Empedocles

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For other uses, see Empedocles (disambiguation).

Empedocles

Empedocles, 17th-century engraving

Born c. 494 BC[1]

Akragas, Magna Graecia

Died c. 434 BC[1] (aged around 60)

unknown[a]

Era Pre-Socratic philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School Pluralist school

 Main Cosmogenesis, ontology, epistemology
interests

Notable All things[3] are made up of four

ideas
elements: fire, air, earth and water

Change and motion[4] are due to the corporeal

substances[5] Love[6] (Aphrodite)[6] and Strife[6]

The sphere of Empedocles

Theories about respiration (the clepsydra experiment)

Emission theory of vision

Influences[show]

Influenced[show]

Empedocles (/ɛmˈpɛdəkliːz/; Greek: Ἐμπεδοκλῆς [empedoklɛ̂ːs], Empedoklēs; c. 494 –
c. 434 BC, fl. 444–443 BC)[7] was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen
of Akragas,[8][9] a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for
originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed
forces he called Love and Strife which would mix and separate the elements,
respectively.
Influenced by Pythagoras (died c. 495 BC) and the Pythagoreans, Empedocles
challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and killing animals for food. He developed a
distinctive doctrine of reincarnation. He is generally considered the last Greek
philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than
is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was
mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary
treatments.

Contents

 1Life
 2Death
 3Works
o 3.1Purifications
o 3.2On Nature
 4Philosophy
o 4.1The four elements
o 4.2Love and Strife
o 4.3The sphere of Empedocles
 o 4.4Cosmogony
o 4.5Perception and knowledge
o 4.6Respiration
o 4.7Reincarnation
 5Death and literary treatments
 6See also
 7Notes
 8Citations
 9References
 10Further reading
 11External links

Life[edit]

The temple of Hera at Akragas, built when Empedocles was a young man, c. 470 BC.

Empedocles (Empedokles) was a native citizen of Akragas in Sicily.[8][9] He came from a

rich and noble family.[8][10][11] Very little is known about his life. His grandfather, also called
Empedokles, had won a victory in the horse-race at Olympia in [the 71st Olympiad] OL.
LXXI (496–95 BC).[8][9][10] His father's name, according to the best accounts, was Meton. [8][9]
[10]

All that can be said to know about the dates of Empedocles is, that his grandfather was
still alive in 496 BC; that he himself was active at Akragas after 472 BC, the date of
Theron’s death; and that he died later than 444 BC. [7]
Empedocles "broke up the assembly of the Thousand. perhaps some oligarchical
association or club."[12] He is said to have been magnanimous in his support of the poor;
[13]
 severe in persecuting the overbearing conduct of the oligarchs;[14] and he even
declined the sovereignty of the city when it was offered to him. [15]
According to John Burnet: "there is another side to his public character ... He claimed to
be a god, and to receive the homage of his fellow-citizens in that capacity. The truth is,
Empedokles was not a mere statesman; he had a good deal of the 'medicine-man'
about him. ... We can see what this means from the fragments of the Purifications.
Empedokles was a preacher of the new religion which sought to secure release from
the 'wheel of birth' by purity and abstinence. Orphicism seems to have been strong at
Akragas in the days of Theron, and there are even some verbal coincidences between
the poems of Empedokles and the Orphicsing Odes which Pindar addressed to that
prince."[12]
His brilliant oratory,[16] his penetrating knowledge of nature, and the reputation of his
marvellous powers, including the curing of diseases, and averting epidemics,
[17]
 produced many myths and stories surrounding his name. In his poem Purifications he
claimed miraculous powers, including the destruction of evil, the curing of old age, and
the controlling of wind and rain.
Empedocles was acquainted or connected by friendship with the
physicians Pausanias[18] (his eromenos)[19] and Acron;[20] with various Pythagoreans; and
even, it is said, with Parmenides and Anaxagoras.[21] The only pupil of Empedocles who
is mentioned is the sophist and rhetorician Gorgias.[22]
Timaeus and Dicaearchus spoke of the journey of Empedocles to the Peloponnese, and
of the admiration, which was paid to him there;[23] others mentioned his stay at Athens,
and in the newly founded colony of Thurii, 446 BC;[24] there are also fanciful reports of
him travelling far to the east to the lands of the Magi.[25]
The contemporary Life of Empedocles by Xanthus has been lost.

Death[edit]
According to Aristotle, he died at the age of sixty (c. 430 BC), even though other writers
have him living up to the age of one hundred and nine. [26] Likewise, there are myths
concerning his death: a tradition, which is traced to Heraclides Ponticus, represented
him as having been removed from the Earth; whereas others had him perishing in the
flames of Mount Etna.[27]
According to Burnet: "We are told that Empedokles leapt into the crater of Etna that he
might be deemed a god. This appears to be a malicious version of a tale set on foot by
his adherents that he had been snatched up to heaven in the night. Both stories would
easily get accepted; for there was no local tradition. Empedokles did not die in Sicily,
but in the Peloponnese, or, perhaps, at Thourioi. It is not at all unlikely that he visited
Athens. ... Timaios refuted the common stories [about Empedokles] at some length.
(Diog. viii. 71 sqq.; Ritter and. Preller [162].). He was quite positive that Empedokles
never returned to Sicily after he went to Olympia to have his poem recited to the
Hellenes. The plan for the colonisation of Thourioi would, of course, be discussed at
Olympia, and we know that Greeks from the Peloponnese and elsewhere joined it. He
may very well have gone to Athens in connexion with this." [2]

Works[edit]
A piece of the Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus in the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire, Strasbourg

Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse. There is a

debate[28] about whether the surviving fragments of his teaching should be attributed to
two separate poems, Purifications and On Nature, with different subject matter, or
whether they may all derive from one poem with two titles, [29] or whether one title refers
to part of the whole poem. Some scholars argue that the title Purifications refers to the
first part of a larger work called (as a whole) On Nature.[30] There is also a debate about
which fragments should be attributed to each of the poems, if there are two poems, or if
part of it is called "Purifications"; because ancient writers rarely mentioned which poem
they were quoting.
Empedocles was undoubtedly acquainted with the didactic poems
of Xenophanes and Parmenides[31]—allusions to the latter can be found in the fragments
—but he seems to have surpassed them in the animation and richness of his style, and
in the clearness of his descriptions and diction. Aristotle called him the father of rhetoric,
[32]
 and, although he acknowledged only the meter as a point of comparison between the
poems of Empedocles and the epics of Homer, he described Empedocles as Homeric
and powerful in his diction.[33] Lucretius speaks of him with enthusiasm, and evidently
viewed him as his model.[34] The two poems together comprised 5000 lines.[35] About 550
lines of his poetry survive.
Purifications[edit]
In the old editions of Empedocles, only about 100 lines were typically ascribed to
his Purifications, which was taken to be a poem about ritual purification, or the poem
that contained all his religious and ethical thought. Early editors supposed that it was a
poem that offered a mythical account of the world which may, nevertheless, have been
part of Empedocles' philosophical system. According to Diogenes Laërtius it began with
the following verses:
Friends who inhabit the mighty town by tawny Acragas
which crowns the citadel, caring for good deeds,
greetings; I, an immortal God, no longer mortal,
wander among you, honoured by all,
adorned with holy diadems and blooming garlands.
To whatever illustrious towns I go,
I am praised by men and women, and accompanied
by thousands, who thirst for deliverance,
some ask for prophecies, and some entreat,
for remedies against all kinds of disease.[36]
In the older editions, it is to this work that editors attributed the story about souls,
[37]
 where we are told that there were once spirits who lived in a state of bliss, but having
committed a crime (the nature of which is unknown) they were punished by being forced
to become mortal beings, reincarnated from body to body. Humans, animals, and even
plants are such spirits. The moral conduct recommended in the poem may allow us to
become like gods again. If, as is now widely held, this title "Purifications" refers to the
poem On Nature, or to a part of that poem, this story will have been at the beginning of
the main work on nature and the cosmic cycle. The relevant verses are also sometimes
attributed to the proem of On Nature, even by those who think that there was a separate
poem called "Purifications".
On Nature[edit]
There are about 450 lines of his poem On Nature extant,[32] including 70 lines which have
been reconstructed from some papyrus scraps known as the Strasbourg Papyrus. The
poem originally consisted of 2000 lines of hexameter verse,[38] and was addressed
to Pausanias.[39] It was this poem which outlined his philosophical system. In it,
Empedocles explains not only the nature and history of the universe, including his
theory of the four classical elements, but he describes theories on causation,
perception, and thought, as well as explanations of terrestrial phenomena and biological
processes.

Philosophy[edit]

Empedocles as portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle

Although acquainted with the theories of the Eleatics and the Pythagoreans,
Empedocles did not belong to any one definite school. [32] An eclectic in his thinking, he
combined much that had been suggested by Parmenides, Pythagoras and the Ionian
schools.[32] He was a firm believer in Orphic mysteries, as well as a scientific thinker and
a precursor of physics. Aristotle mentions Empedocles among the Ionic philosophers,
and he places him in very close relation to the atomist philosophers and to Anaxagoras.
[40]

According to House (1956)[41]

Another of the fragments of the dialogue On the Poets (Aristotle) treats more fully what
is said in Poetics ch. i about Empedocles, for though clearly implying that he was not a
poet, Aristotle there says he is Homeric, and an artist in language, skilled in metaphor
and in the other devices of poetry.
Empedocles, like the Ionian philosophers and the atomists, continued the tradition of
tragic thought which tried to find the basis of the relationship of the One and the Many.
Each of the various philosophers, following Parmenides, derived from the Eleatics, the
conviction that an existence could not pass into non-existence, and vice versa. Yet,
each one had his peculiar way of describing this relation of Divine and mortal thought
and thus of the relation of the One and the Many. In order to account for change in the
world, in accordance with the ontological requirements of the Eleatics, they viewed
changes as the result of mixture and separation of unalterable fundamental realities.
Empedocles held that the four elements (Water, Air, Earth, and Fire) were those
unchangeable fundamental realities, which were themselves transfigured into
successive worlds by the powers of Love and Strife (Heraclitus had explicated the
Logos or the "unity of opposites").[42]
The four elements[edit]
Empedocles established four ultimate elements which make all the structures in the
world—fire, air, water, earth.[32][43] Empedocles called these four elements "roots", which
he also identified with the mythical names of Zeus, Hera, Nestis, and Aidoneus[44] (e.g.,
"Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And
Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears"). [45] Empedocles never used the term
"element" (στοιχεῖον, stoicheion), which seems to have been first used by Plato.
[46]
 According to the different proportions in which these four indestructible and
unchangeable elements are combined with each other the difference of the structure is
produced.[32] It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that
Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is
popularly termed growth, increase or decrease. Nothing new comes or can come into
being; the only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element with
element.[32] This theory of the four elements became the standard dogma for the next two
thousand years.
Love and Strife[edit]
Not to be confused with the Greek deities of love and strife.
Empedocles cosmic cycle is based on the conflict between love and strife

The four elements, however, are simple, eternal, and unalterable, and as change is the
consequence of their mixture and separation, it was also necessary to suppose the
existence of moving powers that bring about mixture and separation. The four elements
are both eternally brought into union and parted from one another by two divine
powers, Love and Strife (Philotes and Neikos).[32][47] Love (φιλότης) is responsible for the
attraction of different forms of what we now call matter, and Strife (νεῖκος) is the cause
of their separation.[48] If the four elements make up the universe, then Love and Strife
explain their variation and harmony. Love and Strife are attractive and repulsive forces,
respectively, which are plainly observable in human behavior, but also pervade the
universe. The two forces wax and wane in their dominance, but neither force ever
wholly escapes the imposition of the other.
According to Burnet: "Empedokles sometimes gave an efficient power to Love and
Strife, and sometimes put them on a level with the other four. The fragments leave no
room for doubt that they were thought of as spatial and corporeal. ... Love is said to be
"equal in length and breadth" to the others, and Strife is described as equal to each of
them in weight (fr. 17). These physical speculations were part of a history of the
universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life." [5]
The sphere of Empedocles[edit]
As the best and original state, there was a time when the pure elements and the two
powers co-existed in a condition of rest and inertness in the form of a sphere. [32] The
elements existed together in their purity, without mixture and separation, and the uniting
power of Love predominated in the sphere: the separating power of Strife guarded the
extreme edges of the sphere.[49] Since that time, strife gained more sway[32] and the bond
which kept the pure elementary substances together in the sphere was dissolved. The
elements became the world of phenomena we see today, full of contrasts and
oppositions, operated on by both Love and Strife. [32] The sphere of Empedocles being
the embodiment of pure existence is the embodiment or representative of God.
Empedocles assumed a cyclical universe whereby the elements return and prepare the
formation of the sphere for the next period of the universe.
Cosmogony[edit]
Empedocles attempted to explain the separation of elements, the formation of earth and
sea, of Sun and Moon, of atmosphere. [32] He also dealt with the first origin of plants and
animals, and with the physiology of humans.[32] As the elements entered into
combinations, there appeared strange results—heads without necks, arms without
shoulders.[32][50] Then as these fragmentary structures met, there were seen horned heads
on human bodies, bodies of oxen with human heads, and figures of double sex.[32][51] But
most of these products of natural forces disappeared as suddenly as they arose; only in
those rare cases where the parts were found to be adapted to each other did the
complex structures last.[32] Thus the organic universe sprang from spontaneous
aggregations that suited each other as if this had been intended. [32] Soon various
influences reduced creatures of double sex to a male and a female, and the world was
replenished with organic life.[32] It is possible to see this theory as an anticipation
of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, although Empedocles was not trying to
explain evolution.[52]
Perception and knowledge[edit]
Empedocles is credited with the first comprehensive theory of light and vision. He put
forward the idea that we see objects because light streams out of our eyes and touches
them. While flawed, this became the fundamental basis on which later Greek
philosophers and mathematicians like Euclid would construct some of the most
important theories of light, vision, and optics.[53]
Knowledge is explained by the principle that elements in the things outside us are
perceived by the corresponding elements in ourselves. [54] Like is known by like. The
whole body is full of pores and hence respiration takes place over the whole frame. In
the organs of sense these pores are specially adapted to receive the effluences which
are continually rising from bodies around us; thus perception occurs.[55] In vision, certain
particles go forth from the eye to meet similar particles given forth from the object, and
the resultant contact constitutes vision.[56] Perception is not merely a passive reflection of
external objects.[32]
Empedocles noted the limitation and narrowness of human perceptions. We see only a
part but fancy that we have grasped the whole. But the senses cannot lead to truth;
thought and reflection must look at the thing from every side. It is the business of a
philosopher, while laying bare the fundamental difference of elements, to show the
identity that exists between what seem unconnected parts of the universe. [32][57]
Respiration[edit]
In a famous fragment,[55] Empedocles attempted to explain the phenomenon
of respiration by means of an elaborate analogy with the clepsydra, an ancient device
for conveying liquids from one vessel to another.[58][59] This fragment has sometimes been
connected to a passage in Aristotle's Physics where Aristotle refers to people who
twisted wineskins and captured air in clepsydras to demonstrate that void does not
exist.[60] There is however, no evidence that Empedocles performed any experiment with
clepsydras.[58] The fragment certainly implies that Empedocles knew about
the corporeality of air, but he says nothing whatever about the void. [58] The clepsydra
was a common utensil and everyone who used it must have known, in some sense, that
the invisible air could resist liquid.[61]
Reincarnation[edit]
Like Pythagoras, Empedocles believed in the transmigration of the
soul/metempsychosis, that souls can be reincarnated between humans, animals and
even plants.[62] For Empedocles, all living things were on the same spiritual plane; plants
and animals are links in a chain where humans are a link too. [32] Empedocles was
a vegetarian[63][64] and advocated vegetarianism, since the bodies of animals are the
dwelling places of punished souls.[65] Wise people, who have learned the secret of life,
are next to the divine,[32][66] and their souls, free from the cycle of reincarnations, are able
to rest in happiness for eternity.[67]

Death and literary treatments[edit]

The Death of Empedocles by Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673), depicting the legendary alleged suicide of
Empedocles jumping into Mount Etna in Sicily

Diogenes Laërtius records the legend that Empedocles died by throwing himself

into Mount Etna in Sicily, so that the people would believe his body had vanished and
he had turned into an immortal god;[68] the volcano, however, threw back one of his
bronze sandals, revealing the deceit. Another legend maintains that he threw himself
into the volcano to prove to his disciples that he was immortal; he believed he would
come back as a god after being consumed by the fire. Horace also refers to the death of
Empedocles in his work Ars Poetica and admits poets the right to destroy themselves.[69]
In Icaro-Menippus, a comedic dialogue written by the second century satirist Lucian of
Samosata, Empedocles' final fate is re-evaluated. Rather than being incinerated in the
fires of Mount Etna, he was carried up into the heavens by a volcanic eruption. Although
a bit singed by the ordeal, Empedocles survives and continues his life on the Moon,
surviving by feeding on dew.
Empedocles' death has inspired two major modern literary treatments. Empedocles'
death is the subject of Friedrich Hölderlin's play Tod des Empedokles (The Death of
Empedocles), two versions of which were written between the years 1798 and 1800. A
third version was made public in 1826. In Matthew Arnold's poem Empedocles on Etna,
a narrative of the philosopher's last hours before he jumps to his death in the crater first
published in 1852, Empedocles predicts:
To the elements it came from
Everything will return.
Our bodies to earth,
Our blood to water,
Heat to fire,
Breath to air.
In his History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell humorously quotes an unnamed
poet on the subject – "Great Empedocles, that ardent soul, Leapt into Etna, and was
roasted whole."[70]
In J R by William Gaddis, Karl Marx's famous dictum ("From each according to his
abilities, to each according to his needs") is misattributed to Empedocles. [71]
In 2006, a massive underwater volcano off the coast of Sicily was named Empedocles.[72]
In 2016, Scottish musician Momus wrote and sang the song "The Death of
Empedokles" for his album Scobberlotchers.[73]

See also[edit]
 List of vegetarians

Notes[edit]
1. ^ "Empedokles did not die in Sicily, but in the Peloponnese, or, perhaps,
at Thourioi."[2]

Citations[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:    Wright, M. R. (1981).  Empedocles: The Extant Fragments.
a b

Yale University Press. p.  6.

2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Burnet 1930, pp. 202–203.
3. ^ Burnet 1930, pp. 228.
4. ^ Burnet 1930, pp. 231-232.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b Burnet 1930, p. 232.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Burnet 1930, pp. 208.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b Burnet 1930, p. 198.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Zeller, Eduard (1881).  A History of Greek Philosophy from
the Earliest Period to the Time of Socrates. II. Translated by Alleyne, S.
F. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 117–118.
9. ^ Jump up to:        Burnet 1930, p. 197.
a b c d

10. ^ Jump up to:      Freeman, Kathleen (1946).  The Pre-Socratic Philosophers.

a b c

Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp.  172–173.

11. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 51
12. ^ Jump up to:a b Burnet 1930, p. 199.
13. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 73
14. ^ Timaeus, ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 64, comp. 65, 66
15. ^ Aristotle ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 63; compare, however, Timaeus,
ap. Diogenes Laërtius, 66, 76
16. ^ Satyrus, ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 78; Timaeus, ap. Diogenes
Laërtius, 67
17. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 60, 70, 69; Plutarch, de Curios. Princ., adv.
Colotes; Pliny, H. N. xxxvi. 27, and others
18. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 60, 61, 65, 69
19. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 60: "Pausanias, according
to Aristippus and Satyrus, was his eromenos"
20. ^ Pliny, Natural History, xxix.1.4–5; cf. Suda, Akron
21. ^ Suda, Empedocles; Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 55, 56, etc.
22. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 58
23. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 71, 67; Athenaeus, xiv.
24. ^ Suda, Akron; Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 52
25. ^ Pliny, H. N. xxx. 1, etc.
26. ^ Apollonius, ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 52, comp. 74, 73
27. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 67, 69, 70, 71; Horace, ad Pison. 464, etc.
Refer to Arnold (1852), Empedocles on Etna.
28. ^ Inwood, Brad (2001). The poem of Empedocles : a text and translation
with an introduction (rev. ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
pp.  8–21. ISBN 0-8020-8353-6.
29. ^ Osborne, Catherine (1987). Rethinking early Greek philosophy  :
Hippolytus of Rome and the Presocratics. London: Duckworth. pp.  24–
31, 108. ISBN 0-7156-1975-6.
30. ^ Simon Trépanier, (2004), Empedocles: An Interpretation, Routledge.
31. ^ Hermippus and Theophrastus, ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 55, 56
32. ^ Jump up to:                                            Wallace, William
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v

(1911).  "Empedocles"  . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.).  Encyclopædia

Britannica.  9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp.  344–345.
33. ^ Aristotle, Poetics, 1, ap. Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 57.
34. ^ See especially Lucretius, i. 716, etc. Refer to Sedley (1998).
35. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 77
36. ^ DK frag. B112 (Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 61)
37. ^ Frag. B115 (Plutarch, On Exile, 607 C–E; Hippolytus, vii. 29)
38. ^ Suda, Empedocles
39. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 60
40. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, i. 3, 4, 7, Phys. i. 4, de General, et Corr. i. 8, de
Caelo, iii. 7.
41. ^ House, Humphry (1956). Aristotles Poetics. Rupert Hart-Davis. p. 32.
42. ^ James Luchte, Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn, Bloomsbury,
2011.
43. ^ Frag. B17 (Simplicius, Physics, 157–159)
44. ^ Frag. B6 (Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, x, 315)
45. ^ Peter Kingsley, in Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic:
Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1995).
46. ^ Plato, Timaeus, 48b–c
47. ^ Frank Reynolds, David Tracy (eds.), Myth and Philosophy, SUNY
Press, 1990, p. 99.
48. ^ Frag. B35, B26 (Simplicius, Physics, 31–34)
49. ^ Frag. B35 (Simplicius, Physics, 31–34; On the Heavens, 528–530)
50. ^ Frag. B57 (Simplicius, On the Heavens, 586)
51. ^ Frag. B61 (Aelian, On Animals, xvi 29)
52. ^ Ted Everson (2007), The gene: a historical perspective page 5.
Greenwood
53. ^ Let There be Light 7 August 2006 01:50 BBC Four
54. ^ Frag. B109 (Aristotle, On the Soul, 404b11–15)
55. ^ Jump up to:a b Frag. B100 (Aristotle, On Respiration, 473b1–474a6)
56. ^ Frag. B84 (Aristotle, On the Senses and their Objects, 437b23–438a5)
57. ^ Frag. B2 (Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, vii. 123–125)
58. ^ Jump up to:a b c Jonathan Barnes (2002), The Presocratic Philosophers,
Routledge, p. 313.
59. ^ Carl Sagan (1980), Cosmos, Random House, pp. 179–80.
60. ^ Aristotle, Physics, 213a24–7
61. ^ W. K. C. Guthrie, (1980), A history of Greek philosophy II: The
Presocratic tradition from Parmenides to Democritus, Cambridge
University Press, p. 224.
62. ^ Frag. B127 (Aelian, On Animals, xii. 7); Frag. B117 (Hippolytus, i. 3.2)
63. ^ Heath, John (12 May 2005).  The Talking Greeks: Speech, Animals,
and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato. Cambridge University
Press. p.  322. ISBN 9781139443913. An excellent study of Empedocles'
vegetarianism and the various meanings of sacrifice in its cultural context
is that of Rundin (1998).
64. ^ Plato (1961) [c. 360 BC]. Bluck, Richard Stanley Harold
(ed.).  Meno. Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  9780521172288.  This
suggests that e.g. Empedocles' vegetarianism was partly at least due to
the idea that the spilling of blood brings pollution.
65. ^ Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, ix. 127; Hippolytus, vii.
21
66. ^ Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, iv. 23.150
67. ^ Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, v. 14.122
68. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, viii. 69
69. ^ Horace, Ars Poetica, 465–466
70. ^ Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, 1946, p. 60
71. ^ JR by William Gaddis, Dalkey Archive, 2012
72. ^ BBC News, Underwater volcano found by Italy, 23 June 2006
73. ^ Freeman, Zachary (September 2016).  "Albums". Now Then.
Retrieved 24 May 2017.
References[edit]
 Arnold, Matthew (1852). Empedocles on Etna, and Other
Poems. London: B. Fellows.
 Burnet, John (1930) [1892]. Early Greek Philosophy. London:
A. & C. Black, Ltd. ark:/13960/t8bg7z77p.   This article
incorporates text from this source, which is in the public
domain.
  Laërtius, Diogenes (1925). "Pythagoreans:
Empedocles"  . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. 2:8.
Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb
Classical Library.
 Sedley, David (1998). Lucretius and the Transformation of
Greek Wisdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further reading[edit]
 Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy:
From Thales to the Stoics. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. ISBN 1-
4120-4843-5.
 Burnet, John (2003) [1892]. Early Greek Philosophy.
Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger. ISBN 0-7661-2826-1.
 Gottlieb, Anthony (2000). The Dream of Reason: A History of
Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance.
London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9143-7.
 Guthrie, W. K. C. (1978) [1965]. A History of Greek
Philosophy, vol. 2 (ed.). The Presocratic Tradition from
Parmenides to Democritus. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-29421-5.
 Hoffman, Eric (2018). Presence of Life. Loveland, Ohio: Dos
Madres Press. ISBN 978-1-948017-16-9.
 Inwood, Brad (2001). The Poem of Empedocles (rev. ed.).
Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-
4820-X.
 Kingsley, Peter (1995). Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and
Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford:
Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814988-3.
o Review by John Bussanich
o Review by John Opsopaus
o Review by J.-C Picot
 Kirk, G. S.; Raven, J.E.; Schofield, M. (1983). The
Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History (2nd ed.).
 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-25444-
2.
 Lambridis, Helle (1976). Empedocles  : a philosophical
investigation. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama
Press. ISBN 0-8173-6615-6.
 Long, A. A. (1999). The Cambridge Companion to Early
Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0-521-44122-6.
 Luchte, James (2011). Early Greek Thought: Before the
Dawn. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-
0567353313.
 Millerd, Clara Elizabeth (1908). On the interpretation of
Empedocles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 O'Brien, D. (1969). Empedocles' cosmic cycle: a
reconstruction from the fragments and secondary sources.
London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05855-4.
 Russell, Bertrand (1945). A History of Western Philosophy,
and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances
from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New York: Simon
and Schuster. ISBN 0-415-07854-7.
 Wright, M. R. (1995). Empedocles: The Extant
Fragments (new ed.). London: Bristol Classical
Press. ISBN 1-85399-482-0.

External links[edit]
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 Parry, Richard. "Empedocles". In Zalta, Edward

N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
 Campbell, Gordon. "Empedocles". Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
 Empedokles: Fragments, translated by Arthur Fairbanks,
1898.
 Empedocles by Jean-Claude Picot with an extended and
updated bibliography
 Empedocles: Fragments at demonax.info
 O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund
F., "Empedocles", MacTutor History of Mathematics
archive, University of St Andrews.
 Works by or about Empedocles at Internet Archive
 Works by Empedocles at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks) 
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