Elemental Makeup of the Houses

Television, Movies Games and Books Harry Potter
#1

<first post: woo!>

Way back when, I was thinking of calling in and putting my two cents in for the Harry Potter discussion, but the time passed and I think I missed my window. So, there was a discussion of houses, and this is what I know:

The houses of the school are aligned very directly on the 4 classic Greek elements: Air, Earth, Fire & Water. The whole world was supposed to be made up of these four things.

So, the Gryffindor house is the house of Fire: Think redheads, phoenixes, and many teenage outbursts and tantrums.

The Slytherin house is the house of Water: Natural enemies of the Gryffindors, and the house for potions & and “moral flexibility”. Water will take the shape of its container, of course.

Hufflepuff is the house of Earth, with down-to-earth, likable guys like Cedric Diggory and … not coming up with many good examples here. Diggory, geddit?

And Ravenclaw, the house of Air. Home for abstract thinkers and space cadets. The house for Luna Lovegood, of course.

I don’t think we see much conflict between the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaw, but as there is a dramatic conflict between G & S, it seems natural that there would be for the H’s and R’s.

#2

Welcome to the forum TonyEx! I think that’s a very good description of the houses and their elements. There’s less conflict between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and maybe that’s due to the fact that there was less conflict between their founders.

#3

Professor Sprout (Herbology) was head of Hufflepuff as well!

#4

Ah, yes! I was just thinkng of metals w.r.t. dirt, and not the living aspect of it. Rowling does seem more concerned about the living aspect of things (even wands), and not the “mechanical” aspect of them. If that makes any sense.