Classical element to use the term "element (στοιχεῖον, "stoicheion")" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for element, "stoicheion" (from "stoicheo", "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed. A similar alphabetic metaphor may be the origin of the equivalent Latin word "elementum" (from which the English word comes), possibly based on the names of the letters 'l', 'm', and 'n', though the validity of this idea is debated. In his "On
Archaic smile Archaic smile The Archaic smile was used by Greek Archaic sculptors, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century BCE, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive, and infused with a sense of well-being. One of the most famous examples of the Archaic Smile is the Kroisos Kouros. The dying warrior from the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece is an interesting context as the warrior is near death. In the Archaic Period of ancient Greece (roughly 600 BCE to 480 BCE), the art that proliferated contained images of people who had the archaic smile.