The ideas of 5th Century BCE philosopher Empedocles have reached us mostly* through paraphrases or fragmentary quotes of his work by later authors, but a new set of his own writings have now been found.

A part of the recently discovered papyrus containing verses believed to be by Empedocles

Last month, researchers announced they had discovered an ancient papyrus containing thirty previously unknown verses reportedly “written in Empedocles’ own words”.

Papyrologist Nathan Carlig (University of Liège), while doing research at the the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, identified a papyrus as a previously unknown fragment of Empedocles’ poem, On Nature (Physica).

An announcement by the University of Liège states:

The text that has come to light deals with the theory of particle effluvia and sensory perceptions, particularly vision. Analysis of the text has revealed unexpected connections, including the probable direct source of a passage by Plutarch (2^nd century), as well as a dialogue by Plato and a text by Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle, both from the 4^th century BCE. Unnoticed echoes of Empedocles have also been detected in the comic poet Aristophanes and in the Latin philosopher Lucretius. The study further suggests that Empedocles could be regarded as a precursor of the atomist* philosophers, foremost among whom is Democritus of Abdera…

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.

Some further details are available here. The fragments have recently been published in the book, L’Empédocle du Caire, edited by Nathan Carlig, Alain Martin and Olivier Primavesi.

* This sentence has been revised to reflect the fact that some of Empedocles’ writings had been previously discovered at the University of Strasbourg in 1994. See “The Strasbourg Papyrus of Empedocles“. Thanks to Max DuBoff for the correction.