1 Diog. viii. 54-56 (R. P. 162).
2 Diels, Verhandl, αἰ. 35 Philologenversammil. pp. 104 sqq., Zeller, p. 767. It would be fatal to the main thesis of the next few chapters if it could be proved that Empedokles was influenced by Leukippos. I hope to show that Leukippos was influenced by the later Pythagorean doctrine (Chap. IX. § 171), which was in turn affected by Empedokles (Chap. VII. § 147).
3 For πόροι in Alkmaion, cf. Arist. de Gen. An. B, 6. 744 a8; Theophr. de sens. 26; and for the way in which his embryological and other views were transmitted through Empedokles to the Ionian physicists, cf. Fredrich, Hippokratische Untersuchungen, pp. 126 sqq.
4 Ἐς P. 162h. The story is always told with a hostile purpose.
5 R. P. 2. This was the story told by Herakleides of Pontos, at the . end of his romance about the ἄπνους.
Empedokles of Akragas 237
accepted ; for there was no local tradition. Empedokles
did not die in Sicily, but in the Peloponnese, or,
perhaps, at Thourioi. He had gone to Olympia to
have his religious poem recited to the Hellenes; his
enemies were able to prevent his return, and he was
seen in Sicily no more.’
104. Empedokles was the second philosopher to
expound his system in verse, if we leave the satirist
Xenophanes out of account. He was also the last
among the Greeks ; for the forged Pythagorean poems
may be neglected.” Lucretius imitates Empedokles
in this, just as Empedokles imitated Parmenides. Of
course, the poetical imagery creates a difficulty for the
interpreter ; but it would be wrong to make too much
of it. It cannot be said that it is harder to extract
the philosophical kernel from the verses of Empedokles
than from the prose of Herakleitos.
There is some divergence of opinion as to the
poetical merit of Empedokles. The panégyric of
Lucretius is well known.? Aristotle says in one place
that Empedokles and Homer have nothing in common
but the metre ; in another, that Empedokles was “ most
Homeric. To my mind, there can be no question
that he was a genuine poet, far more so than Parmenides.
No one doubts nowadays that Lucretius was one, and
Empedokles really resembles him very closely.
1 Timaios took the trouble to refute the common stories at some length (Diog. viii. 71 sqq.; R. P. 2d.). He was quite positive that Empedokles never returned to Sicily. Nothing can be more likely than that, when wandering as an exile in the Peloponnese, he should have seized the opportunity of joining the colony at Thourioi, which was a harbour for many of the ‘‘ sophists ” of this time.
2 See Chap. IV. § 85.
3 Lucr. i. 716 sqq.
4 Poet. τ. 1447 Ὁ 18; cf. Diog. viii. 57 (R. P. 162.i).
Writings.
The remains.
238 Early Greek Philosophy
105. We have more abundant remains of Em-
pedokles than of any other early Greek philosopher.
If we may trust our manuscripts of Diogenes and of
Souidas, the librarians of Alexandria estimated the Poem
on Nature and the Purzfications together as 5000 verses,
of which about 2000 belonged to the former work.!
Diels gives about 350 verses and parts of verses from
the cosmological poem, or not a fifth of the whole. It
is important to remember that, even in this favourable
instance, so much has been lost. Besides the two
poems, the Alexandrian scholars possessed a prose work
of 600 lines on medicine ascribed to Empedokles.
The tragedies and other poems which were sometimes
attributed to him seem really to belong to a younger
writer of the same name, who is said by Souidas to
have been his grandson.”
I give the remains as they are arranged by Diels :—
And do thou give ear, Pausanias, son of Anchitos the wise !
For straitened are the powers that are spread over their bodily parts, and many are the woes that burst in on them and
1 Diog. viii. 77 (R. P. 162); Souidas 5... ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς " καὶ ἔγραψε δι᾽ ἐπῶν Περὶ φύσεως τῶν ὄντων βιβλία B’, καὶ ἔστιν ἔπη ὡς δισχίλια. It hardly seems likely, however, that the Καθαρμοί extended to 3000 verses, so Diels proposes to read πάντα τρισχίλια for πεντακισχίλια in Diogenes. It is to be observed that there is no better authority than Tzetzes for dividing the Περὶ φύσεως into three books. See Diels, ‘‘ Uber die Gedichte des Empedokles ” (eri. Sztzb., 1898, pp. 396 sqq.).
2 Hieronymos of Rhodes declared (Diog. viii. 58) that he had met with forty-three of these tragedies ; but see Stein, pp. § sqq. The poem on the Persian Wars, which Hieronymos also refers to (Diog. viii. 57), seems to have arisen from an old corruption in the text of Arist. Prod/. 929 Ὁ 16, where Bekker still reads ἐν rots Περσικοῖς. The same passage, however, is said to occur ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς, in Meteor. A, 4. 382 a 1, though there too E
« reads Περσικοῖς.
Empedokles of Akragas 239
blunt the edge of their careful thoughts! They behold but a brief span of a life that is no life, and, doomed to swift death, are borne up and fly off like smoke. Each is convinced of that alone which he had chanced upon as he is hurried to and fro, and idly boasts he has found the whole. So hardly can these things be seen by the eyes or heard by the ears of men, so hardly grasped by their mind! Thou,? then, since thou hast found thy way hither, shalt learn no more than mortal mind hath power. R. P. 163.
. to keep within thy dumb heart.
But, O ye gods, turn aside from my tongue the madness of those men. Hallow my lips and make a pure stream flow from them! And thee, much-wooed, white-armed Virgin Muse, do I beseech that I may hear what is lawful for the children of a day! Speed me on my way from the abode of Holiness and drive my willing car! Thee shall no garlands of glory and honour at the hands of mortals constrain to lift them from the ground, on condition of speaking in thy pride beyond that which is lawful and right, and so to gain a seat upon the heights of wisdom,
Go to now, consider with all thy powers in what way each thing is clear. Hold not thy sight in greater credit as compared with thy hearing, nor value thy resounding ear above the clear instructions of thy tongue;* and do not withhold thy confidence in any of thy other bodily parts by which there is an opening for understanding,°® but consider everything in the way it is clear. R. P. 163.
1 The MSS. of Sextus have ζωῆσι βίου. Diels reads ζωῆς ἰδίου. I still prefer Scaliger’s ζωῆς ἀβίους. Cf. fr. 15, τὸ δὴ βίοτον καλέουσι.
3 The person here addressed is still Pausanias, and the speaker Em- pedokles. Cf. fr. 111.
3 No doubt mainly Parmenides.
4 The sense of taste, not speech.
5 Zeller in his earlier editions retained the full stop after νοῆσαι, thus getting almost the opposite sense: ‘* Withhold all confidence in thy bodily senses” ; but he admits in his fifth edition (Ρ. 804, n. 2) that the context is in favour of Stein, who put only a comma at νοῆσαι and took ἄλλων closely
240 Early Greek Philosophy
(5)
‘But it is ever the way of low minds to disbelieve their
betters., Do thou learn as the sure testimonies of my Muse
bid thee, dividing the argument in thy heart.
(6) Hear first the four roots of all things: shining Zeus, life- bringing Hera, Aidoneus, and Nestis whose tear-drops are a well-spring to mortals. R. P. 164.?
And I shall tell thee another thing. There is no coming into being of aught that perishes, nor any end for it in baneful death; but only mingling and change of what has been mingled. Coming into being is but a name given to these by men. R. P. 165.
. uncreated.
But, when the elements have been mingled in the fashion of a man and come to the light of day, orin the fashion of the race of wild beasts or plants or birds, then men say that these come into being; and when they are separated, they call that woeful death. They call it not aright; but I too follow the custom, and call it so myself.
Avenging death.
Fools !—for they have no far-reaching thoughts—who deem that what before was not comes into being, or that
with γυίων. So too Diels. The paraphrase given by Sextus (R. P. 2.) is substantially right.
1 There is no difficulty in the MS. διατμηθέντος if we take λόγοιο as «ς discourse,” ‘‘argument” (cf. διαιρεῖν). Diels conjectures διασσηθέντος, rendering ‘‘ when their words have passed through the sieve of thy mind.” Nor does it seem to me necessary to read xaprd for κάρτα in the first line.
2 The four elements are introduced under mythological names, for which see below, p. 264, n. I. Diels is clearly right in removing the comma after τέγγει, and rendering Westis guae lacrimis suis laticem fundit mortalibus destinatum.
Empedokles of Akragas 241
aught can perish and be utterly destroyed. For it cannot be that aught can arise from what in no way is, and it is impossible and unheard of that what zs should perish ; for it will always de, wherever one may keep putting it. R. P. 165 a.
And in the All there is naught empty and naught too full.
In the All there is naught empty. Whence, then, could aught come to increase it ?
A man who is wise in such matters would never surmise in his heart that as long as mortals live what they call their life, so long they are, and suffer good and ill; while before they were formed and after they have been dissolved they are just nothing at all. R. P. 165 a.
For of a truth they (Strife and Love) were aforetime and
shall be; nor ever, methinks, will boundless time be emptied
of that pair. R. P. 166.
I shall tell thee a twofold tale. At one time it grew to be one only out of many; at another, it divided up to be many instead of one. There is a double becoming of perishable things and a double passing away. The coming together of all things brings one generation into being and destroys it; the other grows up and is scattered as things become divided. And these things never cease continually changing places, at one time all uniting in one through Love, at another each borne in different directions by the repulsion of Strife. Thus, as far as it is their nature to grow into one out of many, -and to become many once more when the one is parted asunder, so far they come into being and their life abides not. But, inasmuch as they never cease changing their places continually, so far they are ever immovable as they go round the circle of existence.
242 Early Greek Philosophy
But come, hearken to my words, for it is learning that increaseth wisdom. As I said before, when I declared the heads of my discourse, I shall tell thee a twofold tale. At one time it grew together to be one only out of many, at another it parted asunder so as to be many instead of one ;— Fire and Water and Earth and the mighty height of Air; dread Strife, too, apart from these, of equal weight to each, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth. Her do thou contemplate with thy mind, nor sit with dazed eyes. It is she that is known as being implanted in the frame of mortals. It is she that makes them have thoughts of love and work the works of peace. They call her by the names of Joy and Aphrodite. Her has no mortal yet marked moving round among them,! but do thou attend to the undeceitful ordering of my discourse.
For all these are equal and alike in age, yet each has a different prerogative and its own peculiar nature. And nothing comes into being besides these, nor do they pass away ; for, if they had been passing away continually, they would not be now, and what could increase this All and whence could it come? How, too, could it perish, since no place is empty of these things? They are what they are; but, running through one another, they become now this, now that,” and like things evermore. R. P. 166.
(18) Love.
(19) Clinging Love.
This (the contest of Love and Strife) is manifest in the mass of mortal limbs. At one time all the limbs that are the body’s portion are brought together by Love in blooming life’s high season ; at another, severed by cruel Strife, they wander each alone by the breakers of life’s sea.. It is the same with