Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – A 2,000-year-old papyrus fragment, uncovered in the archives of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, Egypt, has gifted us with 30 previously unpublished verses by Empedocles, the pre-Socratic philosopher of the fifth century BCE.
Empedocles, an ancient Greek Presocratic philosopher. From Thomas Stanley, (1655), The history of philosophy: containing the lives, opinions, actions and Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect, illustrated with effigies of divers of them.Credit: Public Domain
This remarkable discovery offers scholars the rare privilege of engaging directly with a body of thought that was, until now, accessible only through later quotations. The first edition, translation, and commentary on these verses appear in the book L’Empédocle du Caire, edited with great care by Nathan Carlig, Alain Martin, and Olivier Primavesi.
It was at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO) that Nathan Carlig, a papyrologist at the University of Liège, recognized papyrus P. Fouad inv. 218 as an unknown fragment of the Physica, the poem of the philosopher Empedocles of Agrigentum—an identification that represents a deeply valuable contribution to our understanding of ancient thought.
“Until now, our knowledge of Empedocles’ work relied exclusively on indirect sources such as fragmentary quotations, summaries or allusions scattered throughout the works of authors such as Plato, Aristotle or Plutarch. Papyrus P.Fouad inv. 218 allows us to read the philosopher in his original text, without the intermediary of often partial or biased sources. It is also the only known copy of the Physica, fragments of other parts of which from the same scroll are preserved in Strasbourg.”
“Until now, our knowledge of Empedocles’ work relied exclusively on indirect sources such as fragmentary quotations, summaries or allusions scattered throughout the works of authors such as Plato, Aristotle or Plutarch. Papyrus P.Fouad inv. 218 allows us to read the philosopher in his original text, without the intermediary of often partial or biased sources.
It is also the only known copy of the Physica, fragments of other parts of which from the same scroll are preserved in Strasbourg.”
The newly examined text focuses on the ancient theory of particle effluvia and their relation to sensory perception, especially vision. Detailed analysis has uncovered several significant and previously unrecognized links: it appears to be the likely direct source for a passage in Plutarch (2nd century CE), and it also shows clear connections to a Platonic dialogue and a work by Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle, both from the 4th century BCE. In addition, scholars have identified subtle but important echoes of Empedocles in the comic poet Aristophanes and in the Latin philosopher Lucretius.
Fragment of “The Empedocles of Cairo” (P. Fouad inv. 218). Credit: Université de Liège / N.Carlig
The study further argues that Empedocles can be seen as a forerunner of the atomist philosophers, most notably Democritus of Abdera, suggesting that key aspects of atomist thought may have roots in his ideas.
To convey the importance of this discovery, the authors propose a modern analogy. Imagine that, centuries from now, Victor Hugo is known only through short excerpts from Les Misérables in schoolbooks, the musical *Notre-Dame de Paris*, and a theatre programme for Hernani. In that scenario, finding a few pages from an original edition of Hugo’s work would be an extraordinary event. This is essentially what specialists in Empedocles are experiencing today.
Just as Renaissance humanists once searched European libraries for lost manuscripts, modern papyrologists have, since the late 19th century, undertaken a comparable effort, combing through papyrus texts in the hope of recovering forgotten works from antiquity.
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“It is, in a way, to borrow Peter Parsons’ words, a ‘second Renaissance’ of ancient literature,” says Nathan Carlig.
The publication of this research opens up new perspectives on understanding Empedocles’ doctrine and, more broadly, his work, in order to better situate the philosopher within the history of Greek philosophy and to better define his relationship with his predecessors and successors.”
Source: University de Liège
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer