More on the Four Worlds

Some miscellaneous addenda to my synthesis of Hesiod and Empedocles:

The Styx is the Milky Way, separating the world of immortals (e.g. Air) from the world of mortals (e.g. Water and Earth). The Acheron is the horizon, separating the world of the dead (e.g. Water) from the world of the living (e.g. Earth). (Nobody knows where the name "Acheron" comes from, but I wonder if it is from Egyptian 𓈌 Akhet, which is place where the Sun comes from at sunrise or goes to at sunset: the entrance to 𓇽 Duat, the underworld. Cf. Arabic الْآخِرة al akira, "the afterlife," and the Odyssey XXIV where Homer says that the dead "pass through the gates of the Sun and the land of dreams."

The denizens of both Air and Water are called daimons by the Greeks. Those of Air are always-good (this is enforced by the "broad oaths" sworn by the Styx). Those of Water may be good or bad.

Earthy beings have a fixed form; Watery beings are formless (e.g. may take on any appearance); Airy beings are invisible (e.g. are non-spatial); and the single Fiery being transcends appearance (since there is nobody else to look at it). In the same way, Earthy beings have a fixed sex; Watery beings have a fluid sex (e.g. adapting as needs require); Airy beings are of every sex; and the single Fiery being transcends sex (since sexuality is relational and no relationships are possible when there is only one being).