Randomized Information
You can just ignore this, it's just some randomized information I want to look at later.
A friend intriqued me about this awhile ago and back then spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out about the "fifth platonic solid" because he refused to explain that to me (He had a tattoo of all 5 and only would explain 4) and quite accidently I ran across some info on it that seemed to fill in alot of the holes I couldn't before. I don't have time to read it now since I'm at work so I'm just cutting and pasting and looking later.
Geometric solid all of whose faces are identical regular polygons and all of whose angles are equal. There are only five such polyhedrons. The cube is constructed from the square, the dodecahedron from the regular pentagon, and the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron (with 20 faces) from the equilateral triangle. They are known as the Platonic solids because of Plato's attempt to relate each to one of the five elements that he believed formed the world.
The noun Platonic solid has one meaning:
Meaning #1: any one of five solids whose faces are congruent regular polygons and whose polyhedral angles are all congruent
The Five Western Elements & Their related "Platonic Solids"
-Air - Octahedron
-Fire - Tetrahedron
-Water - Icosahedron
-Earth - Hexahedron
-Universe (Aether) - Dodecahedron
Classical Elements in Greece:
The Greek classical elements are Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. They represent in Greek philosophy, science, and medicine the realms of the cosmos wherein all things exist and whereof all things consist. The ancient Greek word for element (stoicheion) literally meant "syllable", the basic unit from which a word is formed.
Plato mentions the elements as of Pre-Socratic origin, a list created by the Ionic philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four "roots"; the term "element (stoicheion)" was used only by later writers.
Aristotle added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas Fire, Earth, Air, and Water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.[1] Various physical aether theories employed aether to provide the proposed invisible medium which permeated the universe, and was responsible for the action of gravity or the propagation of light.
The noun aether has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a medium that was once supposed to fill all space and to support the propagation of electromagnetic waves
Mythological origins
The word aether (αἰθήρ) in Homeric Greek means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky", imagined in Greek mythology to be the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed, analogous to the aer breathed by mortals (also personified as a deity, Aether, the son of Erebus and Nyx). It corresponds to the concept of akasha in Hindu philosophy. It is related to αἴθω "to incinerate"[1], also intransitive "to burn, to shine" (related is the name Aithiopes (Ethiopians), meaning "people with a burnt (black) visage". See also Empyrean.
Fifth element
Plato's Timaeus posits the existence of a fifth element (corresponding to the fifth remaining Platonic solid, the dodecahedron) called quintessence, of which the cosmos itself is made.
Aristotle included aether in the system of the classical elements of Ionic philosophy as the "fifth element" (the quintessence), on the principle that the four terrestrial elements were subject to change and moved naturally in straight lines while no change had been observed in the celestial regions and the heavenly bodies moved in circles. In Aristotle's system aether had no qualities (was neither hot, cold, wet, nor dry), was incapable of change (with the exception of change of place), and by its nature moved in circles.[2] Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be denser than the medium which filled the rest of the universe.[3] Robert Fludd stated that the aether was of the character that it was "subtler than light". Fludd cites the 3rd century view of Plotinus, concerning the aether as penetrative and non-material.[4]
A friend intriqued me about this awhile ago and back then spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out about the "fifth platonic solid" because he refused to explain that to me (He had a tattoo of all 5 and only would explain 4) and quite accidently I ran across some info on it that seemed to fill in alot of the holes I couldn't before. I don't have time to read it now since I'm at work so I'm just cutting and pasting and looking later.
Geometric solid all of whose faces are identical regular polygons and all of whose angles are equal. There are only five such polyhedrons. The cube is constructed from the square, the dodecahedron from the regular pentagon, and the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron (with 20 faces) from the equilateral triangle. They are known as the Platonic solids because of Plato's attempt to relate each to one of the five elements that he believed formed the world.
The noun Platonic solid has one meaning:
Meaning #1: any one of five solids whose faces are congruent regular polygons and whose polyhedral angles are all congruent
The Five Western Elements & Their related "Platonic Solids"
-Air - Octahedron
-Fire - Tetrahedron
-Water - Icosahedron
-Earth - Hexahedron
-Universe (Aether) - Dodecahedron
Classical Elements in Greece:
The Greek classical elements are Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. They represent in Greek philosophy, science, and medicine the realms of the cosmos wherein all things exist and whereof all things consist. The ancient Greek word for element (stoicheion) literally meant "syllable", the basic unit from which a word is formed.
Plato mentions the elements as of Pre-Socratic origin, a list created by the Ionic philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four "roots"; the term "element (stoicheion)" was used only by later writers.
- Air is primarily moist and secondarily warm.
- Fire is primarily warm and secondarily dry.
- Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cool.
- Water is primarily cool and secondarily moist.
Aristotle added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas Fire, Earth, Air, and Water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.[1] Various physical aether theories employed aether to provide the proposed invisible medium which permeated the universe, and was responsible for the action of gravity or the propagation of light.
The noun aether has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a medium that was once supposed to fill all space and to support the propagation of electromagnetic waves
Mythological origins
The word aether (αἰθήρ) in Homeric Greek means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky", imagined in Greek mythology to be the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed, analogous to the aer breathed by mortals (also personified as a deity, Aether, the son of Erebus and Nyx). It corresponds to the concept of akasha in Hindu philosophy. It is related to αἴθω "to incinerate"[1], also intransitive "to burn, to shine" (related is the name Aithiopes (Ethiopians), meaning "people with a burnt (black) visage". See also Empyrean.
Fifth element
Plato's Timaeus posits the existence of a fifth element (corresponding to the fifth remaining Platonic solid, the dodecahedron) called quintessence, of which the cosmos itself is made.
Aristotle included aether in the system of the classical elements of Ionic philosophy as the "fifth element" (the quintessence), on the principle that the four terrestrial elements were subject to change and moved naturally in straight lines while no change had been observed in the celestial regions and the heavenly bodies moved in circles. In Aristotle's system aether had no qualities (was neither hot, cold, wet, nor dry), was incapable of change (with the exception of change of place), and by its nature moved in circles.[2] Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be denser than the medium which filled the rest of the universe.[3] Robert Fludd stated that the aether was of the character that it was "subtler than light". Fludd cites the 3rd century view of Plotinus, concerning the aether as penetrative and non-material.[4]