who considered air water earth and fire as the four essential elements
Classical element Classical elements typically refer to the concepts in ancient Greece of earth, water, air, fire (and sometimes aether) which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances.[1][2] Ancient cultures in Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had similar lists, sometimes referring in local languages to "air" as "wind" and the fifth element as "void". The Chinese Wu Xing system lists Wood (木 mù), Fire (火 huǒ), Earth (土 tǔ), Metal (金 jīn), and Water (水 shuǐ), though these are described more as energies or transitions than as types of material.