Empedocles was a citizen of Acragas in Sicily. He was the only native citizen of a Dorian state who plays an important part in the history of philosophy. His father's name, according to the best accounts, was Meton. His grandfather, also called Empedocles, had won a victory in the horse-race at Olympia in 01. LXXI. (496-95 B.C.), and Apollodorus fixed the floruit of Empedocles himself in 01. LXXXIV. I (444-43 B.C.).

That is the date of the foundation of Thourioi; and it appears from the quotation in Diogenes that the fifth-century biographer, Glaucus of Rhegion, said Empedocles visited the new city shortly after its foundation.

But we are not bound to believe that he was just forty years old at the time. That is the usual assumption of Apollodorus; but there are reasons for thinking that his date is considerably too late. It is more likely that Empedocles did not go to Thourioi till after his banishment from Acragas, and he may well have been more than forty years old when that happened. All, therefore, we can be said to know is, that his grandfather was still alive in 496 B.C.; that he himself was active at Acragas after 472, the date of Theron’s death; and that he died later than 444.

Empedocles as a Politician

Empedocles certainly played an important part in the political events which followed the death of Theron. The Sicilian historian Timaeus seems to have treated these fully, and tells some stories which are obviously genuine traditions picked up about a hundred and fifty years afterwards. Like all popular traditions, however, they are a little confused. The picturesque incidents are remembered, but the essential parts of the story are dropped. Still, we may be thankful that the “collector of old wives’ tales,” as his critics called him, has enabled us to measure the historical importance of Empedocles for ourselves by showing us how he was pictured by the great-grandchildren of his contemporaries.

All the tales are intended to show the strength of his democratic convictions, and we are told, in particular, that he broke up the assembly of the Thousand—perhaps some oligarchical association or club. It may have been for this that he was offered the kingship, which Aristotle tells us he refused. At any rate, we see that Empedocles was the great democratic leader at Acragas in those days, though we have no clear knowledge of what he did.

Empedocles as a Religious Teacher

But there is another side to his public character which Timaeus found it hard to reconcile with his political views. He claimed to be a god, and to receive the homage of his fellow-citizens in that capacity. The truth is, Empedocles was not a mere statesman; he had a good deal of the “medicine-man” about him. According to Satyrus, Gorgias affirmed that he had been present when his master was performing sorceries. We can see what this means from the fragments of the Purifications.

Empedocles was a preacher of the new religion which sought to secure release from the “wheel of birth” by purity and abstinence. Orphicism seems to have been strong at Acragas in the days of Theron, and there are even some verbal coincidences between the poems of Empedocles and the Orphicising Odes which Pindar addressed to that prince. On the other hand, there is no reason to doubt the statement of Ammonius that fr. 134 refers to Apollo; and, if that is so, it points to his having been an adherent of the Ionic form of the mystic doctrine, as we have seen (? 39) Pythagoras was.

Further, Timaeus already knew the story that Empedocles had been expelled from the Pythagorean Order for “stealing discourses,” and it is probable on the whole that fr. 129 refers to Pythagoras. It seems most likely, then, that Empedocles preached a form of Pythagoreanism which was not considered orthodox by the heads of the Society. The actual marvels related of him seem to be mere developments of hints in his poems.

Rhetoric and Medicine

Aristotle said that Empedocles was the inventor of Rhetoric; and Galen made him the founder of the Italian school of Medicine, which he puts on a level with those of Kos and Cnidos. Both these statements must be considered in connection with his political and scientific activity. It is probable that Gorgias was his disciple, and also that the speeches, of which he must have made many, were marked by that euphuism which Gorgias introduced to Athens at a later date, and which gave rise to the idea of an artistic prose.

His influence on the development of medicine was, however, far more important, as it affected not only medicine itself, but, through it, the whole tendency of scientific thinking. It has been said that Empedocles had no successors, and the remark is true if we confine ourselves strictly to philosophy; but the medical school he founded was still living in the days of Plato, and had considerable influence on him, and still more on Aristotle. Its fundamental doctrine was the identification of the four elements with the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry. It also held that we breathe through all the pores of the body, and that the act of respiration is closely connected with the motion of the blood.

The heart, not the brain, was regarded as the organ of consciousness. A more external characteristic of the medicine taught by the followers of Empedocles is that they still clung to ideas of a magical nature. A protest against this by a member of the Koan school has been preserved. He refers to them as “magicians and purifiers and charlatans and quacks, who profess to be very religious.”

Death of Empedocles

We are told that Empedocles leapt into the crater of Etna that he might be deemed a god. This appears to be a malicious version of a tale set on foot by his adherents that he had been snatched up to heaven in the night. Both stories would easily get accepted; for there was no local tradition. Empedocles did not die in Sicily, but in the Peloponnese, or, perhaps, at Thourioi. It is not at all unlikely that he visited Athens. Plato represents Socrates as familiar with his views in early life, and the elder Critias adopted one of his characteristic theories.

Empedocles Writings

Empedocles 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 Empedocles in this, just as Empedocles imitated Parmenides. Of course, the poetical imagery creates a difficulty for the interpreter; but it cannot be said that it is harder to extract the philosophical kernel from the verses of Empedocles than from the prose of Heraclitus.

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