Empedocles: Pythagoras

¹ Hippobotus says that Empedocles was:

• the son of Meton

• a citizen of Agrigentum.

Timæus, in book 15 of his Histories adds that Empedocles, the grandfather of the poet, was also a most eminent man.

Hermippus tells the same story as Timæus; and in the same spirit Heraclides, in his treatise on Diseases, relates that he was of an illustrious family, since his father bred a fine stud of horses. Erastothenes, in his List of the Conquerors at the Olympic Games, says, that the father of Meton gained the victory in the seventy-first olympiad, quoting Aristotle as his authority for the assertion.

But Apollodorus, the grammarian, in his Chronicles, says that he was the son of Meton; and Glaucus says that he came to Thurii when the city was only just completed. And then proceeding a little further, he adds:—

And some relate that he did flee from thence, And came to Syracuse, and on their side Did fight in horrid war against th’ Athenians; But those men seem to me completely wrong— For by this time he must have been deceased, Or very old, which is not much believed; For Aristotle, and Heraclides too, Say that he died at sixty years of age.

But certainly the person who got the victory with a single horse in the seventy-first olympiad was a namesake of this man, and that it is which deceived Apollodorus as to the age of this philosopher.

But Satyrus, in his Lives, asserts, that Empedocles was the son of Exænetus, and that he also left a son who was named[360] Exænetus.

And that in the same Olympiad, he himself gained the victory with the single horse; and his son, in wrestling, or, as Heraclides says in his Abridgment, in running. But I have found in the Commentaries of Phavorinus, that Empedocles sacrificed, and gave as a feast to the spectators of the games, an ox made of honey and flour, and that he had a brother named Callicratidas.

But Telauges, the son of Pythagoras, in his letters to Philolaus, says that Empedocles was the son of Archinomus; and that he was a citizen of Agrigentum, he himself asserts at the beginning of his Purifications.

Friends, who the mighty citadel inhabit, Which crowns the golden waves of Acragas.

² Timæus in book 9 says that Empedocles was:

• a pupil of Pythagoras
• later convicted of having divulged Pythagorean doctrines and so he was forbidden to attend his school
  • This also happened to Plato

They say that Pythagoras himself mentions Empedocles:

Pythagoras

In that band there was a learned man Of wondrous wisdom; one, who of all men Had the profoundest wealth of intellect.

But some say this referred to Parmenides.

Neanthes says that till the time of Philolaus and Empedocles, the Pythagoreans admitted everyone indiscriminately into their school.

But when Empedocles made their doctrines public through his poems, then they stopped admitting Epic poets.

The same thing happened to Plato. He too was excluded from the school.

But they do not say who was the Pythagorean teacher of Empedocles.

The letter of Telauges says that he was a pupil of Hippasus and Brontinus.

• But it is not believable.

Theophrastus says that he was an imitator and a rival of Parmenides, in his poems, for that he too had delivered his opinions on natural philosophy in epic verse.

Hermippus says that Empedocles:

• was an imitator, not of Parmenides, but of Xenophanes with whom he lived
• imitated the epic style of Xenophanes
• fell in with the Pythagoreans at a later period

Alcidamas, in his Natural Philosophy says that:

• Zeno and Empedocles were pupils of Parmenides around the same time
• they subsequently seceded from him
• Zeno adopted a philosophical system peculiar to himself
• Empedocles became a pupil of Anaxagoras and Pythagoras
• Empedocles imitated the pompous demeanour, and way of life, and gestures of the one, and the system of Natural Philosophy of the other.

III. Aristotle, in his Sophist, says that:

• Empedocles was the first person to invent rhetoric
• Zeno was the first person to invent dialectics

In his book on Poetry, he says, that Empedocles:

• was a man of Homeric genius, endowed with great power of language
• was a great master of metaphor who employed all the successful artifices of poetry
• had written several poems:
  • one on the passage of the Hellespont by Xerxes
  • the proœmium of a hymn to Apollo

His daughter burnt those poems, or, as Hieronymus says, his sister, burning the proœmium unintentionally, but the Persian poem on purpose, because it was incomplete.

But Heraclides, the son of Sarapion, says that the tragedies were the work of some other Empedocles.

Hieronymus says that he had met with 43 Empedocleses.

Neanthes, too, affirms that when he was a young man, he wrote tragedies, and that he himself had subsequently met with them.

Satyrus, in his Lives, states that he was a physician, and also a most excellent orator.

Accordingly, that Gorgias, of Leontini, was his pupil, a man of the greatest eminence as a rhetorician, and one who left behind him a treatise containing a complete system of the art; and who, as we are told by Apollodorus, in his Chronicles, lived to be 109 years old.

IV. Satyrus tells us that he had been present when Empedocles was practising magic:

All the drugs which can relieve disease, Or soften the approach of age, shall be Revealed to your inquiries; I do know them, And I to you alone will them disclose. You shall restrain the fierce unbridled winds, Which, rushing o’er the earth, bow down the corn, And crush the farmer’s hopes. And when you will, You shall recall them back to sweep the land: Then you shall learn to dry the rainy clouds, And bid warm summer cheer the heart of men. Again, at your behest, the drought shall yield To wholesome show’rs: when you give the word Hell shall restore its dead.

V. Timæus, in his book 18, says, that Empedocles was held in great esteem on many accounts:

for that once, when the etesian gales were blowing violently, so as to injure the crops, he ordered some asses to be flayed, and some bladders to be made of their hides, and these he placed on the hills and high places to catch the wind. And so, when the wind ceased, he was called wind-forbidder (κωλυσανέμας).

Heraclides, in his treatise on Diseases, says that he dictated to Pausanias the statement which he made about the dead woman.

Pausanias, as both Aristippus and Satyrus agree, was much attached to him; and he dedicated to him the works which he wrote on Natural Philosophy, in the following terms:

Hear, O Pausanias, son of wise Anchites.

He also wrote an epigram upon him:— Gela, his native land, does boast the birth Of wise Anchites’ son, that great physician, So fitly named Pausanias,[115] from his skill; A genuine son of Æsculapius, Who has stopped many men whom fell disease Marked for its own, from treading those dark paths Which lead to Proserpine’s infernal realms.

VI. Heraclides says that Empedocles kept her corpse for 30 days, yet free from corruption. From this, he called himself a physician and a prophet:

Friends who the mighty citadel inhabit, Which crowns the golden waves of Acragas Votaries of noble actions, Hail to ye; I, an immortal God, no longer mortal, Now live among you well revered by all, As is my due, crowned with holy fillets And rosy garlands. And whene’er I come To wealthy cities, then from men and women Due honours meets me; and crowds follow me, Seeking the way which leads to gainful glory. Some ask for oracles, and some entreat, For remedies against all kinds of sickness.

VII. He says that Agrigentum was a very large city with 800,000 inhabitants. Empedocles saw the people immersed in luxury, said,

“The men of Agrigentum devote themselves wholly to luxury as if they were to die to-morrow, but they furnish their houses as if they were to live for ever.”

VIII. It is said that Cleomenes, the rhapsodist, sung this very poem, called the Purifications, at Olympia; at least this is the account given by Phavorinus, in his Commentaries.

IX. Aristotle says, that he was a most liberal man, and far removed from anything like a domineering spirit; since he constantly refused the sovereign power when it was offered to him, as Xanthus assures us in his account of him, showing plainly that he preferred a simple style of living.

Timæus tells the same story, giving at the same time the reason why he was so very popular.

For he says that when on one occasion, he was invited to a banquet by one of the magistrates, the wine was carried about, but the supper was not served up.

He disapproved of what he saw. So he bade the servants to bring in the supper.

But the person who had invited him said that he was waiting for the secretary of the council. And when he came he was appointed master of the feast, at the instigation of the giver of it, and then he gave a plain intimation of his tyrannical inclinations, for he ordered all the guests to drink, and those who did not drink were to have the wine poured over their heads. Empedocles said nothing at the moment, but the next day he summoned them before the court, and procured the execution of both the entertainer and the master of the feast.

This was the beginning of his political career.

And at another time, when Acron, the physician, asked of the council[364] a place where he might erect a monument to his father, on account of his eminence as a physician, Empedocles came forward and opposed any such grant, adducing many arguments on the ground of equality, and also putting the following question:—“And what elegy shall we inscribe upon it?

“Ἄκρον ἰητρὸν Ἄκρων’ Ἀκραγαντῖνον πατρὸς ἄκρου κρύπτει κρημνὸς ἄκρος πατρίδος ἀκροτάτης.”[116]

But some give the second line thus:— Ἀκροτάτης κορυφῆς τύμβος ἄκρος κατέχει.

And others assert that it is the composition of Simonides.

But afterwards Empedocles abolished the assembly of a thousand, and established a council in which the magistrates were to hold office for three years, on such a footing that it should consist not only of rich men, but of those who were favourers of the interests of the people. Timæus, however, in his first and second book (for he often mentions him), says that he appeared to entertain opinions adverse to a republic. And, as far as his poetry goes, any one may see that he was arrogant and self-satisfied.

Accordingly, he says:

Hail to ye, I, an immortal God, no longer mortal, Now live among you:

And so on.

But when he went to the olympic games he was considered a worthy object of general attention; so that there was no mention made of any one else in comparison of Empedocles.

X. Afterwards, when Agrigentum was settled, the descendants of his enemies opposed his return; on which account he retired to Peloponnesus, where he died. And Timon has not let even Empedocles escape, but satirises him in this style, saying:

Empedocles, the honeyed speaker Of soft forensic speeches; he did take As many offices as he was able, Creating magistrates who wanted helpers.

There are 2 accounts of how he died.

XI. For Heraclides, relating the story about the dead woman, how Empedocles got great glory from sending away a dead woman restored to life, says that he celebrated a sacrifice in the field of Pisianax, and that some of his friends were invited, among whom was Pausanias.

And then, after the banquet, they lay down, some going a little way off, and some lying under the trees close by in the field, and some wherever they happened to choose. But Empedocles himself remained in the place where he had been sitting.

But when day broke, and they arose, he alone was not found. And when he was sought for, and the servants were examined and said that they did not know, one of them said, that at midnight he had heard a loud voice calling Empedocles; and that then he himself rose up and saw a great light from heaven, but nothing else.

As they were all amazed at what had taken place, Pausanias descended and sent some people to look for him; but afterwards he was commanded not to busy himself about the matter, as he was informed that what had happened was deserving of thankfulness, and that they behoved to sacrifice to Empedocles as to one who had become a God.

Hermippus says also, that a woman of the name of Panthea, a native of Agrigentum, who had been given over by the physicians, was cured by him, and that it was on this account that he celebrated a sacrifice; and that the guests invited were about eighty in number.

But Hippobotus says that he rose up and went away as if he were going to mount Ætna; and that when he arrived at the crater of fire he leaped in, and disappeared, wishing to establish a belief that he had become a God. But afterwards the truth was detected by one of his slippers having been dropped. For he used to wear slippers with brazen soles. Pausanias, however, contradicts this statement.

But Diodorus, of Ephesus, writing about Anaximander, says that Empedocles imitated him; indulging in a tragic sort of pride, and wearing magnificent apparel. And when a pestilence attacked the people of Selinus, by reason of the bad smells arising from the adjacent river, so that the men died and the women bore dead children, Empedocles contrived a plan, and brought into the same channel two other rivers at his own expense; and so, by mixing their waters with that of the other river, he sweetened the stream. And as the pestilence was removed in this way, when the people of Selinus were on one occasion holding a festival on the bank of the river, Empedocles appeared among them; and they rising up, offered him adoration, and prayed to him as to a God.

He, wishing to confirm this idea which they had adopted of him, leaped into the fire.

But Timæus contradicts all these stories; saying expressly, that he departed into Peloponnesus, and never returned at all, on which account the manner of his death is uncertain. And he especially denies the tale of Heraclides in his fourth book; for he says that Pisianax was a Syracusan, and had no field in the district of Agrigentum; but that Pausanias erected a monument in honour of his friend, since such a report had got about concerning him; and, as he was a rich man, made it a statue and little chapel, as one might erect to a God.

“How then,” adds Timæus, “could he have leaped into a crater, of which, though they were in the neighbourhood, he had never made any mention? He died then in Peloponnesus; and there is nothing extraordinary in there being no tomb of his to be seen; for there are many other men who have no tomb visible.” These are the words of Timæus; and he adds further, “But Heraclides is altogether a man fond of strange stories, and one who would assert that a man had fallen from the moon.”

Hippobotus says, that there was a clothed statue of Empedocles which lay formerly in Agrigentum, but which was afterwards placed in front of the Senate House of the Romans divested of its clothing, as the Romans had carried it off and erected it there. And there are traces of some inscriptions or reliefs still discernible on it.

Neanthes of Cyzicus, who also wrote about the Pythagoreans, says, that when Meton was dead, the seeds of tyrannical[367] power began to appear; and that then Empedocles persuaded the Agrigentines to desist from their factious disputes, and to establish political equality.

Besides, as there were many of the female citizens destitute of dowry, he portioned them out of his own private fortune. And relying on these actions of his, he assumed a purple robe and wore a golden circlet on his hand, as Phavorinus relates in the first book of his Commentaries. He also wore slippers with brazen soles, and a Delphian garland. His hair was let grow very long, and he had boys to follow him; and he himself always preserved a solemn countenance, and a uniformly grave deportment. And he marched about in such style, that he seemed to all the citizens, who met him and who admired his deportment, to exhibit a sort of likeness to kingly power. And afterwards, it happened that as on the occasion of some festival he was going in a chariot to Messene, he was upset and broke his thigh; and he was taken ill in consequence, and so died, at the age of seventy-seven. And his tomb is in Megara.

Aristotle asserts that Empedocles died at 60 years old. Others say he was 109 when he died.

He lived around the 84th olympiad.

Demetrius, of Trœzen, in his book against the Sophists, reports that, as the lines of Homer say:

He now, self-murdered, from a beam depends, And his mad soul to blackest hell descends.[118]

But in the letter of Telauges, which has been mentioned before, it is said that he slipped down through old age, and fell into the sea, and so died.

And this is enough to say about his death.

There is also a jesting epigram of ours upon him, in our collection of Poems in all Metres, which runs thus:

You too, Empedocles, essayed to purge Your body in the rapid flames, and drank The liquid fire from the restless crater; I say not that you threw yourself at once Into the stream of Ætna’s fiery flood. But seeking to conceal yourself you fell, And so you met with unintended death.

And another:

’Tis said the wise Empedocles did fall Out of his chariot, and so broke his thigh: But if he leapt into the flames of Ætna, How could his tomb be shown in Megara?

XII. The following were some of his doctrines. He used to assert that there were four elements, fire, water, earth, and air. And that that is friendship by which they are united, and discord by which they are separated. And he speaks thus on this subject:

Bright Jove, life-giving Juno, Pluto dark, And Nestis, who fills mortal eyes with tears.

Meaning by Jove fire, by Juno the earth, by Pluto the air, and by Nestis water. And these things, says he, never cease alternating with one another; inasmuch as this arrangement is perpetual. Accordingly, he says subsequently:

Sometimes in friendship bound they coalesce, Sometimes they’re parted by fell discord’s hate.

And he asserts that the sun is a vast assemblage of fire, and that it is larger than the moon. And the moon is disk-shaped; and that the heaven itself is like crystal; and that the soul inhabits every kind of form of animals and plants. Accordingly, he thus expresses himself.

For once I was a boy, and once a girl. A bush, a bird, a fish who swims the sea,

XIII. His writings on Natural Philosophy and his Purifications extend to 5,000 verses.

His Medical Poem to 600.