Abstract

Nietzsche portrays the various dimensions of Empedocles's character as follows: "He is a physician or a magician, poet or orator, God or man, scientist or artist, a man of politics or a man of religion, and Pythagoras or Democritus. He is a character fluctuating between different poles and is the most amazing figure of ancient philosophy. He is the one who put an end to the period of myth, tragedy, and the mayhem of religious feasts.The picture of a more developed Greek is indeed manifested in his existence. He is a lover of freedom, a preacher, a rationalist, the creator of metaphor and irony, a man of science, and, in sum, the heir to two centuries of knowledge, philosophy, and thought.