Empedocles
Empedocles
Empedocleswas a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix as well as separate 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...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
boys sea bird
For before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea.
blessed divine-wisdom opinion
Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
blessed long utterance
There is an utterance of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths: whenever any one defiles his body sinfully with bloody gore or perjures himself in regard to wrong-doing, one of those spirits who are heir to long life, thrice ten thousand seasons shall he wander apart from the blessed, being born meantime in all sorts of mortal forms, changing one bitter path of life for another.
sweat sea earth
The sea is the sweat of the earth.
air fire water
But come, hear my words, for truly learning causes the mind to grow. For as I said before in declaring the ends of my words: Twofold is the truth I shall speak; for at one time there grew to be the one alone out of many, and at another time it separated so that there were many out of the one; fire and water and earth and boundless height of air, and baneful Strife apart from these, balancing each of them, and Love among them, their equal in length and breadth.
rain wind sea
Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain.
love-is hands four-elements
The force that unites the elements to become all things is Love, also called Aphrodite; Love brings together dissimilar elements into a unity, to become a composite thing. Love is the same force that human beings find at work in themselves whenever they feel joy, love and peace. Strife, on the other hand, is the force responsible for the dissolution of the one back into its many, the four elements of which it was composed.
sweat sea earth
Earth's sweat, the sea.
fire surface below-the-surface
Many fires burn below the surface.
fire volcanoes
[On the volcano.] And many a fire there burns beneath the ground.
beliefs divine gained gods wealth whose wretched
Happy is he who has gained the wealth of divine thoughts, wretched is he whose beliefs about the gods are dark.
center everywhere god nature
The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.