Editing Fire (classical element) (section)

==Greek and Roman tradition==
[[Fire]] is one of the four [[classical element]]s 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.<ref name="F">{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.utk.edu/~Mclennan/BA/AGEDE/Fire.html|title=The Elements: Fire|website=Cs.utk.edu|access-date=2007-10-18|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029052110/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~Mclennan/BA/AGEDE/Fire.html|archive-date=2007-10-29}}</ref>

Fire was one of many ''[[Arche|archai]]'' proposed by the [[pre-Socratics]], most of whom sought to reduce the [[cosmos]], or its creation, to a single substance. [[Heraclitus]] {{nowrap|(c. 535 BCE –}} {{nowrap|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."<ref name=DK90>[[Diels-Kranz]] B90 (Freeman [1948] 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ASijqFryr5IC&lpg=PP45&pg=PA45 p. 45]).</ref> 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", ({{lang|grc|ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω}}),<ref name=DK60>[[Diels-Kranz]] B60 (Freeman [1948] 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ASijqFryr5IC&lpg=PP43&pg=PA43 p. 43]).</ref> a "hidden harmony"&thinsp;<ref name=DK54>[[Diels-Kranz]] B54 (Freeman [1948] 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ASijqFryr5IC&lpg=PP42&pg=PA42 p. 42]).</ref> or series of transformations he called the "turnings of fire", ({{lang|grc|πυρὸς τροπαὶ}}),<ref name=DK31>[[Diels-Kranz]] B31 (Freeman [1948] 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ASijqFryr5IC&lpg=PP40&pg=PA40 p. 40]).</ref> 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]] and [[Aristotle]]'s transmutation of the four elements into one another.
<blockquote>This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made. But it always was and will be: an ever-living fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out.<ref name=DK30>[[Diels-Kranz]] B30 (Freeman [1948] 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ASijqFryr5IC&lpg=PP40&pg=PA40 p. 40]).</ref></blockquote> 
[[Heraclitus]] regarded the [[Soul (spirit)|soul]] as being a mixture of fire and water, with fire being the more [[Nobility|noble]] part and water the ignoble aspect. He believed the goal of the soul is to be rid of water and become pure fire: the dry soul is the best and it is worldly pleasures that make the soul "moist".<ref name="russell">[[Bertrand Russell|Russell, Bertrand]], ''[[History of Western Philosophy (Russell)|History of Western Philosophy]]''</ref> He was known as the "weeping philosopher" and died of [[hydropsy]], a swelling due to abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin.

However, [[Empedocles]] of [[Agrigento|Akragas]] {{nowrap|(c. 495 –}} {{nowrap|c. 435 BCE)}}, is best known for having selected all elements as his ''archai'' and by the time of [[Plato]] {{nowrap|(427–}}{{nowrap|347 BCE)}}, the four Empedoclian elements were well established. In the ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', Plato's major cosmological dialogue, the [[Platonic solid]] he associated with fire was the [[tetrahedron]] which is formed from four triangles and contains the least volume with the greatest surface area. This also makes fire the element with the smallest number of sides, and Plato regarded it as appropriate for the heat of fire, which he felt is sharp and stabbing, (like one of the points of a tetrahedron).<ref>Plato, ''Timaeus'', chap. 22–23; Gregory Vlastos, ''Plato’s Universe'', pp. 66–82.</ref>

Plato's student [[Aristotle]] {{nowrap|(384–}}{{nowrap|322 BCE)}} did not maintain his former teacher's geometric view of the elements, but rather preferred a somewhat more naturalistic explanation for the elements based on their traditional qualities. Fire the hot and dry element, like the other elements, was an abstract principle and not identical with the normal solids, liquids and combustion phenomena we experience:
<blockquote> What we commonly call fire. It is not really fire, for fire is an excess of heat and a sort of ebullition; but in reality, of what we call air, the part surrounding the earth is moist and warm, because it contains both vapour and a dry exhalation from the earth.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/meteorology/book1.html|title=Meteorology, by Aristotle (Book I, Section 3)|website=Ebooks.adelaide.edu.au|access-date=3 September 2017|archive-date=11 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011014050/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/meteorology/book1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
</blockquote>
According to Aristotle, the four elements rise or fall toward their natural place in concentric layers surrounding the center of the Earth and form the terrestrial or [[sublunary sphere]]s.<ref>[[G. E. R. Lloyd]], ''Aristotle'', chapters 7–8.</ref>

In [[Medicine in ancient Greece|ancient Greek medicine]], each of the [[four humours]] became associated with an element. Yellow [[bile]] was the humor identified with fire, since both were hot and dry. Other things associated with fire and yellow bile in ancient and [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|medieval medicine]] included the season of summer, since it increased the qualities of heat and aridity; the choleric temperament (of a person dominated by the yellow bile humour); the [[Masculinity|masculine]]; and the eastern point of the compass.

[[Image:fire symbol (alchemical).svg|thumb|Alchemical symbol for fire|upright]]

In [[alchemy]] the [[chemical element]] of [[sulfur]] was often associated with fire and its [[alchemical symbol]] and its symbol was an upward-pointing triangle. In alchemic tradition, metals are incubated by fire in the womb of the Earth and alchemists only accelerate their development.<ref name="F"/>