Empedocles
Empedocles (490?–430? B.C.), a Greek philosopher, scientist, physician, and poet. He believed that all things are composed of four elements—earth, water, air, and fire. How these elements combine in different mixtures to form different things depends on the forces of love and hate, or attraction and repulsion. Empedocles expressed his ideas in brilliant poetry, but only fragments of it remain. He was born in Sicily.