What do you think?
Rate this book
Frammenti e testimonianze: Origini - Purificazioni. Con i frammenti del Papiro di Strasburgo
Liberato da recenti interpretazioni che lo riducevano ad antesignano della scienza occidentale, Empedocle, recupera la sua indole originaria di poeta, sciamano e "physikòs", ovvero interprete della "physis", che è al tempo stesso origine e squadramento di tutte le cose. Misticismo, sapienza ed empirismo si intrecciano nella figura del sapiente di Agrigento, del V secolo a. C., che si offre come modello di una possibile unione tra pensiero scientifico e folgorazione intuitiva, tra mondo degli dei e mondo degli uomini.
282 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1908
About the author
Empedocles
29 books47 followers"Empedocles (c. 490 – c. 430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of 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 is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from two poems, Purifications and On Nature."
-- Wikipedia
Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher to write in verse and the surviving fragments of his teaching are from two poems, Purifications and On Nature."
-- Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 27, 2023
Definitely wish there were more extant fragments or collections of his work.
February 23, 2019
Having recently been introduced to Empedocles by Peter Kingsley, I decided to read Empedocles' works myself - or what we have of them.
I have two major problems with this book. The first is that there is absolutely no context for where these fragments originate, or how they relate to each other. There is literally one short paragraph of introduction to the whole book.
Secondly, the King James language of the translation is unhelpful. I'm already trying to navigate a translation from ancient Greek (right?) into English of a very fragmentary work. I don't need the extra burden of translating from antiquated English into my natural language in my head.
It seems that the Poem of Empedocles is the book I was really looking for. This book, published in 1992, has the advantage of containing fragments discovered since the John Burnet translation was published in 1920.
Thankfully, at less than thirty pages and maybe 200 words on a page, the Burnet translation was quite a small malinvestment.
I have two major problems with this book. The first is that there is absolutely no context for where these fragments originate, or how they relate to each other. There is literally one short paragraph of introduction to the whole book.
Secondly, the King James language of the translation is unhelpful. I'm already trying to navigate a translation from ancient Greek (right?) into English of a very fragmentary work. I don't need the extra burden of translating from antiquated English into my natural language in my head.
It seems that the Poem of Empedocles is the book I was really looking for. This book, published in 1992, has the advantage of containing fragments discovered since the John Burnet translation was published in 1920.
Thankfully, at less than thirty pages and maybe 200 words on a page, the Burnet translation was quite a small malinvestment.
April 16, 2026
At first I thought this guy was really just talking out of his ass (even more than Parmenides), and you know what, that may still be true, but there is something to take away here. His metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics are all beautifully connected in my opinion. Let me explain.
Firstly, Empedocles sees reality as what he describes as a “vortex”, in which the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) are all mixed up and moved around by two forces, Love and Strife. How poetic. Love pushes things together, Strife pulls things apart. But the basic elements are all there and exist perpetually in reality; they may appear to pass away but they are just moving about. This means reincarnation—if something has always been, will always be, and has never not been, then things cannot come out of existence nor come into existence. They have to have always been there. You do not die, you just change forms. Let’s hope I’m not a rock in the next life. I can take being a criminal or even British, but god, anything but a rock. Anyway.
Does Empedocles claim he has memory of his past life? Yes. Do we take him literally? …Maybe? Not sure. I’m going to take him poetically in order to be charitable to his philosophical position. Okay, so maybe we cannot believe the memory of having past lives thing, either because we’re closed-minded or it’s genuinely just ridiculous, but we can imagine something similar to the Buddha’s third eye. At least I do. This is how I understand Empedocles’ epistemological claim. If we see understand the world as one, as being composed of the same four elements, then we are one. We exist as one. One soul, dispersed through trillions of entities. Of course I can remember who I was in my past life. I am everything. I understand all, everyone and every being that lives a different life than me. We are all so similar. Need I even explain how this leads us into his ethics? If we’re all one being, every time you harm someone, you harm yourself. Remember who you are.
But yeah it might just be bullshit and Empedocles believed he was a god. There’s also some records that claim he threw himself into a volcano to prove it. Maybe he ascended. Who knows. Maybe I have faith in everything. Too much of it. Possibly.
“Do you not see that you are devouring each other in the carelessness of your thought?”
“Among beasts they come into being as lions whose lairs are in the mountains
and their beds on the ground, and as laurels among shaggy trees.”
“People see a tiny part of life during their time
and swift-fated they are taken away and fly like smoke, persuaded only of whatever each of them has chanced to meet
as they were driven everywhere; but everyone boasts that he discovered the whole.”
“There you will see earth dwelling in the uppermost parts of the flesh”
“For indeed it is a fine thing to tell twice what one must.”
“The sun shines back toward Olympus with fearless face.”
“A round alien light spins around the earth. It spins around the earth like the track of a chariot.”
“The sea is the earth’s sweat.”
“Wisdom grows in humans in relation to what is present.”
Firstly, Empedocles sees reality as what he describes as a “vortex”, in which the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) are all mixed up and moved around by two forces, Love and Strife. How poetic. Love pushes things together, Strife pulls things apart. But the basic elements are all there and exist perpetually in reality; they may appear to pass away but they are just moving about. This means reincarnation—if something has always been, will always be, and has never not been, then things cannot come out of existence nor come into existence. They have to have always been there. You do not die, you just change forms. Let’s hope I’m not a rock in the next life. I can take being a criminal or even British, but god, anything but a rock. Anyway.
Does Empedocles claim he has memory of his past life? Yes. Do we take him literally? …Maybe? Not sure. I’m going to take him poetically in order to be charitable to his philosophical position. Okay, so maybe we cannot believe the memory of having past lives thing, either because we’re closed-minded or it’s genuinely just ridiculous, but we can imagine something similar to the Buddha’s third eye. At least I do. This is how I understand Empedocles’ epistemological claim. If we see understand the world as one, as being composed of the same four elements, then we are one. We exist as one. One soul, dispersed through trillions of entities. Of course I can remember who I was in my past life. I am everything. I understand all, everyone and every being that lives a different life than me. We are all so similar. Need I even explain how this leads us into his ethics? If we’re all one being, every time you harm someone, you harm yourself. Remember who you are.
But yeah it might just be bullshit and Empedocles believed he was a god. There’s also some records that claim he threw himself into a volcano to prove it. Maybe he ascended. Who knows. Maybe I have faith in everything. Too much of it. Possibly.
“Do you not see that you are devouring each other in the carelessness of your thought?”
“Among beasts they come into being as lions whose lairs are in the mountains
and their beds on the ground, and as laurels among shaggy trees.”
“People see a tiny part of life during their time
and swift-fated they are taken away and fly like smoke, persuaded only of whatever each of them has chanced to meet
as they were driven everywhere; but everyone boasts that he discovered the whole.”
“There you will see earth dwelling in the uppermost parts of the flesh”
“For indeed it is a fine thing to tell twice what one must.”
“The sun shines back toward Olympus with fearless face.”
“A round alien light spins around the earth. It spins around the earth like the track of a chariot.”
“The sea is the earth’s sweat.”
“Wisdom grows in humans in relation to what is present.”
May 13, 2025
Channel the Avatar with the most lengthy and poetic of all the Ancient Greek fragments! The fragments of Empedocles are perhaps the most lyrical of all the Ancient Greek texts, this is however, due to the Early Modern English translation presented here. However, Bible reminiscence aside, this book discusses such themes as the importance of knowledge, the assertion of the theory of relativity, and the finiteness of the Earth and the infinity of the universe. Compared to the fragments of Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, or Parmenides, this exceeds them all in length and is perhaps the most gorgeously written. Highly recommended for a quick and knowledgeable read.
May 29, 2025
Not really the best for the poetry of Empedocles’ poetry, but it does include a slender and helpful notes section detailing thoughts and ideas about most of the fragments from pre1908 scholars. If you’ve read other versions of Empedocles in translation the notes section is, I think, what’s unique and kinda nice about this volume.
April 23, 2024
Didn't read this edition, mine had context for all fragments, exceedingly interesting and fun to contrast with Aristophanes speech in the Symposium. Beautiful ideas, wish they were true.
February 1, 2025
⭐⭐⭐ OK/Good.
November 6, 2017
Empedocles' philosophy of opposites, elemental cosmology, and reincarnation make him feel more akin to Eastern philosophy, yet his work is undeniably an essential part of the Western tradition. On a purely poetic level, his fragments seem more interesting for their influence (i.e. how they were interpreted by later writers) than for how they read alone. But that's surely because so little remains of the original text.
Read
May 7, 2024the awful heights of air... love and strife behind the universe's intermingling with itself....
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews