Vitae philosophorum

His doctrines were as follows, that there are four elements, fire, water, earth and air, besides friendship by which these are united, and strife by which they are separated. These are his words[*](Fr. 6 D.):

Shining Zeus and life-bringing Hera, Aidoneus and Nestis, who lets flow from her tears the source of mortal life,

where by Zeus he means fire, by Hera earth, by Aidoneus air, and by Nestis water.

And their continuous change, he says, never ceases,[*](Fr. 17. 6 D.) as if this ordering of things were eternal. At all events he goes on[*](Fr. 17. 7 D.):

At one time all things uniting in one through Love, at another each carried in a different direction through the hatred born of strife.