EMPEDOCLES of Acragas (Sicily), a Greek philosopher and sage who lived in the first half of the fifth century BCE (c. 495–435 BCE) and who ended his life, according to a widespread but apocryphal tradition, by jumping into the crater of the volcano Etna. The ancient biographical tradition made him a pupil both of Pythagoras and of Parmenides of Elea and ascribed to him several texts, among others a prose treatise titled "Medical Discourses" (Iatrikoi logoi), the hexametrical "On Nature" (Peri physeos), and "Purifications" (Katharmoi) (which has been preserved in fragments). Both sets of information reflect what the ancient tradition, from Aristotle onwards, already regarded as the somewhat disconcerting double character of Empedocles' work—the extant hexametrical fragments combine "modern" ontology and physics inspired by Parmenides with an anthropology and eschatology that derived in large part from Pythagoras's doctrine of reincarnation (groups of Pythagoreans were active in many places in Southern Italy and Sicily during Empedocles' lifetime).
Modern interpreters usually attributed Empedocles' physical and ontological fragments to the "modern" "On Nature," and the religious teachings to "Purifications" (see the standard edition of the pre-Socratic philosphers by Herman Diels of 1903 that has been many times since reedited). Such a reading was helped by the simplistic evolutionary model "from mythos to logos" that Wilhelm Nestle's 1940 book, Vom Mythos zum Logos, popularized. The discovery, in 1994, of new fragments in a Strasbourg Papyrus, however, makes it more likely that all extant fragments belong to one hexametrical poem only, whose two titles are later alternatives. Neither title is likely to go back to Empedocles' epoch. It goes without saying that this discovery challenges the traditional, Aristotelian way of understanding the development of Greek thought that has survived despite growing criticism. The consequences for Empedocles' poem have yet to be determined.
Empedocles' Physics
In his physics, Empedocles reacts to Parmenides' radical separation between being and nonbeing and its concomitant rejection of the reliance on sense perception; Empedocles reasserts the validity of sense perception as a guide to humankind's understanding of nature. In a revolutionary move, he posits four "roots" of being, which he alternately calls Zeus, Here, Aidoneus, and Nestis (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 6), or, as later interpreters clarify (with disagreement in detail) fire, air, earth, and water. The divine names underline the fundamental nature of these elements. The existence of cosmos is dominated by the forces of "Friendship" (Philotes) and "Strife" (Neikos)—under their influence, the elements either congregate into bodies or disintegrate again in an eternal cycle, "and these things never cease their interchange" (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 17).
Due to its impact on later philosophers, especially on Plato and Aristotle, the theory of the four elements became fundamental in ancient, medieval, and early modern physics well beyond the revival of atomism among German doctors of the seventeenth century. Leucippus and Democritus, in turn, developed their atomism partly in reaction to Empedocles.
Empedocles' Anthropology
In his anthropology, Empedocles posits the divine nature of the soul; however, it does not seem to imply immortality (this would contradict his cosmology) but only a long duration of the soul's existence (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 115.5). In its original state, the soul was a theios or daimōn, "a divine being." Incarnation into a human body is an exile of the soul, due to some crime committed among the gods (Empedocles seems to draw a grim picture of human existence; Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 120, 121). The aim of incarnation is punishment and purification in order to be able to return to its former divine abode. According to each life, the soul is reincarnated in a new terrestrian body that might be either a human, a plant, or an animal—the most noble plant is Apollo's laurel and the most noble animal is the lion (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 127).
A virtuous life is rewarded by a better reincarnation, the final one being that of a "seer or singer or doctor or prince among humans" (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 146). Given the range of possible incarnations, vegetarism is an inevitable consequence, as it was with the Pythagoreans, on whose doctrine Empedocles depends—he even bans the eating of some plants such as beans (again a Pythagorean prohibition) or laurel leaves (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 140). This anthropology led him to construct an evolutionary history of humanity that began in total harmony, under the reign of Aphrodite, in which humans refrained from bloodshed and from animal sacrifice (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 128). In Olympia, as is written in one anecdote, Empedocles is said to have offered an ox made of different spices.
Conclusion
The autobiographical statements preserved in his fragments confirm Empedocles' status as a charismatic. In a famous address to the inhabitants of Acragas, he understands himself as nearly being released from the cycle of reincarnations, as an "immortal god, no more mortal" (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 112.4). He describes how, on his arrival in the city, the people flock together and ask him for oracles and healing. He claims not only to know drugs that help fight disease—and even old age—but he also claims that he can command the weather—the wind, and the rain—and that he has an ability to call back the dead from Hades (Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 B 111). The later biographical tradition agrees with these statements, although its reliability has always been a problem. Empedocles' pupil Gorgias claimed, however, to have seen him perform magic (goēteuein, Diogenes Laertius 8.59). Gorgias himself was the first highly influential teacher of rhetoric that Empedocles was said to have invented, and which some believe he may even have invented (Aristotle, in Diels and Kranz, 1934, 31 A 1.57). This ties in with other scholarship and materials that make Empedocles, against all odds, a staunch democrat, and once again underlines the complexity of his life and thought, defying easy assumptions about the development of Greek philosophy and religion.
Burkert, Walter. Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism. Translated by Edwin L. Minar, Jr. Cambridge, Mass., 1972. Diels, Hermann, ed. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 5th ed., chp. 31 (DK 31). Revised by Walter Kranz. Berlin, 1934. Inwood, Brad. The Poem of Empedocles: A Text and Translation with an Introduction. Toronto, 1992. Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford, 1995. Martin, Alain, and Oliver Primavesi. L'Empédocle de Strasbourg (P. Strasb. Gr. Inv. 1665–1666). Introduction, Édition et Commentaire. Strasbourg and Berlin, 1999. Zuntz, Günther. Persephone: Three Essays in Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia, pt. 3. Oxford, 1971.
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