Book Description

This revised edition of The Poem of Empedocles (1992) integrates substantial new material from a recently discovered papyrus and published by A. Martin and O. Primavesi. The papyrus contains evidence of over seventy lines or part lines of poetry, of which more than fifty are both new and usable. The integration of this material into the previously known fragments has significant impact on our understanding of Empedocles, one of the most influential philosophers and poets of antiquity.

This volume provides the reader with the fullest and most accessible set of evidence for the doctrines and poetic achievement of this Presocratic philosopher. The Greek text of the fragments (with English facing page translation) has been revised to include the new material; textual notes have also been enhanced. The revised introduction orients the reader to the study of Empedocles and assesses the significance of the new material. The new papyrus fragments shed some light on the controversial question of the number of poems and provide new insight into the relationship between human beings and the material components we are composed of and into the reasons for our incarnation. Most important, the new fragments yield further confirmation that eschatological and cosmological themes were inextricably interconnected in Empedocles' philosophical poetry. ... Read more

Book Description
Empedocles (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 Index cover sources, passages cited and subject matter, as well as a comprehensive concordance of Empedocles vocabulary. This edition has been updated with a bibliographic commentary covering the last fifteen years of Empedoclean scholarship. This text is part of the Classic Latin and Greek texts series. ... Read more

Book Description
Empedocles played a crucial role in the development of western culture; yet little is known or understood about this man, who lived in Sicily in the fifth-century BC.This is mainly becuase his teaching has been reconstructed by modern shcolars first and formost on the basis of Aristotle's hostile reports - producing a picture which is disconnected and lacking in depth.Using material never exploited before, Peter Kingsley presents the first full-scale study of Empedocles to situate his fragmentary writings in their original context of philosophy as a way of life, mystery religion and magic, and of the struggle to realize one's own divinity.This study also explores fresh evidence which proves Empedocles was not an isolated figure and reveals new links between his work and ancient Pythagoreanism.The process of establishing these links now makes it possible to demonstrate, in detail, the Pythagorean origin of Plato's myths.Kingsley re-examines problems regarding the connections between ancient magic, science, and religion.More specifically, he traces for the first time a line of transmission from Empedocles and the early Pythagoreans down to southern Egypt, and from there into the world of Islam.`highly polemical new book... The thesis is argued with immense learning.'Times Higher Education Supplement ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

philological phenomenology
This book is important for several reasons. One of them is that Kingsley attempts to shake the ancient Greek scholarship by suggesting that Empedocles' Fragments need to be interpreted through language of thepreclassical(~500 BC; ie, Empedocles') rather than classical (ie, Pericles) period. Here Kingsley is on firm ground, displaying an impressive familiarity with the Illiad and other preclassical literature. Bringing philology back on the map he continues the basic approach by Nietzsche and Heidegger.

More importantly, PK brings philosophical inquiry into the domain of phenomenology of religion. if we wish to understand the presocratics we need primarily to understand their state of consciousness and their relationship to the spiritual sphere. While most classical scholars would argue that one canachieve such an understanding through decipheringthe language, literature, history, art and economy of a society, the alternative view (championed by PK) is thatattempts to explain Empedocles' philosophy in terms of ordinary social, political, etc. circumstance inevitably miss something that is not reducible to facts alone. It misses its essence, a foundation of Beingness where philosophy reflects the nature of human experience and its capacity to interact with the 'transpersonal' or numinous. A capacity that by no means is uniquely Greek.

This is why classical scholarship addressing ancient (Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian etc) consciousness should not be entrusted to 'ordinary' scholarly nitpickers alone. The historian W. Brede once said: "When religion is the subject of our work, we grow religiously." Peter Kingsley is that rare scholar (an ex-Warburg fellow, no less) who appears to have been sucked into the ancient Pythagorean texts and magical practices they describe and emerged out of his studies a changed man.

This book is a first step describing PKs beliefs about an inner meaning of Pythagoreanism (elegantly discussed in later books such as Reality) ...

The book starts with a technical reinterpretation of the theory of 4 Elements ("the 4 Roots")for which Empedocles is mainly known; then continues with a critical evaluation of classical views of Empedocles; PK claims that Aristotle purposefully distorted E.s ideas whereas Plato actually appropriated many Pythagorean concepts following his visits toPyth. communities in Southern Italy and Sicily. Appropriated and then pretended they were his own. To prove this, PK performs a detailed textual analysis of Phaedo.

Egypt and ancient Greece shared a number of intellectual, philosophical and religious practices, from mathematics to the mysteries of death & rebirth (practiced in Eleusinian rituals) and the shamanic descent into the Underworld (seen in Orphic mysteries, Hermetic practices and 'funerary inscriptions' such as the Pyramid texts). Both Plato and Pythagoras spent a long time in Egypt and Empedocles, a direct heir of Pythagoras, would have been intimately aware of Egyptian religious beliefs. The circle was completed when Empedoclean texts returned to the Egyptian desert through Greek (gnostic, hermetic) communities living in the Egyptian desert. PK showsthat certain Sufi texts from Egypt and even alchemical texts from the Middle Ages directly follow E.s writings and beliefs.

There is a remarkable discussion of Pythagorean magic, initiatory rites, practice of 'incubation' and Orphic mysteries. The book is worth buying just for that third part.

"...I am a lover of learning, and trees and open country won't teach me anything, whereas men in the town do.", sez Socrates in Phaedrus, one of the most eloquent and lyrical dialogues by Plato. Kingsley's life work seems to be to show that the course our civilization took after Plato was in a sense a deviation, both from the Earth, the archetypal forces inhabiting it, and our own deepest nature. He argues a good case in thiscourageous work.

A Gripping Tale
This is one of the best books I've ever read.I'm a Classics professor, and it's one of the best Classics books I've ever read, and it's more than that; it goes beyond the trends in current scholarship (which always operates in fads) to get at what the ancient Greeks were all about and why we can still learn from them.Written with real verve, a true eye-opener.It also transcends the silly "East vs. West" thinking that still dominates today.Read Kingsley.He does nothing less than re-direct our attention and thinking.

One of few deserving 5 stars
Peter Kingsley's ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY, MYSTERY, AND MAGIC should be read by all students of western philosophy, as well as by anyone interested in thought and scholarship. Here is a work that shines a light into ancient Greek thought, and calls into question the motives and standards of ancient - and unfortunately modern - scholarship.

By itself, this makes the book worthy of wide attention. But what is more is that Kingsley brings philosophy back to its roots, helping enormously in the unpopular effort to shake us out of our current philosophical stupor and fascination with pointless 'problems.'

The book is written in a formal, academic style, unlike Kinglsey's later work. Those unfamiliar with this kind of writing may be put off (as is evidenced by some of the reviews here) by such 'intrusions' as foot and endnotes, and by the careful effort Kingsley has given to covering all the bases in order to create the most sound argument possible. Nevertheless, the book is not difficult to read by any means, especially when compared to most western philosophy today. Far from being evidence of Kingsley's wish to be pompous, or to impress colleagues, this style of writing is simply demanded by serious scholars, who were certainly among the primary targets of this book. One will not even be read by one's colleagues without writing in this established way. Had he not used this style, Kingsley would not have been taken seriously, and would have disappeared into the ranks of unpublished writers. That he was taken seriously by the elite of academia is seen by some of the reviews ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY received from them:

"A masterpiece, gripping, urgent and important: a unique pioneering work."
EUROPEAN REVIEW OF HISTORY (Oxford/Paris)

"The thesis is argued with immense learning ... courageous, original."
THE TIMES (London)

"A remarkable achievement: challenging, learned and at the same time enthralling to read."
CLASSICAL REVIEW (Oxford)

"Bold and extremely significant ... Kingsley's book may well be the most important book about Presocratic philosophy in years, and it is certainly one of the most exciting, challenging, and stimulating."
AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW (Washington DC)

"Every scholar dreams of writing a truly original book, but in reality hardly anyone ever does. A truly original book, one that can transform a whole discipline, appears at the most once in a generation. In the field of ancient philosophy, Peter Kingsley's Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic is such a book."
PROF. A. A. LONG, University of California at Berkeley

My guess as to why Kinglsey wrote in the standard academic style before switching to an informal one is that he wanted to establish himself as someone who was not a crackpot, before delving into the territory that he has with his second and third books. No respected scholar with a job to keep would dare to say what Kingsley has said in these later works. The sad fact is that if he had held a distinguished position in one of the top ten universities of the world, he would have been out on the street in no time had he published IN THE DARK PLACES OF WISDOM or REALITY, and that just goes to show what a sad state academia - higher `learning' - is in.

Read this book first, then read the others. If you have an open mind, and have the creative ability to try on a new set of mental clothing, you'll be rewarded.

Interesting & worthwhile, but very academic
I was led to this book by John Opsopaus' superb "Pythagorean Tarot," wherein he mentions that Kingsley demonstrated that Empedocles was a shaman ("iatromantis," that is).Everything said about this book so far is true:It *is* an interesting and valuable read;it *is* highly technical; and Kingsley definitely takes on every other classical scholar in clearing the air, removing historical debris and cultural bias, and establishing a new standard of personal involvement in classical scholarship.My take is that one can get the gist of his conclusions in chapters 15 & 19 (and perhaps 20 & 22), without wading through all the scholarly minutae.This groundwork was probably necessary to remove the blinders from our collective eyes imposed by an earlier generation of Greek scholars overly wowed by science and strangely detached from personal experience.In the end, I look forward to reading Kingsley's "Dark Places of Wisdom."

good, but too much like the other academics
Kingsley is better elsewhere, when he isn't trying to impress other academics with his ideas and simply writes about the things that are important to him. Anyone expecting something like Dark Places of Wisdom, etc. will be bored to death wading through this heavily researched epic of jargon, but it will be worth their effort if they do--he makes a very good case for the mystery schools' hidden influence. ... Read more

Book Description

Despite the general scholarly consensus about Lucretius' debt to Empedocles as the father of the genre of cosmological didactic epic, there is a major disagreement regarding Lucretius' applause for his Presocratic predecessor's praeclara reperta (DRN 1.732). In the present study, Garani suggests that by praising Empedocles' discoveries, Lucretius points to his predecessor's epistemological methods of inquiry concerning the unseen, methods upon which he himself draws extensively and creatively enhances. In this way, he successfully penetrates into the invisible natural world, deciphers its secrets, and thus liberates his pupil from superstitious fears about death and physical phenomena. To justify this proposition, Garani undertakes a systematic analysis of Lucretius' integration of Empedocles' methods of creating analogies in the form of literary devices -- personifications, similes, and metaphors -- and demonstrates that his intertextual engagement with Empedocles' philosophical poem is direct and intensive at both the poetic and the philosophical levels.

Book Description
Parmenides and Empedocles, along with Heraclitus, were at the same time among the greatest poets of the ancient world. Their work is rarely treatedâ€" and still more rarely translatedâ€" in its original form as poetry. The complete extant fragments of Parmenides and Empedocles are collected here for the first time in a translation responsive to the original verse texts.

Parmenides' philosophical fragments are here given as the poetic remains of the thinker from Elea in Southern Italy whom Socrates wondered at and Plato held in awe. What emerges from the poetry is at once an uncompromising vision of absolute Being and a compassionate understanding of the human cosmos.

The poetry of Empedoclesâ€" reincarnationist, naturalist, cosmologist, religous leader, physiologist, and metaphysicianâ€" is presented here in the personal idiom of the fifth-century Sicilian who has been called the last of the Greek shamans.

"Lombardo's translations of hard Greek into sound and lucid English is an enviable example of the translator's art. He translates well because he writes well; he writes well because he knows the tone, texture, and weight of words, how to keep English idiomatic and natural, how to build a phrase and sentence." â€" Guy Davenport ... Read more

Book Description
THIS 52 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Poems of Matthew Arnold 1840 to 1867, by Matthew Arnold. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 141792778X. ... Read more

Book Description
Hailed as one of the greatest lyric voices of modern Germany, this collection of essays on Brecht's poetry includes seminal contributions and translations by major British poets. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 2043 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Empedocles Arabus: Une lecture neoplatonicenne tardive. (Reviews of Books).
Author: Sarah Stroumsa
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: 122Issue: 1Page: 94(4)

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