classical elements
Sign in to savegroup of constituent basic elements of matter (water, earth, fire, air and sometimes aether), used to explain nature patterns since ancient times
AI overview
Classical elements are a group of basic substances—typically water, earth, fire, and air, and sometimes aether—that ancient civilizations used to explain how the natural world works and why patterns occur in nature. Understanding these elements matters because they shaped early scientific thinking and remain culturally significant across many traditions, even though modern science has replaced them with the periodic table of atoms.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Leibniz's representation of the universe as a result of the combination of Aristotle's four elements Rococo set of personification figurines of the Four Elements, 1760s, Chelsea porcelain
The classical elements typically refer to earth, water, fire, air, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Angola, Tibet, India, and Mali had similar lists which sometimes referred, in local languages, to "air" as "wind", and to "aether" as "space".