Empedocles
Empedocles (c493-c433 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, one of the most eminent of the so-called presocratic philosophers.
There are many stories about Empedocles’ life and the manner of his death, few of them credible. What is certain is that he was born into an aristocratic family in Acragas (modern Agrigento) on the southern coast of Sicily, that he was a strong advocate of democracy, and that at some point he was forced to leave Acragas and fled to the Peloponnese (i.e., the peninsula which forms the southern part of the Greek mainland).
Although nowadays Empedocles is known primarily for his philosophical writings, he achieved eminence in several other fields: he was famed as an orator – the renowned sophist and teacher of rhetoric Gorgias (?485-?380 BCE ) was a pupil - and he made noteworthy contributions to medical science – the great Greek doctor Galen (?130-?200 CE ) describes him as the founder of the Sicilian school of medicine.
Empedocles is the author of two long didactic poems written in hexameters: On Nature (Περὶ φύσεως, Peri phuseōs) and Purifications (Καθαρμοί, Katharmoi). Of the former, originally 2000 lines in length, only 350 lines survive, and of the latter, which was even longer, only 100.
On Nature seeks to provide an explanation of the contents of the physical world and its phenomena. According to Empedocles everything in the world is made up of one or more of four ‘elements’ – his word is ῥιζώματα (rhizomata, ‘roots’) – namely. earth, air, fire, and water. These ‘elements’ are combined and separated by two ‘forces’ – Love (Φιλία, Philia) and Strife (Nεῖκος , Neikos), which are conceived of in physical terms as ‘mobile fluids’, the former being responsible for bringing unlike elements together (joining like with unlike), the latter for separating them (joining like with like). Under the influence of these two forces the universe is subject to cyclical change as one or other of the forces is dominant: Love when dominant makes the universe ‘thoroughly mixed’ while the dominance of Strife produces a universe in which there is no mixing of the different ‘elements’.
Purifications is concerned with the soul’s fall from a state of primal innocence and with the practices which will assist its return to that state. The poem, which clearly reflects Pythagorean doctrine, tells how the soul falls from grace through yielding to the ‘temptations of Strife’ and shedding blood, and how, by way of punishment, it must undergo a series of embodiments in different life forms before it is purified and able to return to its original state of bliss.
