaic art, Gaia appears as a full-
figured, reclining woman, often clothed in
green, and sometimes accompanied by grain
spirits--the Karpoi.
Gaea rising from the earth, Athenian red-figure
kylix C5th B.C., Antikenmuseen, Berlin

24. • GAIA (or Gaea) was the Protogenos(primeval divinity) of earth,
one of the primal elements who first emerged at the dawn of
creation, along with air, sea and sky. She was the great mother
of all : the heavenly gods were descended from her union
with Ouranos (the sky), the sea-gods from her union
with Pontos (the sea), the Gigantes from her mating
with Tartaros(the hell-pit) and mortal creatures were sprung or
born from her earthy flesh.
• In myth Gaia appears as the prime opponent of the heavenly
gods. First she rebelled against her husband Ouranos (Sky) who
had imprisoned her sons in her womb. Then later, when her
son Kronos defied her by imprisoning these same sons, she
assisted Zeus in his overthrow of the Titan. Finally she came into
conflict with Zeus, angered with him for the binding of her Titan-
sons in the pit of Tartaros. In her opposition she first produced
the tribe of Gigantes and later the monster Typhoeusto
dethrone him, but both failed in both attempts.

25. Demeter, the Greek goddess of the agriculture
Demeter is the goddess of corn, grain, and the harvest. She is the
daughter of Cronus and Rhea. It is Demeter that makes the crops
grow each year. The first loaf of bread from the harvest is sacrificed
to her. Demeter is the goddess of the earth, of agriculture, and of
fertility in general. Sacred to her are livestock and agricultural
products, poppy, narcissus and the crane.

26. Demeter Mourning Persephone by Evelyn de Morgan (1906)
Demeter is intimately associated with the seasons. Her
daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades to be his wife in
the underworld. In her anger at her daughter's loss Demeter laid
a curse on the world that caused plants to wither and die, the
land become desolate. Zeus became alarmed and sought
Persephone's return. However, because she had eaten while in
the underworld Hades had a claim on her. Therefore, it was
decreed that Persephone would spend four months each year in
the underworld. During these months Demeter greves her
daughters absence, and withdraws her gifts from the world,
creating winter. Her return brought the spring.

27. Persephone and Demeter Reunite [Painting by Frederic Leighton, 1891.]

28. Element: Wind/Air
THE ANEMOI were the gods of the four directional winds--Boreas the North-Wind,
Zephryos the West-Wind, Notos the South-Wind, and Euros the East-Wind. They
were closely connected with the seasons : Boreas was the cold breath of winter,
Zephyros the god of spring breezes, and Notos the god of summer rain-storms.
The Wind-Gods were represented as either winged, man-shaped gods, or horse-
like divinities, which grazed the shores of the river Okeanos or were stabled in the
caverns of Aiolos Hippotades, "the Horse-Reiner," king of the winds.
Homer and Hesiod distinguish the four seasonal Anemoi (Winds) from the Anemoi
Thuellai (Storms-Winds and Hurricanes). The latter were housed in the caverns of
Aiolos or thepit of Tartaros where they were guarded by the Hekatonkheires. Later
authors, however, blurred the distinction between the two.
The female counterparts of the Anemoi were the Aellai Harpyiai (or Harpies).
Mating, with these they sired swift, immortal horses.

29. Boreas
Greek god of the cold north wind and the bringer of winter. His name
meant "North Wind" or "Devouring One". Boreas is depicted as
being very strong, with a violent temper to match. Zephyrus
Greek god of the west wind. The gentlest of the winds, Zephyrus is
known as the fructifying wind, the messenger of spring. It was
thought that Zephyrus lived in a cave in Thrace

30. Eurus
Greek deity representing the unlucky east wind.
He was thought to bring warmth and rain, and his
symbol was an inverted vase, spilling water
Notus
Greek god of the south wind. He was associated with the desiccating hot wind of the rise of
Sirius after midsummer, was thought to bring the storms of late summer and autumn, and was
feared as a destroyer of crops

31. Aeolus
King of the winds, keeper of the Anemoi, master of the
seasonal winds.

32. Element: Fire
Prometheus and Zeus
Prometheus was one of the Titans, who at some point were sent to
Tartarus by the enraged Zeus who didn’t accept the Titans’s
fighting against him in the famous Battle of the Titans –
Titanomachy.
However Prometheus was not directly involved in the war, so Zeus
saved him from Tartarus and gave him a mission – to form a man
from water and earth. Prometheus accomplished the task, but
while working on his creation, he grew fond of men. He didn’t care
much ever about the Gods and their hierarchy, and however
friendly treated by them, he was much more comfortable being
around the immortals. In any case, Zeus’s idea was not to have
men having any unusual power. But Prometheus was thinking the
other way, and decided to steal one of the powers Zeus was
particularly sensitive about – fire.

33. Prometheus Steals the Fire
Thinking about stealing fire was easy, but it finally proved a bit more
complicated. Prometheus, known for his wit and intelligence, had an
immediate plan – to trick the goddesses throwing them a golden
pear (in some version – apple) into the courtyard with a message:
“For the most beautiful goddess of all”.
It worked as he planned – the goddesses started a fight over the fruit
while gods were completely enjoying the scene. All of them were
distracted and Prometheus didn’t have a hard time steeling the fire
from Hephaestus’s workshop. Hephaestus was, among other stuff,
the Greek god of fire. Prometheus happily left the Gods’ playground
and took the fire with him either in a hollowed pumpkin or hollowed
reed (depending on the interpretation) and brought it to Earth and
gave it to humans.

34. Oh, how Zeus was mad. After so many times being defied by Prometheus, Zeus decided that it was enough. Nevertheless, he made
Hephaestus himself to chain Prometheus on Mount Caucasus where the eagle would eat his liver forever.
But, time passed and Zeus offered at one occasion to free Prometheus in exchange for a revelation of the prophecy that predicted the
dethroning of Zeus. Prometheus refused. But much later Zeus’s son Hercules, on his journey to fulfill the Twelve Labors, passed by the
Mount Caucasus, saw Prometheus and decided to kill the eagle and free the chained Titan. Zeus was very angry initially but
eventually agreed to grant Prometheus his freedom.

35. Hephaestus at the Forge by Guillaume Coustou
the Younger (Louvre)
Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera. Sometimes it is said that Hera alone
produced him and that he has no father. He is the only god to be physically
ugly. He is also lame.
Accounts as to how he became lame vary. Some say that Hera, upset by having
an ugly child, flung him from Mount Olympus into the sea, breaking his legs.
Others that he took Hera's side in an argument with Zeus and Zeus flung him
off Mount Olympus.
He is the god of fire and the forge. He is the smith and armorer of the gods. He
uses a volcano as his forge. He is the patron god of both smiths and weavers.
He is kind and peace loving. His wife is Aphrodite. Sometimes his wife is
identified as Aglaia.
Hephaestus

36. The western face of the Doric temple of Hephaestus, Agora of Athens.

37. Element: Water
God of the sea, protector of all waters. Poseidon is the brother
of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots
with Zeus and Hades, another brother, for shares of the world. His
prize was to become lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by
seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the
Titan Oceanus.

38. Nireus
In Greek mythology, Nereus was the eldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia (the Earth), a Titan who with Doris fathered
the Nereids and Nerites, with whom Nereus lived in the Aegean Sea.

39. Sirens
THE SEIRENES (or Sirens) were three sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching song. They were
formerly handmaidens of the goddess Persephone. When the girl was secretly abducted by Haides, Demeter gave them
the bodies of birds, and sent to assist in the search. They eventually gave up and settled on the flowery island of
Anthemoessa.
The Seirenes were later encountered by the Argonauts who passed by unharmed with the help of Orpheus, the poet
drowing out their music with his song. Odysseus also sailed by, bound tightly to the mast, his men blocking their ears
with wax. The Seirenes were so distressed to see a man hear their song and yet escape, that they threw themselves into
the sea and drowned.
The Seirenes were depicted as birds with either the heads, or the entire upper bodies, of women. In mosaic art they
were depicted with just bird legs.

40. According to Greek Mythology, the Aegean Sea owes its name to the King of Athens, Aigeas (Aegeas).
The story goes this way....... King Minos of Crete in order to punish the Athenians who had killed his son Androgeo, declared war on
Athens and won. The Athenians subsequently became subjects of the Minoan Empire. King Minos then demanded that a tribute of
honour be paid. At nine year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sacrificed. They were to be sent to
Crete and devoured by the mythical Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, who lived in the Labyrinth.
Thiseas, the son of Aigeas and Aithra, decided that he would slaughter the Minotaur and end the shameful bloody sacrifices. He took
the place of one of the seven young men and set sail for Crete. Before he left, it was agreed with his father Aigeas that they would
hoist black sails as a 'show' of mourning, but that if they were successful and slayed the monster, they would hoist white sails on the
journey home.
The Aegean Sea

41. On his journey he met and fell in love with Ariadne, daughter of King
Minoas. She gave him a ball of string, 'Ariadne's Clue'. The idea was
to unravel the string in the Labyrinth, so that after Thiseas slayed the
Minotaur, he would find his way back to the entrance. The mission
was successful and the Minotaur was killed. Under the cloak of night,
Thiseas, Ariadne and the others escaped to the port and embarked
on the ship for the return journey. On the way they stopped at the
island of Naxos. Story tells us that Thiseas abandoned Ariadne while
she was sleeping and continued on his journey home, but forgot to
raise the white sails as he had promised to Aigeas (some say that
Ariadne laid a curse on Thiseas). Aigias waited for his son to return.
As he stood on the Akrotiri of Sounio, he spied the ship as it rounded
the cape - it had black sails. Believing that his son was dead, the king
despaired. He jumped off the cliffs into the sea from the temple of
Poseidon and killed himself.

42. Thank you for your attention!!
Hara Malli, Eleni
Skifta