Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/28

Rh 14 EMPEDOCLFS. substances and the two moving powers co-existed in a condition of repose and inertness? Empe- docles decided in favour of the latter supposition {Fragm. vers. 88, &c., 59, &c. ; comp. Plat. Soph. p. 242 ; Aristot. de Coel. i. 10, Phys. Auscult. i. 4, viii. 1), which agreed with ancient legends and traditions. This he probably did especially in or- der to keep still more distinctly asunder existences and things coming into existence ; and he conceived the original co-existence of the pure elementary substances and of the two powers in the form of a sphere ((r(pa7pos ; comp. Karsten, p. 183, &c.), which was to indicate its perfect independence and self-sufficiency. As, however, these elementary substances were to exist together in their purity, without mixture and separation, it was necessary to suppose that the uniting power of love predomi- nated in the sphere (Aristot. Metaphys. B. i. 4, A 21, de Generat et Corr. i. 1 ), and that the separating power of hate was in a state of limited activity, or, as Empedocles expresses it, guarded the extreme ends of the sphere. {Fragm. vers. 58, comp. 167, &c.) When the destructive hate rises into activity, the bond which keeps the pure ele- mentary substances together in the sphere is dis- solved (vers. QQ, &c.); they separate in order partly to unite again by the power of love : and this is the origin of our world of phaenomena. But that the elementary substances might not be com- pletely absorbed by this world and lose their purity, Empedocles assumed a periodical change of the sphere and formation of the world {Fragm. vers. 88, &c., 167, &c.); but perhaps also, like the earlier lonians, a perpetual continuance of pure fundamental substances, to which the parts of the Avorld, which are tired of change, return and pre- pare the formation of the sphere for the next period of the world. (H, Ritter in Wolfs Analed. ii. p. 445, &c., Gesch. der Philos. i. p. 555, &c. ; but comp. Zeller, I. c. p. 191, &c.) The sphere being the embodiment of pure existence was with him also the embodiment or representative of the deity, either conceiving the deity as a collectivity, or mainly as the uniting power of love. {Fragm. vers. 70 ; comp. Aristot. de Generat. et Corr. ii. 6, Me- taphys. B. 4, de Anim. i. 5.) But as existence is not to be confined to the sphere, but must rather be at the foundation of the whole visible world, so the deity also must be active in it. But Empedocles was little able to determine the how of this divine activity in its distinction from and connexion with the activity of the moving powers : he, too, like the Eleatics (Xenophan. Fragm. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, ed. Karsten), strove to purify and liberate the notion of the deity : " not provided with limbs, He, a holy, infinite spirit, passes through the world with rapid thoughts," is the sublime expression of Em- pedocles. {Fragm. vers. 359, &c., comp. 317.) Along with this, however, he speaks of the eternal power of Necessity as an ancient decree of the gods, and it is not clear whether the necessary succession of cause and efi'ect, or an unconditional predestina- tion, is to be understood by it ; or, lastly, whether Empedocles did not rather leave the notion of Necessity and its relation to the deity in that mysterious darkness in which we find it in the works of most philosophers of antiquity. We perceive the world of phaenomena €>r ::nange8 through the medium of our senses, but not so its eternal cause; and although Empedocles traced both sensuous perception and thought to one and EMPYLUS. the same cause, his six original beings (Aristot. rfs Anim. iii. 3, Metaphys. i. 57 ; Fragm. 321, &c., 315, &c., 313, 318, &c.), still he clearly distin- guished the latter as a higher state of development from the former ; he complains of the small extent of our knowledge obtainable through our body {Fracim. 32, &c.), and advises us not to trust to our eyes or ears, or any other part of our body, but to see in thought of what kind each thing is by itself {Fragm. 49, &c., comp. 108, 356", &c.) ; but he attributes the thinking cognition to the deity alone. {Fragm. 32, &c., 41, &c., 354, 362, &c.) We are, however, by no means justified in supposing that Empedocles, like the Eleatics, con- sidered that which is perceptible through the senses, i. e. the world and its phaenomena, to be a mere phantom, and the unity of the divine sphere, that is, the world of love, which is arrived at only by thought, to be the sole existence. (H. Ritter in Wolf's Analect. i. p. 423, &c., Gesch. der Philos. i. p. 541, &c. ; Brandis, in the Pheinisch. Museum, iii. p. 124 ; comp. Zeller, I. c. p. 184, &c.) Further investigations concerning Empedocles's derivation of the different kinds of sensuous per- ception, and of the mutual influence of things upon one another in general, from the coincidence of effluxes and corresponding pores, as well as the examination of the fragments of his cosmologic and physiologic doctrines, must be left to a history of Greek philosophy. [Ch. A. B.] E'MPODUS ("E^TToSos), an otherwise unknown writer, whose dTroij.v7jixoveviJ.aTa are mentioned by Athenaeus. (ix. p. 370.) Casaubon proposed to read Uoaeidcovios instead of "EfxiroSos ; but our ignorance about Empodus is not sufficient to justify such a conjecture. [L. S.] EMPO'RIUS, a Latin rhetorician, author of three short tracts entitled 1. De Ethopoeia ac Loco Communi Liber ; 2. Demonstrativae Materiae prae- ceptum ; 3. De Deliberativa Specie. He is believed to have flourished not earlier than the sixth cen- tury, chiefly from the circumstance that he refers in his illustrations to the regal power rather than to the imperial dignity, which he would scarcely have done had he lived before the revival of the kingly title. Emporius was first edited by Beatus Rhenanus, along with some other authors upon rhetoric, Basil. 4to. 1521 ; the pieces named above will all be found in the " Antiqui Rhetores Latini" of F. Pitboeus, 4to., Paris, 1599, p. 278. [W. R.] EMPU'SA ("EjUTToucra), a monstrous spectre, which was believed to devour human beings. It could assume different forms, and was sent out by Hecate to frighten travellers. It was believed usually to appear with one leg of brass and the other of an ass. (Aristoph. Ran. 294, Eccles. 1094.) Whenever a traveller addressed the monster with insulting words, it used to flee and utter a shrill sound. (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. ii. 4.) The Lamiae and Mormolyceia, who assumed the form of handsome women for the purpose of attract- ing young men, and then sucked their blood like vampyrs and ate their flesh, were reckoned among the Empusae. (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iv. 25; Suid. s. v) [L. S.] E'MPYLUS, a rhetorician ; the companion, as we are told by Plutarch, of Bnitus, to whom he dedicated a short essay, not destitute of merit, on the death of Caesar. It is not stated to what country he belonged. " Empylus the Rhodiau"