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Empedocles

Empedocles

495 BCE435 BCE · Peloponnese

Sicilian philosopher-poet who proposed the four elements (fire, air, water, earth) governed by Love and Strife; combined Pythagorean reincarnation with Eleatic ontology.

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Stop 1 of 4494 BCEBorn

AcragasMagna Graecia (Sicily)

What they did here

Empedocles was born at Acragas (Akragas/Agrigentum) in Sicily c.494 BCE into a prominent family; his grandfather had won an Olympic victory (Diogenes Laertius 8.51-53).

About Acragas

A magnificent and immensely wealthy Greek city of southern Sicily—adorned with its still-standing Valley of the Temples—and the home of Empedocles, the philosopher-poet who taught that all things are made of four roots bound and parted by Love and Strife.

See other sages who lived in Acragas

Works

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Influenced byParmenidesEmpedocles