Description
Book SynopsisEmpedocles (c. 494-434 B.C.) achieved legendary status as a philosopher, scientist, healer, poet and orator. He made important contributions to the developments of European thought with his theory of the four elements, his detailed work on perception, respiration and cognition, and his understanding in the kinship in structure and form of the hierarchy of living creatures. Now available in paperback, this is the first full-scale edition this century of the extant fragments, which are grouped into two poems --
Physics and
Katharmoi. In her Introduction, Professor Wright surveys the evidence for Empedocles’ life and writings, and gives a clear account of the main lines of thought within a framework common to the poems. The fragments are presented in their contexts in a new ordering with full critical apparatus; they are followed by a translation and commentary on each, in which the linguistic, philosophical and scientific questions relevant to the text are examined. The Indexes cover sources, passages cited and subject matter, as well as a comprehensive concordance of Empedocles’ vocabulary. This new in paperback edition has been updated with a bibliographic commentary covering the last fifteen years of Empedoclean scholarship, and is part of the Classic Latin and Greek texts series.
Trade ReviewUndergraduates will find this book an invaluable guide through the perplexing terrain of Empedocles’ language and thought. Scholars too will welcome it. -- Classical Review
Packed with fresh suggestions and arguments which constitute a major contribution to a difficult and much discussed topic. -- Times Literary Supplement
Table of ContentsI. INTRODUCTION 1. Life and Writings Dating Empedoc1es' Life Politics, Rhetoric, and Medicine The Manner ofEmpedocles' Death Works Attributed to Empedocles 2. Physics Earth, Air, Fire, and Water Love and Strife Mixing and Separating The Plan of the Physics Monsters and Men 3. Katharmoi and Physics Common Ground Crime, Punishment, and Responsibility Empedocles as Daimon 4. The Allocation of the Fragments 5. The Titles of the Poems 6. Concordance of the Ordering of the Fragments II. TEXT 7. llEPI «l»YEEill: (fragments 1-101) 8. KA9APMOI (fragments 102-133) 9. Addenda (fragments 134-152) III. TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY 10. Physics 11. Katharmoi 12. Addenda Bibliography Bibliographical AfterWord Additional Bibliography Index Fontium Index Verborum Index Locorum Index Nominum et Rerum
