The logo of the Melammu Project

The Melammu Project

The Heritage of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East


  The Melammu Project
  
   General description
   Search string
   Browse by topic
   Search keyword
   Submit entry
  
   About
   Open search
   Thematic search
   Digital Library
   Submit item
  
   Ancient texts
   Dictionaries
   Projects
   Varia
   Submit link
  FAQ
  Contact us
  About

  The Newsletter
  To Project Information >

 

The four elements (1)

Printable view
Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)

02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs



02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs



02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs



02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs


Keywords
four elements
Period
No period specified
Channel
No channel specified


Text
Beneath the lowest planetary sphere, that of the moon, the zones of the elements are placed in tiers: the zones of fire, air, water and earth. To these four principles, as well as to the constellations, the Greeks gave the name stoicheia, and the Chaldeans already worshipped the one as well as the other. The influence of Oriental religions, like that of Stoic cosmology, spread throughout the West the worship of these four bodies, believed to be elements, whose infinite variety of combinations gave rise to all perceptible phenomena. In the mysteries of Mithra, a group of figures was frequently reproduced, in which a lion represented fire, a bowl water, and a serpent the earth symbolized the strife of these gods, at the same time kindly and hostile, which constantly devoured each other, and whose perpetual opposition and transmutation brought about all the changes of nature. By the end of the pagan period, the divinity of these physical agents was a religious principle accepted by all heathendom. These elements were not only deified: they were themselves haunted by formidable powers; especially the zone of air, which envelops the earth, was the chosen home of demons, kindly or malignant beings, who occupied the middle space and served as intermediaries between gods and men, superior to the latter, inferior to the former.


Bibliography

Cumont 1912, 121-122Cumont, Franz. Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans. American Lectures on the History of Religions 8. New York, London: G. P. Putnam's Sons 1912.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001064.php


Illustrations
No pictures


^
T
O
P