According to this theory, there is a kind of waxing and waning in the power of both Love and Strife. When Love is completely dominant, all the four elements are mixed together in total peace and harmony. Empedocles describes the cosmos in this condition as a sphere (§§357–8), which might remind us of the spherical one being in Parmenides. Unlike Parmenides’ being, though, this sphere is going to change: as Strife begins to exert its influence, the
