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ONE
EMPEDOCLES
8
EMPEDOCLES OLYMPIAN
Empedocles’ dive into Etna has fascinated scholars, poets, and artists fromancient to modern times. Diogenes Laertius was so taken with it, in fact,that he gives two versions of the event. Biographically speaking, the storybecomes even more fascinating as it becomes ever more clear that Emped-ocles was destined to leave the world precisely in this manner, his fatedetermined by biographers and historians and ultimately through his ownwriting. Empedocles’ philosophical works, the
Purifications
and the
Phys-ics,
were considered raw autobiographical data fit for the gleaning, andthe manner in which Empedocles’ philosophy was transformed into hisbiography reveals more about ancient biographers, such as Diogenes Laer-tius, than it does about Empedocles. Out of the philosophy itself grew alegend that has haunted and intrigued us through the years.There was a tendency in the ancient world, by no means restricted tothe biographers, to approach any given text as biographical.
1
The poetswere favorite subjects of this approach: Homer’s life was pieced together
12
 
Empedocles
13
from the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey;
Aeschylus was presumed to have fought atSalamis because he describes that battle in his
Persians.
2
The same is trueof the philosophers in general, and for Empedocles and other archaicphilosophers specifically, because of their use of the first-person “I” intheir work. For our purposes, the pursuit of a biographical tradition thatemerges from a philosopher’s work, the life of Empedocles is particularlyinstructive. First, because Empedocles was such a popular figure for thebiographers, they have given us an enormous amount of biography towork with. Second and fortunately, a great deal of Empedocles’ ownphilosophy is still extant, so that the two bodies of work, biography andphilosophy, are available for comparative work to illustrate the method.Keeping in step, then, with Empedocles’ biography as it occurs in Diog-enes Laertius, we begin with his origin and background, all of which lead,inexorably, to that fateful final jump.
The Philosopher at the Games
The archaic philosopher Empedocles was a famous man from a famoustown. A citizen of Acragas in Sicily, Empedocles flourished in the earlymiddle of the fifth century BCE, during the great age of Sicilian tyrants,Hieron of Syracuse and Theron, also of Acragas.
3
Acragas (modern-dayAgriegento) was prosperous and strong, as was most of Sicily during thisera; the tyrants Hieron and Theron were as celebrated for their beneficentand prosperous rule as for their victories in the Olympic Games on theGreek mainland.
4
The association between Empedocles’ fellow Siciliansand the Olympic Games led to an association between Olympia andEmpedocles himself. This has caused a great deal of confusion when itcomes to determining Empedocles’ family in the biographies and, to acertain extent, in attribution of his work.
5
According to most ancient sources, Empedocles was the son of a mannamed Meton. The philosopher’s grandfather and son were also namedEmpedocles; it was common practice for the ancient Greeks to name sonsand daughters for grandparents. A dissenting view, however, gives Exaene-tus as the name of Empedocles’ father and of his son. The presence of different family names are not unusual in these biographies; several differ-ent names are given for Heraclitus’ and Democritus’ fathers as well. Vari-ant family names do suggest, however, variant purposes, one other thanbiography. For example, we could expect the name Exaenetus to appearsomewhere in Empedocles’ philosophical works, just as the name Cleis,
 
14
DEATH BY PHILOSOPHY
which occurs in one of Sappho’s poems, is sometimes considered Sappho’sdaughter by the biographers and later, as the biography takes on a life anda tradition of its own, “Cleis” was given as the name of Sappho’s mother,thus imposing traditional nomenclature practice for a biographical pur-pose.
6
Biographical motives are also at work in different names given formembers of Empedocles’ family. The several sources that give these differ-ent names were collected by Diogenes Laertius in his life of Empedocles,and presented to the reader as follows:
1
.
Empedocles [the philosopher], according to Hippobotus, was the son of Meton and the grandson of Empedocles of Acragas. Timaeus says the samein the fifteenth book of his
Histories,
and that the grandfather of the poet[philosopher] was a man of distinction. And Hermippus agrees with thisalso. So too Heraclides in his work,
On Diseases,
[says] that Empedocleswas from a distinguished family and had a grandfather who kept racehorses. And Eratosthenes in his records,
Olympic Victories,
says thatMeton’s father was the winner in the Seventy-First Olympiad, and usesAristotle as his reference. Apollodorus the grammarian in his
Chronology
tells us that he [the philosopher] was the son of Meton . . . and he saysthat the victor in the horse-riding in the Seventy-First Olympiad was thisman’s namesake and grandfather. (DL
8
.
51
–
52
)
Εµπεδοκλη
ς
,
ως
ησιν Ιπποβοτος
,
Μετωνοςη
ν υι ος του
ΕµπεδοκλεουςΑκραγαντι 
νος
.
το δ αυτο και Τιµαιος εν τη
ι πεντεκαιδεκατηι τω
νΙσ-τοριω
ν
[fr.
93
FHG I
215
]
λεγει προσιστορω
ν
επισηµονανδραγεγονεναι τον Εµπεδοκλεα τον παππον του
ποιητου
.
αλλα και Ερµιπ-πος
[fr.
27
FHG III
42
]
τα αυτατουτωι 
ησιν
.
οµοιως Ηρακλειδης εν τω
ι Περι νοσων
[fr.
74
Voss],
οτι λαµπρα
ςη
ν οικιαςιπποτρο
ηκοτος του
παππου
.
λεγει δε και Ερατοσθενης εν τοι 
ς Ολυµπιονικαις
[FGrHist.
241
F
7
II
1014
]
την πρωτην και εβδοµηκοστην ολυµπιαδα
[
496
]
νενικηκεναι τον του
Μετωνος πατερα
,
µαρτυρι χρωµενος Αριστοτελει 
[fr.
71
]. (
52
)
Απολλοδωρος δογραµµατικος εν τοι 
ς Χρονικοι 
ς
[FGrHist.
244
F
32
II
1028
]
ησινωςη
νµενΜετωνοςυι ος
. . .
οδε
την
µιαν και εβδοµηκοστην ολυµπιαδα νενικηκως κελητι τουτου παπποςη
νοµωνυµος
. . .
2
.
But Satyrus in his
Lives
says that Empedocles was the son of Exaenetusand himself left behind a son named Exaenetus. And he says that in thesame Olympiad Empedocles was victorious in the horse race and his son
of 00

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