Empedocles
The Crossing of Xerxes (lost)
Traditional attribution
The Crossing of Xerxes (lost)
Ξέρξου διάβασις (Περσικά)
An epic poem on the crossing of the Hellespont by Xerxes' army in 480 BCE, during the second Persian War, known only from the report of its destruction. If it existed, it would show Empedocles as a poet of recent history, like Simonides.
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Authorship note
An unverifiable ancient attribution. According to Aristotle, quoted by Diogenes Laertius (VIII 57), Empedocles wrote a poem on Xerxes' expedition that his sister or daughter deliberately burned because it was unfinished (Hieronymus of Rhodes). Nothing survives.
Editions and translations
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No editions recorded yet.
Other works by Empedocles
- On Nature · 450
- Purifications · 445
- Strasbourg papyrus (fragments of On Nature, book I) · 90
- 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
- Diógenes Laercio. Vidas y opiniones de los filósofos ilustres VIII 51–77 (Empédocles), s. III d. C. Trad. inglesa de C. D. Yonge, Bohn, Londres, 1853 (Project Gutenberg n.º 57342); trad. inglesa de R. D. Hicks, Loeb, 1925 (Wikisource).
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