The Elements Origins

Aristotle added one more element to Empedocles' theory. He added aether, or quintessence.

Shadow Gaunt
Writer, Ravenclaw

Empedocles was born in Sicily, in approximately 490 BC. He was an all around intelligent person, with people such as Aristotle and Galen regarding him as the founder of Italian medicine, and the creator of rhetoric. He was also a writer, and wrote a lot of poetry, however very little of it is left.

Empedocles created the belief that the whole world, that is all the matter in the world, was composed of four ingredients called elements. The four elements were fire, air, water, and earth. In addition to this, Empedocles took the belief from Heracletius that the four elements were brought together by two forces: love and strife. Strife separated the elements, love brought them together.
Quite poetic.

Empedocles' ideas influenced Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC). Aristotle was an extraordinarily intelligent person. Aristotle had a vast knowledge, covering most of the sciences and arts. He did work in many sciences including biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology. Aristotle was also the inventor of formal logic. But most of all, Aristotle was a great philosopher, with his works in ethics and politics still being studied today.

Aristotle added one more element to Empedocles' theory. He added aether, or quintessence. This theory with five elements and two forces was, and still is, greatly popular. It has been popular in almost all ancient civilizations and is still prevalent in Hinduism and Buddhism today.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Empedocles