EMPEDOCLE of AGRIGENTO - E. [depicted] by Luca Signorelli in the chapel of B. Bozio in the cathedral of Orvieto (1502-1504).
between the physical interpretation and the mystical interpretation, and it seems to attenuate the detachment that some have wished to discern between the Περὶ φάσως and the Καθαρχιού. Deussen opposes the lifeless elements of E. to the animate elements of the hylozoists, but the nature of hate and love is not well defined, and still less their relation to the four elements, and according to the testimony of Aristotle it is not even to be excluded that they differ essentially from the former. John Philoponus in his commentary on Aristotle (De generatione et corruptione, I, 5) says: «E. affirms that under the universal dominion of love everything becomes unity and forms the sphere (αρχίρος), the specific property of fire and of any other element no longer existing». In the subsequent prevalence of hate, according to Plutarch (De facie lunari, 12) «the four elements are distinct, hostile and isolated, without community, fleeing and avoiding one another».
The cosmography of E. places the terrestrial sphere at the center. Around it revolve, encompassed by the firmament, two hemispheres, one of fire, which forms the day, and the other of air, which forms the night. More interesting, albeit crude, are the biological theories. In the first period the earth forms by itself, with the cooperation of the other elements, individual limbs and parts such as eyes, head, arms, shoulders; in a second period these parts unite into monstrous figures incapable of life; in a third period the species actually living are formed, which in a fourth period propagate by generation. Knowledge too is explained by the four elements, so that we see earth with earth, water with water, air with air, fire with fire, love with love and hate with hate.
In the Καθαρχιού («Purifications») E. teaches the doctrine of metempsychosis, which according to the testimony of the Pythagorean Timaeus, reported by Diogenes Laertius, he would have learned from Pythagoras himself. He recounts that he himself was plant, bird, fish, boy and maiden, declares that animals are of our same nature, forbids killing them and feeding on their flesh, and finally announces the ethical precept: νηστεύσαι κακάνητος. These Orphic myths do not seem reconcilable with the naturalistic doctrines, even if these too contain numerous elements of polytheistic religion.
Bibliography4 works
E., Rome 1905; F. Joliet, Lukrez u. E., Erlangen 1907; Cl. E. Millerd, On the Interpretation of E., Chicago 1908; E. Bignone, I poeti filosofi della Grecia, E. Studio critico, Traduz. e commento delle testimonianze e dei frammenti, Turin 1916; F. Überweg, I, pp. 91-97, 48-49; W. Ziegenfuss, s. v. in Philosophen-Lexikon, I, Berlin 1940, pp. 283-84.
Andrea Ferro