Four elements in the context of Atomism

Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, countries, and continents; elements of the natural world, such as trees, the four seasons, the "four elements", the four cardinal winds, and the five senses; moral abstractions, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins; the nine Muses; and death.

In many polytheistic early religions, deities had a strong element of personification, suggested by descriptions such as "god of". In ancient Greek religion, and the related ancient Roman religion, this was perhaps especially strong, in particular among the minor deities. Many such deities, such as the tyches or tutelary deities for major cities, survived the arrival of Christianity, now as symbolic personifications stripped of religious significance. An exception was the winged goddess of victory, Victoria/Nike, who developed into the visualisation of the Christian angel.

Byrhtferth (Old English: Byrhtferð; c. 970 – c. 1020) was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire) in England. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, hagiographic, and historical works. He was a leading man of science and best known as the author of many different works (although he may not have written many of them). His Manual (Enchiridion), a scientific textbook, is Byrhtferth's best known work.

He studied with Abbo of Fleury, who was invited to Ramsey Abbey by Oswald of Worcester to help teach. Abbo was there during the period 985 to 987, and became a large influence on Byhrtferth who was interested in the same studies, such as history, logic, astronomy, and mathematics. We do not have contemporary biographies of Byrhtferth, and the only information we have is that given in his Manual and his Preface.