Written work · Essential works
On Nature
Περὶ φύσεως (Φυσικά)
A didactic poem in hexameters setting out Empedocles' physics. Nothing is born or perishes: four eternal roots—Zeus, Hera, Aidoneus and Nestis, that is, fire, air or earth, and water depending on the interpretation—are only mixed and separated under Love, which unites, and Strife, which separates. The cosmos alternates between the unity of the Sphere and dispersion, and in the intermediate phases living beings arise, first as loose limbs combining at random. It includes a theory of perception through effluences and pores, the comparison of breathing with the clepsydra and a physiology of the blood as the seat of thought.
Authorship note
Authentic. Dedicated to Pausanias son of Anchitus. The Suda gives it two books, and Diogenes Laertius (VIII 77) assigns to this poem and the Purifications together some five thousand lines. Some scholars (Osborne, Inwood) have proposed that both titles named a single poem.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Empedocles
Early Greek Philosophy, Volume V: Western Greek Thinkers, Part 2 (Loeb Classical Library 528)
The Conscious LibraryEarly Greek Philosophy, Volume V: Western Greek Thinkers, Part 2 (Loeb Classical Library 528)
Harvard University Press, 2016
Translation: André Laks y Glenn W. Most
ISBN 9780674997066
Edición bilingüe con el papiro de Estrasburgo.
Empedocles
The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy, Part 1
The Conscious LibraryThe Texts of Early Greek Philosophy, Part 1
Cambridge University Press, 2010
Translation: Daniel W. Graham
ISBN 9780521845915
Texto griego y traducción.
The Poem of Empedocles: A Text and Translation with an Introduction (ed. revisada)
University of Toronto Press (Phoenix, suppl. vol.), 2001
Translation: Brad Inwood
ISBN 9780802083531
Incluye los versos del papiro de Estrasburgo; tela: ISBN 9780802048202.
The Presocratic Philosophers
Cambridge University Press, 1983
Translation: G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven y M. Schofield
ISBN 9780521274555
2.ª edición.
Empedocles: The Extant Fragments
Yale University Press, 1981
Translation: M. R. Wright
ISBN 9780300024753
Texto griego, traducción, comentario y concordancia. Reeditado por Bristol Classical Press en 1995 (ISBN 9780872202894) y Duckworth en 2002 (ISBN 9781853994821).
Empedocles
Early Greek Philosophy (2.ª ed.), cap. V
The Conscious LibraryEarly Greek Philosophy (2.ª ed.), cap. V
A. and C. Black / Project Gutenberg, 1908
Translation: John Burnet
Traducción completa de los fragmentos según la ordenación de Diels. Dominio público.
Empedocles
The Fragments of Empedocles, Translated into English Verse
The Conscious LibraryThe Fragments of Empedocles, Translated into English Verse
Open Court, 1908
Translation: William Ellery Leonard
Traducción en verso. Dominio público; reeditada en rústica por Open Court en 1973 (ISBN 9780875483016).
Empedocles
The First Philosophers of Greece, cap. X
The Conscious LibraryThe First Philosophers of Greece, cap. X
Kegan Paul / Project Gutenberg, 1898
Translation: Arthur Fairbanks
Texto griego y traducción. Dominio público.
Español
Empedocles
Los filósofos presocráticos II
The Conscious LibraryLos filósofos presocráticos II
Gredos (Biblioteca Clásica Gredos, 24), 1979
Translation: Ernesto La Croce (Empédocles)
ISBN 9788424935320
Volumen dirigido por Conrado Eggers Lan; incluye Zenón, Meliso, Empédocles y Anaxágoras. El ISBN corresponde a las reimpresiones de la década de 1990.
Los filósofos presocráticos. Historia crítica con selección de textos
Gredos (Biblioteca Hispánica de Filosofía), 1997
Translation: Jesús García Fernández
ISBN 9788424912499
Traducción de Kirk, Raven y Schofield; reimpresión de 1997.
Empedocles
De Tales a Demócrito. Fragmentos presocráticos
The Conscious LibraryDe Tales a Demócrito. Fragmentos presocráticos
Alianza Editorial (El libro de bolsillo), 2005
Translation: Alberto Bernabé
ISBN 9788420672366
Selección traducida y anotada.
Français
Empédocle, t. 1: Introduction à l'ancienne physique
Gallimard (Tel), 1992
Translation: Jean Bollack
ISBN 9782070725571
Reedición de la obra publicada por Minuit en 1965–1969.
Other works by Empedocles
- Purifications · 445
- Strasbourg papyrus (fragments of On Nature, book I) · 90
- The Crossing of Xerxes (lost)
- Proem to Apollo (lost)
- Tragedies (disputed attribution)
- Political writings (lost)
- Medical Discourse (lost)
- Epigrams (doubtful attribution)
- The Sphere (spurious)
- Book of the Five Substances and other Arabic texts (spurious)
Sources
- Diels, Hermann y Kranz, Walther. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6.ª ed. Weidmann, Berlín, 1951–1952, cap. 31 (Empedokles), A (testimonios) y B 1–154.
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