Empedocles
Empedocles
Empedocleswas a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix as well as separate the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
center everywhere god nature
The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
beliefs divine gained gods wealth whose wretched
Happy is he who has gained the wealth of divine thoughts, wretched is he whose beliefs about the gods are dark.
fire volcanoes
[On the volcano.] And many a fire there burns beneath the ground.
sweat sea earth
Earth's sweat, the sea.
air fire water
But come, hear my words, for truly learning causes the mind to grow. For as I said before in declaring the ends of my words: Twofold is the truth I shall speak; for at one time there grew to be the one alone out of many, and at another time it separated so that there were many out of the one; fire and water and earth and boundless height of air, and baneful Strife apart from these, balancing each of them, and Love among them, their equal in length and breadth.
fire surface below-the-surface
Many fires burn below the surface.
rain wind sea
Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain.
light air sky
What is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.
sweat sea earth
The sea is the sweat of the earth.
blessed long utterance
There is an utterance of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths: whenever any one defiles his body sinfully with bloody gore or perjures himself in regard to wrong-doing, one of those spirits who are heir to long life, thrice ten thousand seasons shall he wander apart from the blessed, being born meantime in all sorts of mortal forms, changing one bitter path of life for another.
may
What is right may properly be uttered even twice.
believe men volcanoes
Various accounts of Empedocle's death are given in ancient sources. His enemies said that his desire to be thought a god led him to throw himself into the crater of Mount Etna so that he might vanish from the world completely and thus lead men to believe he had achieved apotheosis. Unfortunately the volcano defeated his design by throwing out one of the philosopher's sandals.
blessed divine-wisdom opinion
Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
men knowing disappear
Having glimpsed a small part of life, men rise up and disappear as smoke, knowing only what each one has learned.