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How did Empedocles explain change through four elements?

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Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. — Atomism Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

Empedocles did not view change as the creation or destruction of matter, but rather as the transformation of four eternal, immutable elements: fire, air, water, and earth.12

He explained that all observable changes in the world result from the shifting ratios and the physical rearrangement of these basic substances. This process is driven by two opposing cosmic forces: Love and Strife.12

Love acts as a unifying force, causing the elements to mingle and combine.1
Strife acts as a separating force, causing the elements to withdraw from one another.1

The current state of the world is a result of the ongoing interaction between these two forces, where neither dominates completely, allowing for the partial combinations of elements that form the objects we observe in nature. While this theory is distinct from atomism in the strict sense, it shares a foundational logic by reducing the complexity of the natural world to the movement and combination of unchanging, primitive constituents.12