Full context:   It is possible that the model of the eight houses was organized in relation with the system of Elements and elemental values, in a relatively distant epoch, one that antedates the first hermetical astrological texts (ca. 250-200 B.C.), perhaps among the Stoics at the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. Perhaps the Stoics, taking up the Platonic torch of the Elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth)   and ordering them according to the direction of diurnal movement, added to them associated elemental values (dry, hot, wet, cold), the markers of the four characteristics of the progression of the sun (sunrise, apogee, sunset, nadir). What results is a model which would have rivaled the elemental model of the Zodiac (Air = Spring, Fire = Summer, Earth = Autumn, Water = Winter), the symbols of which move opposite the direction of diurnal motion. These two circular organizations, one turning clockwise and the other counter-clockwise, agree if one logically superimposes noon onto the summer solstice. This model may well have been the prototype for a unified theory of the astrological houses and the Zodiacal signs.