Chapter
III.—Empedocles; His Twofold Cause; Tenet of
Transmigration.
But Empedocles, born after these, advanced likewise many
statements respecting the nature of demons, to the effect that, being
very numerous, they pass their time in managing earthly concerns.
This person affirmed the originating principle of the universe to be
discord and friendship, and that the intelligible fire of the monad is
the Deity, and that all things consist of fire, and will be resolved
into fire; with which opinion the Stoics likewise almost agree,
expecting a conflagration. But most of all does he concur with
the tenet of transition of souls from body to body, expressing himself
thus:—
“For surely both youth and maid I was,
And shrub, and bird,
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and fish, from ocean
stray’d.”
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This (philosopher) maintained the transmutation of
all souls into any description of animal. For Pythagoras, the
instructor of these (sages),
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asserted that himself had been Euphorbus, who served in the expedition
against Ilium, alleging that he recognised his shield. The
foregoing are the tenets of Empedocles.
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Or,
“and beast,” more in keeping with the sense of the name; or
“a lamb” has been suggested in the Gottingen edition of
Hippolytus.
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Or,
“traveller into the sea;” or, “mute ones from the
sea;” or, “from the sea a glittering fish.”
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Or,
“being the instructor of this (philosopher).”