This is partly my fault as I should have renamed the image. I cropped it from this Pythagorean image:
I prefer the three plus one model. The reason that Fire is larger than the others in the model I use, is because Fire is in everything. Fire is the anima mundi; it is spirit; it is life. As in:And they allowed Apollonius to ask questions; and he asked them of what they thought the cosmos was composed; but they replied: "Of elements."
"Are there then four" he asked.
"Not four," said Iarchas, "but five."
"And how can there be a fifth," said Apollonius, "alongside of water and air and earth and fire?"
"There is the ether", replied the other, "which we must regard as the stuff of which gods are made; for just as all mortal creatures inhale the air, so do immortal and divine natures inhale the ether."
Apollonius again asked which was the first of the elements, and Iarchas answered:
"All are simultaneous, for a living creature is not born bit by bit."
"Am I," said Apollonius, "to regard the universe as a living creature?"
"Yes," said the other, "if you have a sound knowledge of it, for it engenders all living things."
- The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Philostratus, 220AD.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis. KJV). It is also the Logos of the NT. Spirit and breath are the same word in many ancient languages.
In the diagram I used, the other three circles can represent body (E), soul (W) and mind (A). It can also be used to reprsent Plato's tripartite soul. In this case, the soul is the mean between the two opposites of body (E) and mind (A) as the soul (W) shares certain
properties with body and with mind (hence the overlap). In the OT, it is a third of the angels who 'fall' to Earth (including God's second-in-command).
Prometheus means foresight' and Epimetheus means 'hindsight'. They had two other brothers Menoetius (ruined strength) and Atlas (etymology uncertain).
Plato (and other ancient writers too) do not spread information (nor mis- or dis-). They dispense seeds. They were not peddlars of 'facts' like the modern expert."Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained
Epimetheus." (Hesiod, Theogony).
In no particular order:
Forty Two
From Tao, One arises.
From One, two.
From two, three.
Three becomes the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry yin on their backs
and hold yang in their arms.
Existence depends on the two.
Tao Te Ching. Bart Marshall trans.
Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many.
Brahman is the unborn (aja) in whom all existing things abide. The One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms. (Rig Veda)
The word Brahman means growth and is suggestive of life, motion, progress. (Radhakrishnan)
The fundamental element of the cosmos is Space. Space is the all-embracing principle of higher unity. Nothing can exist without Space. .. According to ancient Indian tradition the Universe reveals itself in two fundamental properties: as Motion and as that in which motion takes place, namely Space. This Space is called Akasa .. derived from the root kas, 'to radiate, to shine', and has therefore the meaning of ether which is conceived as the medium of movement. The principle of movement, however, is Prana, the breath of life, the
all-powerful, all-pervading rhythm of the universe. (Lama Anagarika Govinda, 1969)
We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth but at the bottom of an ocean of air - Thales of Miletus (c.625 - 545 BC)
"When the Yogi has full power over his body composed of the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, then he obtains a new body of spiritual fire which is beyond illness, old age, and death".
- Krishna Yajur Veda, Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.12, The Poems of Tukaram (p.88)
"It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell
and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four leggeds
and the wings of the air and all green things,
for these are the children of one mother
and their father is one Spirit"
- Black Elk, Sioux Elder
Aesop, Fables 527 (from Chambry 303 and Phaedrus 4. 10) :
"Prometheus has given us two sacks to carry. One sack, which is filled with our own faults, is slung across our back, while the other sack, heavy with the faults of others, is tied around our necks. This is the reason why we are blind to our own bad habits but still quick to criticize others for their mistakes." [N.B. In Phaedrus' Latin version of this fable, Zeus is substituted for Prometheus.]
Aesop, Fables 535 (from Life of Aesop 94) :
"Zeus once ordered Prometheus to show mankind the two ways: one the way of freedom and the other the way of slavery. Prometheus made the way of freedom rough at the beginning, impassable and steep, with no water anywhere to drink, full of brambles, and beset with dangers on all sides at first. Eventually, however, it became a smooth plain, lined
with paths and filled with groves of fruit trees and waterways. Thus the distressing experience ended in repose for those who breath the air of freedom. The way of slavery, however, started out as a smooth plain at the beginning, full of flowers, pleasant to look at and quite luxurious, but in the end it became impassable, steep and insurmountable on all sides."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 45 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Prometheus, after forming men from water and earth, gave them fire."
But seriously, not a bad attempt. Similar to the chinese elements it shows the contrary attributes of the elements and how they may interact.