Empedocles

Empedocles of Acragas in Sicily was a Greek philosopher, poet, physician and public figure, around whom many legends gathered, including his supposed leap into Mount Etna. Responding to Parmenides' denial of coming-to-be, he explained change as the mixing and separation of four eternal 'roots', earth, air, fire and water, driven by the opposing powers of Love and Strife. His poems survive only in fragments, now supplemented by the Strasbourg papyrus.

Key ideas

• Nothing comes to be from nothing; apparent birth and death are mixture and separation.
• Four roots, earth, air, fire and water, are the eternal elements of all things.
• Love unites and Strife separates, alternating in a cosmic cycle.
• Souls undergo a cycle of reincarnation, connected with purification.

Major works

• On Nature (fragments)
• Purifications (Katharmoi, fragments)
• Strasbourg papyrus (published 1999)

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