Empedocles

Empedocles of Acragas (c. 494–434 BCE) was a Greek philosopher, poet, physician, and political figure from Acragas in Sicily. He is credited with the theory of four roots, earth, air, fire, and water, which were mixed and separated by two forces, Love and Strife. He wrote two long hexameter poems, On Nature and Purifications, of which fragments survive through Aristotle, Simplicius, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius. Later tradition, which is unreliable, says that he died by leaping into Mount Etna. His theory of the four elements was adopted by Aristotle and remained influential for centuries.