Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/26

Rh 12 EMPEDOCLES. games. (Find. 01. ii. 48, iii. 38, Pyih. vi. 5, with the Scholiast, and Bockh's Explim.t. ad Pind. pp. 114, &c., 119. 122, 127, 135; MuUer, Orchom. p. 332, 2nd edit.) [L. S.] EMPANDA, or PANDA, was, according to Festus (s. r. Empanda), a dea paganorum. Varro {ap. Non. p. 44 ; comp. Gell. xiii. 22 ; Arnob. iv. 2) connects the word with pandere, but absurdly explains it by panem dare., so that Empanda would be the goddess of bread or food. She had a sanc- tuary near the gate, called after her the porta Pandana, which led to the capitol. (Festus, s. v. Pandana ; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 42.) Her temple was an asylum, which was ahvays open., and the suppliants who came to it were supplied with food from the funds of the temple. This custom at once shews the meaning of the name Panda or Empanda : it is connected with pandere, to open ; she is accordingly the goddess who is open to or admits any one who wants protection. Hartung (die Religion der Rom. ii. p. 76, &c.) thinks that Empanda and Panda are only surnames of Juno. [L. S.] EMPE'DOCLES {'"E.fnveZoKKris), of Acragas (Agrigentum), in Sicily, flourished about Olynip. 84, or B.C. 444. (Diog. Laert. viii. 74; comp. 51, 52; Simon Karsten, Empedodis Agrigent. Cavmin. Relvpiiae., p. 9, &.c.) His youth probably fell in the time of the glorious rule of Tlieron, from 01. 73 to 01. 77; and although he was descended from an ancient and wealthy family (Diog. Laert. viii. 51), Empedocles with enthusiasm joined the revo- lution — as his father, Meton, had probably done before — in which Thrasydaeus, the son and suc- cessor of Theron, was expelled, and which became the watchword for the other Greek towns to shake oflF the yoke of their monarchs. (Diog. Laert. viii. 72.) His zeal in the establishment of political equality is said to have been manifested by his magnanimous support of the poor (ibid. 73), by his inexorable severity in persecuting the overbearing conduct of the aristocrats (Timaeus, ap. Diog. L. viii. 64, comp. 65, QQ), and in his declining the so- vereignty which was offered to him. (Aristot. ap. Diog. viii. 63 ; compare, however, Timaeus, ibid. 66, 76 ) His brilliant oratory (Satyr, ap. Diog. viii. 58 ; Timaeus, ibid. 67), his penetrating know- ledge of nature and of circumstances, and the repu- tation of his marvellous powers, which he had acquired by curing diseases, by his successful exertions in removing marshy districts, averting epidemics and obnoxious winds (Diog. Laert. viii. 60, 70, G9 Plut. de Curios. Princ. p. 515, adv. Col. p. 1 126 ; Plin. //. N. xxxvi. 27, and others), spread a lustre around his name, which induced Timaeus and other historians to mention him more frequently. Although he himself may have been innocent of the name of "averter" or "controller of storms" (/cojAuo-ai/fjUOS, aAe|aj/6/ias) and of a magician (7(^775), which were given to him (Karsten, /. c. p. 49, &c.), still he must have attributed to himself miraculous powers, if in the beginning of his KaQapiJioi he said of himself — he may, however, have been speaking in the name of some assistant daemon — " An immortal god, and no longer a mortal man, I wander among you, honoured by all, adorned with priestly diadems and blooming wreaths; to whatever illustrious towns I go, I am praised by men and women, and accompanied by thousands, who thirst for deliverance, some being desirous to know the future, others remedies EMPEDOCLES. for diseases,'* &c. (Karsten, p. 1 42, v. 392, &c. ; compare the accounts of the ostentation and haugh- tiness of Empedocles, p. 29, &c.) In like manner he promises remedies against the power of evil and of old age ; he pretends to teach men how to break the vehemence of the unwearied winds, and how to call them forth again ; how to obtain from dark rainy clouds useful drought, and tree-feeding rivers from the drought of summer {ibid. v. 425, &c.), — promises and pretensions, perhaps, expressive of his confidence in the infant science, which had only commenced its development, rather than in his own personal capability. With equal pride he celebrates the wisdom of the man — the ancient historians themselves did not know whether he meant Pythagoras or Parmenides — who, possessed of the richest mental and intellectual treasures, easily perceived everything in all nature, whenever with the full energy of his mind he attempted to do so. {Ibid. V. 440, &c.) The time was one of a varied and lively mental movement, and Em- pedocles was acquainted or connected by friendship with the physicians Acron and Pausanias (Diog. Laert. viii. 60, 61, 65, 69 ; Plut. de Is. et Os. p. 383 ; Plin. H. N. xxix. 3 ; Suid. s. v. ; comp. Fragm. v. 54, 433, &c.), with Pythagoreans, and it is said with Parmenides and Anaxagoras also (Diog. Laert. viii. 55, BQ, &c. ; comp. Karsten, p. 47, &c.) ; and persons being carried away by that movement, believed themselves to be the nearer the goal the less clearly they perceived the way that led to it, and they regarded a perfect power over nature as the necessary consequence of a perfect . knowledge of it. Timaeus and Dicaearchus had spoken of the journey of Empedocles to Peloponnesus, and of the admiration which was paid to him there (Diog. Laert. viii. 71, 67; Athen. xiv. p. 620) ; others mentioned his stay at Athens, and in the newly- founded colony of Thurii, b. c. 446 (Suid. s. r. "AKpwv ; Diog. Laert. viii. 52) ; but it was only untrustworthy historians that made him travel in the east as far as the Magi. (Plin. //. A^. xxx. 1, &c. ; comp. Karsten, p. 39, &c.) His death is said to have been marvellous, like his life : a tradi- tion, which is traced to Heracleides Ponticus, a writer fond of wonderful things, represented him as having been removed from the earth, like a divine being ; another said that he had perished in the flames of mount Aetna. (Diog. Laert. viii. 67, 69, 70, 71 ; Hor. ad Pison. 464, &c. ; comp. Karsten, p. 36, &c.) But it is attested by the authority of Aristotle, that he died at the age of sixty, and the statements of later writers, who extend his life further, cannot be set up against such a testimony. (Apollon. ap. Diog. Laert. viii. 52, comp. 74, 73.) Among the disciples of Em- pedocles none is mentioned except Gorgias, the sophist and rhetorician, whose connexion with our philosopher seems to be alluded to even by Plato. (Diog. Laert. viii. 58 ; Karsten, p.56,&c.) Among the works attributed to Empedocles, and which were all metrical compositions (see the list in Karsten, p. 62, &c.), we can form an opinion only on his Kadap/uoi and his didactic poem on Nature, and on the latter work only from the considerable fragments still extant. It consisted of 2000 hexa- meter verses, and was addressed to the above- mentioned Pausanias, — its division into three books was probably made by later grammarians. (Diog. Laert. viii. 77 ; Karsten, p. 70, &c.) The