From the Beginning to Plato

EMPEDOCLES 165
When there has been a mixture in the shape of a man which comes to the
air, or the shape of the species of wild animals, or of plants, or of birds,
then people say that this is to be born, and when they separate they call this
again ill-fated death; these terms are not right, but I follow the custom and
use them myself.
(fr. 9)
Empedocles then developed from the hint of the two forms of light and night in
Parmenides’ ‘Way of Opinion’ the concept of a minimum number of elements,
with permanent and unalterable characteristics, which could account for a world
of plurality and variety according to their proportion and arrangement in
compounds.
Like Parmenides, Empedocles was also a poet wrestling with a new
vocabulary, and for his opening move, instead of saying in a straightforward
manner that the number of elements was four, and that they correspond to fire,
air, earth and water, his words translate as:
Hear first the four roots of all things: bright Zeus, life-bringing Hera,
Aidoneus and Nestis, whose tears are the source of mortal streams.
(fr. 6)
The botanical term ‘roots’ (rizōmata) indicated the vitality of the sub-structures,
their unseen depths and the potential for growths from them, while the divine
names were an indication of their potency and sempiternity. Why were these
four chosen? Perhaps Empedocles had in mind the Homeric division of the world
which allotted the sky to Zeus, the sea to Poseidon, the underworld to Hades, and
left the earth common to all, and then adapted this division to apply to two pairs
of male and female principles, one higher (Zeus the fire above, and Hera the air),
and one lower (Aidoneus for earth, and Nestis as water). Four was the
economical minimum number, reinforced by the importance of the opposites of
hot and cold, dry and wet for the earlier Milesians, and by the adoption of
different basic principles:—of air (by Anaximenes), of fire (by Heraclitus), of
water (attributed to Thales) and the general tradition of earth as the mother of all.
A group of four (the first square number and associated with justice for the
Pythagoreans) also allowed for mutual activity within a structure of balance and
equilibrium. Most obviously the four comprised the natural masses visible in a
coastal town of Sicily:—the earth below, the sea at its edge, the air above and
fire visible in the bright sun and also in the lava pouring from the volcanoes.
This is confirmed by one fragment of Empedocles which states that an
understanding of the true nature of things can come simply from looking around:
since all these—sun and earth and sky and sea—are one with the parts of
themselves that have been separated off and born in mortal things.
(fr. 22)