Empedocles was a native of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. At the time
when he flourished in his native city (circa 440 B.C.) it was one of the
wealthiest and most powerful communities in that wealthy and powerful
island. It had, however, been infested, like its neighbours, by the designs
of tyrants and the dissensions of rival factions. Empedocles was a man of
high family, and he exercised the influence which his position and his
abilities secured him in promoting and maintaining the liberty of his
fellow-countrymen.
Partly on this account, partly from a reputation which with or without his
own will he acquired for an almost miraculous skill in healing and
necromantic arts, Empedocles attained to a position of singular personal
power over his contemporaries, and was indeed regarded as semi-divine. His
death was hedged about with mystery. According to one story he gave a great
feast to his friends and offered a sacrifice; then when his friends went to
rest he disappeared, and was no more seen. According to a story less
dignified and better known—
Deus immortalis haberi Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam
Insiluit. HOR. Ad Pisones, 464 sqq.
“Eager to be deemed a god, Empedocles coldly threw himself in burning Etna.”
A History of Greek Philosophy /
THE ATOMISTS /
EMPEDOCLES
