Empedocles of Acragas was in his prime about 450 B.C.
He wrote two poems in hexameter verses: On Nature, addressed to his pupil Pausanias, and Katharmoi (Purifications), addressed to his fellow-citizens of Acragas.
1. Pausanias, but you must listen, son of wise Anchites!
2. For limited are the means of grasping (i.e. the organs of sense perception) which are scattered throughout their limbs, and many are the miseries that press in and blunt the thoughts. And having looked at (only) a small part of existence during their lives, doomed to perish swiftly like smoke they are carried aloft and wafted away, believing only that upon which as individuals they chance to hit as they wander in all directions; but every man preens himself on having found the Whole: so little are these things to be seen by men or to be heard, or to be comprehended by the mind! But you, since you have come here into retirement, shall learn—not more than mortal intellect can attain.
3. But, ye gods, avert from my tongue the madness of those men, and guide forth from my reverent lips a pure stream! I beseech thee also, much-wooed white-armed maiden Muse, convey (to me) such knowledge as divine law allows us creatures of a day to hear, driving the well-harnessed car from (the realm of) Piety! 1
Nor shall the flowers of honour paid to fame by mortals force you at least to accept them on condition that you rashly say more than is holy—and are thereupon enthroned on the heights of wisdom!
But come, observe with every means, to see by which way
5. To protect it within your silent bosom.
6. Hear, first, the four roots of things: bright Zeus, and life-bearing Hera, and Aidôneus, and Nêstis who causes a mortal spring of moisture to flow with her tears.
7. (The Elements): uncreated.
8. And I shall tell you another thing: there is no creation of substance in any one of mortal existences, nor any end in execrable death, but only mixing and exchange of what has been mixed; and the name 'substance' (Phusis, 'nature') is applied to them by mankind.
9. But men, when these (the Elements) have been mixed in the form of a man and come into the light, or in the form of a species of wild animals, or plants, or birds, then say that this has 'come into being'; and when they separate, this men call sad fate (death). The terms that Right demands they do not use; but through custom I myself also apply these names.
10. Death the Avenger.
11. Fools!—for they have no long-sighted thoughts, since they imagine that what previously did not exist comes into being, or that a thing dies and is utterly destroyed.
12. From what in no wise exists, it is impossible for anything to come into being; and for Being to perish completely is incapable of fulfilment and unthinkable; for it will always be there, wherever anyone may place it on any occasion.
19. Adhesive Love (Philotês). 1
20. This process is clearly to be seen throughout the mass of mortal limbs: sometimes through Love all the limbs which the body has as its lot come together into One, in the prime of flourishing life; at another time again, sundered by evil feuds, they wander severally by the breakers of the shore of life. Likewise too with shrub-plants and fish in their watery dwelling, and beasts with mountain lairs and diver-birds that travel on wings.
21. But come, observe the following witness to my previous discourse, lest in my former statements there was any substance of which the form was missing. Observe the sun, bright to see and hot everywhere, and all the immortal things (heavenly bodies) drenched with its heat and brilliant light; and (observe) the rain, dark and chill over everything; and from the Earth issue forth things based on the soil and solid. But in (the reign of) Wrath they are all different in form and separate, while in (the reign of) Love they come together and long for one another. For from these (Elements) come all things that were
23. As when painters decorate temple-offerings with colours—men who, following their intelligence, are well-skilled in their craft—these, when they take many-coloured pigments in their hands, and have mixed them in a harmony, taking more of some, less of another, create from them forms like to all things, making trees and men and women and animals and birds and fish nurtured in water, and even long-lived gods, who are highest in honour; so let not Deception compel your mind (to believe) that there is any other source for mortals, as many as are to be seen existing in countless numbers. But know this for certain, since you have the account from a divinity. 2
24. . . . Touching on summit after summit, not to follow a single path of discourse to the end.
25. For what is right can well be uttered even twice.
26. In turn they get the upper hand in the revolving cycle, and perish into one another and increase in the turn appointed by Fate. For they alone exist, but running through one another they become men and the tribes of other animals, sometimes uniting under the influence of Love into one ordered Whole, at other times again each moving apart through the hostile
27. (The Sphere under the dominion of Love): Therein are articulated neither the swift limbs of the sun, nor the shaggy might of Earth, nor the sea: so firmly is it (the Whole) fixed in a close-set secrecy, a rounded Sphere enjoying a circular solitude. 2
27a. There is no strife nor unseemly war in his limbs.
28. But he (God) is equal in all directions to himself and altogether eternal, a rounded Sphere enjoying a circular solitude.
29. For there do not start two branches from his back; (he has) no feet, no swift knees, no organs of reproduction; but he was a Sphere, and in all directions equal to himself.
30. But when great Hate had been nourished in its limbs, and had rushed up into honour, when the time was fulfilled which, alternating, is fixed for them (Love and Hate) by a broad oath. . .
31. For all the limbs of the god trembled in succession.
32. The joint connects two things.
33. As when fig juice binds white milk . . .
34. Having kneaded together barley-meal with water . . .
35. But I will go back to the path of song which I formerly laid down, drawing one argument from another: that (path which shows how) when Hate has reached the bottommost abyss of the eddy, and when Love reaches the middle of the whirl, then in it (the whirl) all these things come together so as to be One—not all at once, but voluntarily uniting, some from one quarter, others from another. And as they mixed,
36. As they came together, Hate returned to the outermost (bound).
37. (Fire increases Fire), Earth increases its own substance, Aether (increases) Aether.
38. Come now, I will first tell you of (the sun) 3 the beginning, (the Elements) from which all the things we now look upon came forth into view: Earth, and the sea with many waves, and damp Air, and the Titan Aether which clasps the circle all round.
39. If the depths of the earth were unlimited, and also the vast Aether, a doctrine which has foolishly issued forth off the tongues of many, and has been spread abroad out of their mouths, since they have seen only a little of the Whole . . .
40. Sharp-shooting sun and gracious moon.
41. But (the sun) collected in a ball travels round the great sky.
42. (The moon) cuts off his (the sun's) rays, whenever she goes below him, and she throws a shadow on as much of the Earth as is the breadth of the bright-eyed moon.
43. Thus the ray (of sunshine) having struck the broad surface of the moon (returns at once in order that, running, it may reach the heavens).
62. Come now, hear how the Fire as it was separated sent up the night-produced shoots of men and much-lamenting women; for my tale is not wide of the mark nor ill-informed. At first, undifferentiated shapes of earth arose, having a share of both elements Water and Heat. These the Fire sent up, wishing to reach its like, but they did not yet exhibit a lovely body with limbs, nor the voice and organ such as is proper to men.
63. But the substance of (the child's) limbs is divided (between them), part in the man's (body and part in the woman's).
64. Upon him comes Desire also, reminding 2 him through sight.
65. And they (male and female seed) were poured into the pure parts. Some of it forms women, (namely) that which has encountered Cold, (and conversely that which encounters Hot produces males).
66. The divided meadows of Aphrodite.
67. For in the warmer part the stomach (i.e. the womb) is productive of the male, and for this reason men are swarthy and more powerfully built 3 and more shaggy.
68. On the tenth day of the eighth month (the blood) becomes a white putrefaction (milk).
69. Double-bearing: (women, as bearing in both the seventh and the ninth months).
70. Sheepskin: (the membrane, or caul, round the unborn child).
71. But if your belief concerning these matters was at all lacking—how from the mixture of Water, Earth, Aether and Sun (Fire) there came into being the forms and colours of mortal things in such numbers as now exist fitted together by Aphrodite . . .
74. (Aphrodite): bringing the tuneless tribe of prolific fish.
75. Of (the animals), those that are of dense composition on the outside and rare within, having received this flabbiness under the hands of Cypris . . .
76. This is (found) in the hard-backed shells of the sea-dwellers, especially the sea-snails and the stone-skinned turtles. There you will see earth dwelling on the surface of the flesh.
77, 78. (Trees) retentive of their leaves and retentive of their fruit, flourish with abundance of fruit all the year round, in accordance with the Air (i.e. Vapour, Moisture, in their composition).
79. Thus eggs are borne, first by the tall olive trees . . .
80. . . .Which is the reason why pomegranates are late-ripening and apples remain juicy for so long(?). 2
81. Wine is the water from the bark, after it has fermented in the wood.
82. Hair, and leaves, and the close feathers of birds, and the scales that grow on stout limbs, are the same thing.
83. But hedgehogs have sharp-shooting hairs that bristle on their backs.
84. As when a man, thinking to make an excursion through a stormy night, prepares a lantern, a flame of burning fire, fitting lantern-plates to keep out every sort of winds, and these plates disperse the breath of the blowing winds; but the light leaps out through them, in so far as it is finer, and shines across the threshold with unwearying beams: so at that time did the aboriginal Fire, confined in membranes and in fine
85. But the benevolent flame (of the eye) happened to obtain only a slight admixture of Earth.
86. . . . Out of which (Elements) divine Aphrodite built tireless eyes.
87. Aphrodite, having fastened them (eyes) together with clamps of affection . . .
88. One vision is produced by both (eyes).
89. Realising that from all created things there are effluences . . .
90. Thus sweet seized on sweet, bitter rushed towards bitter, sour moved towards sour, and hot settled upon hot.
91. (Water is) more able to agree with wine, but unwilling (to mix) with oil.
92. (The sterility of mules is due to the quality of their seed: both the male and female seed are soft substances which when mixed produce a hard substance, as when) brass is mixed with tin.
93. The berry of the grey elder mingles with the linen. 2
94. And the black colour in the bottom of a river arises from the shadow, and the same thing is seen in deep caves.
95. When first they (the eyes) grew together in the hands of Cypris . . . (explanation of why some creatures see better by day, others by night).
102. Thus all (creatures) have a share of breathing and smell.
103. Thus all (creatures) have intelligence, by the will of Fortune.
104. And in so far as the rarest things came together in their fall . . .
105. (The heart) nourished in the seas of blood which courses in two opposite directions: this is the place where is found for
the most part what men call Thought; for the blood round the heart is Thought in mankind.
106. The intelligence of Man grows towards the material that is present.
107. For from these (Elements) are all things fitted and fixed together, and by means of these do men think, and feel pleasure and sorrow.
108. In so far as their natures have changed (during the day), so does it befall men to think changed thoughts (in their dreams).
109. We see Earth by means of Earth, Water by means of Water, divine Air by means of Air, and destructive Fire by means of Fire; Affection by means of Affection, Hate by means of baneful Hate.
109a. (Reflections are emanations on to the mirror from the objects mirrored).
110. If you press them (these truths?) deep into your firm
112. Friends, who dwell in the great town on the city's heights, looking down on yellow Acragas, you who are occupied with good deeds, who are harbours (of refuge) treating foreigners with respect, and who are unacquainted with wickedness: greeting! I go about among you as an immortal god, no longer a mortal, held in honour by all, as I seem (to them to deserve), 2 crowned with fillets and flowing garlands. When I come to them in their flourishing towns, to men and women, I am honoured; and they follow me in thousands, to inquire where is the path of advantage, some desiring oracles, while others ask to hear a word of healing for their manifold diseases, since they have long been pierced with cruel pains.
113. But why do I lay stress on these things, as if I were achieving something great in that I surpass mortal men who are liable to many forms of destruction?
122. Here were the Earth-Mother (Chthoniê) and the farseeing Sunshine-Nymph (Hêliopê), bloody Discord, and Harmony with her serious mien, Beauty and Ugliness, the
135. But that which is lawful for all extends continuously through the broad-ruling Air and through the boundless Light. 2
136. Will ye not cease from this harsh-sounding slaughter? Do you not see that you are devouring one another in the thoughtlessness of your minds?
137. The father having lifted up the son slaughters him with a prayer, in his great folly. But they are troubled 3 at sacrificing one who begs for mercy. But he, on the other hand, deaf to (the victim's) cries, slaughters him in his halls and prepares the evil feast. Likewise son takes father, and children their mother, and tearing out the life, eat the flesh of their own kin.
138. Having drained off their life with bronze . . .
139. (Hymn of repentance for sins of diet): 'Alas that a pitiless day did not destroy me before I planned evil deeds of eating with my lips!'
140. Keep entirely away from laurel-leaves!
143. (Wash the hands) cutting off (water) from five springs into (a vessel of) enduring bronze.
144. To fast from sin.
145. Therefore you are distraught with dire sins, and shall never ease your heart of your grievous sorrows!
146. And at the last they become seers, and bards, and physicians, and princes among earth-dwelling men, from which (state) they blossom forth as gods highest in honour.
147. Sharing the hearth of the other immortals, sharing the same table, freed from the lot of human griefs, indestructible.
148. Earth that envelops mortals (the body).
149. Cloud-gathering Air.
150. Full-blooded liver. 2
151. Life-giving Aphrodite.
152. (Old age, the evening of life; evening, the old age of the day: a similar metaphor in Empedocles)
153. Baubô. 3
153a. In seven times seven days (the unborn child is formed).
Doubtful fragments
154. (Plutarch, 'On Eating Flesh', has a passage in defence of those who began the practice: they did not do it out of lawless self-indulgence, but from dire need. He imagines them addressing the men of today and saying: ‘You have plenty of everything; but for us life was hard. It was a time before) the sun had settled in his unchanging course, so as to divide morning and evening; before his path turned back again, crowning him with the
154c. It is immediately clear which plants are going to be fruitful.
Spurious fragments
155. Têlaugês, famous son of Theanô and Pythagoras!
156. (Elegiac verses on Pausanias, the pupil to whom the poem 'On Nature' is addressed).
157. (Punning elegiac couplet on Acrôn, a physician of Acragas).
158. Bereaved of the happy life.
159. The accumulated bulk.
51:1 Others translate: 'Muse of such things as it is lawful for mortals to hear, escort me from the realms of Piety, driving my well-harnessed car!'
Here there is probably a gap, where Empedocles takes up his address to Pausanias again.
52:1 διασηθέντος (Diels), from διασήθω, 'sift'; but he translates: 'when my speech has passed through the sieve of your inward parts.' Clement read διατμηθέντος, which gives: 'when my argument has been analysed in your inner parts', a perfectly sound meaning.
53:1 ἁπάντῃ (Sextus); Simplicius read ἑκαστον, which has been emended to ἑκάστῳ (Panzerbieter): 'equal in weight to each' (of the Elements).
54:1 Empedocles probably used Philotês, not Philia; both words mean Love in the widest sense, not merely Eros.
55:1 λυγρά is usually translated 'sorry', 'grieved'; but cp. Odyssey IV. 230: φάρμακα λυγρά.
55:2 The Muse.
56:1 Of this fragment, v. 3= B17, v. 34 and B21, v. 13; vv. 5, 6 = B17, vv. 7, 8; vv. 8-12 = B17, vv. 9-13.
56:2 i.e., content with these conditions, self-sufficient.
57:1 i.e., not yet fallen to the bottom.
57:2 i.e., 'completely', so that no fault could be found with the mixture.
57:3 ἥλιον Clem.; corrupt.
59:1 σκιεροῖς (Kranz); Diels read στείροις ('sterile').
59:2 ἀναμιμνήσκων, a dubious emendation by Diels for ἀμμίσγων, 'mingling' (male and female).
59:3 ἁδρομελέστεροι: Karsten for MSS. ἀνδρωδέστεροι.
60:1 εἴδεα. Diels read ἴδεα from ἴδος (damp heat).
60:2 Plutarch, who quotes this, did not know the meaning of ὑπέρφλοιον, but was told by scholars that φλοίειν is used to mean 'to be in its prime', 'to flourish', and as the apple is the fruit which best preserves its prime, the poet called it 'of surpassing or enduring ripeness'. Empedocles is explaining the effect of the sun on various fruits.
61:1 λοχάζετο here is intransitive. Burnet wrongly takes it as transitive and supplies 'she (Love)' as the subject. For the accusative κούρην cp. Hdt. v. 121, ἐλόχησαν ὁδόν 'occupied the road with an ambuscade'.
61:2 This fragment concerns dyeing, as illustrative of the power of assimilation of one substance by another. The MSS. read κρόκου or κρόκον, for which Diels substituted κόκκος, 'berry'; and ἀκρίς, for which Wilamowitz suggested ἀκτῆς, from ἀκτέα, 'elder'. If the MSS. readings κρόκου and ἀκτίς be retained, the fragment can be more plausibly translated: 'The ray of bright(?) saffron mingles with the linen.' The emendations are ingenious but improbable.
62:1 Klepsydra: not here the water-clock, but a domestic vessel for picking up small quantities of liquid out of a larger vessel. See Hugh Last, Class. Q. XVIII (1924), pp. 169 sqq. for description and illustration.
62:2 ἠθμοῖο, the base of the water-catcher, pierced with holes through which the liquid enters. This, the reading of a few less good MSS., is probably correct. Burnet prefers the commoner ἰσθμοῖο (the control-pipe at the top of the vessel), because of δυσηχέος ('noisy'), which he thinks means 'gurgling', as when a bottle full of water is turned upside down; such an experiment is described in Aristotle, Probl. 943. But this is not to the point here: the water-catcher was not turned upside down, but the flow of liquid was regulated by opening and shutting the upper entrance with the hand.
63:1 The hunting-dog is referred to. Smell, an emanation from the animal, is given off only when it is alive; hence, when dead, it does not leave traces of interest to other animals.
64:1 Reading corrupt.
64:2 ὤσπερ ἔοικα. Diels translated this 'as I deserve', which, as Kranz says, is impossible. Another reading is ἔοικε, 'as is proper'. See Companion, p. 178, note.
65:1 ἔργα τε ῥευστά. Diels (followed by Burnet) thought that this referred to floods; but bodily ailments are here in question. Bignone suggested 'works of dissolution'. Kranz translates 'the work of Rheuma', i.e. of diseases due to excess of the moist element, as opposed to fevers ('wasting diseases').
67:1 vv. 1, 2, = B29, vv. 1, 2.
67:2 Divine law as opposed to human law; said to refer in particular to the prohibition of animal-slaughter.
67:3 οἱ δ᾽ ἀπορεῦνται, emendation of Diels, who takes 'they' as 'the attendants at the sacrifice'. If the MSS. reading of δὲ πορεῦνται λισσόεμνοι be retained, the meaning is: 'they (the victims) come up to beg for mercy'.
68:1 An uncertain restoration by Diels of a passage quoted for grammatical reasons, from the Herculanean MSS.
68:2 Quoted by Plutarch to show that Empedocles does not use epithets idly for the sake of fine writing, but in order to bring out the exact nature or function of something.
68:3 Connected with Demeter in Orphic mythology; said to have been used by Empedocles to mean 'belly'.