From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordLeontinon is the ethnic designation “of Leontini”; discipulus is the Latin word for pupil.
- In this workSatyrus’ report presents Empedocles as both physician and excellent orator, then adduces Gorgias as his pupil and as a major practitioner who left a technical work.
- In this editionGorgias’ words are not preserved here as a direct, independently extant statement.
- A place to readUses Gorgias’ reported pupilage to support Empedocles’ rhetorical eminence.
Meaning
Leontinon is the ethnic designation “of Leontini”; discipulus is the Latin word for pupil. Gorgias is the pivotal named link between the Empedoclean philosopher-poet and the later rhetorical tradition.
Use in the book
Satyrus’ report presents Empedocles as both physician and excellent orator, then adduces Gorgias as his pupil and as a major practitioner who left a technical work. A following report credits Gorgias with claiming eyewitness presence at Empedocles’ sorcery. Thus pupilage carries two kinds of authority: the genealogy of an art and purported personal testimony to extraordinary acts. Quintilian repeats the pupil relation with the qualification “as it is handed down,” situating it after Corax and Tisias in Sicilian rhetoric. A scholium on Iamblichus expands the pupil list to Tisias and Polus and traces the whole art through Empedocles to Pythagoras. The growth of the genealogy matters: an attribution that is relatively modest in one witness becomes a comprehensive pedigree in another. These texts justify studying the connection seriously, but not treating every reported teacher-student relation as equally secure.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 56–58 (biography)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 58, reporting Satyrus, Lives. Uses Gorgias’ reported pupilage to support Empedocles’ rhetorical eminence.
- A 1 §§ 59–60 (biography)Diogenes Laertius VIII 59, reporting Satyrus. Attributes eyewitness testimony about sorcery to Gorgias.
- A 19 (testimony)Quintilian, The Orator’s Education; Scholiast on Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras. Places the pupil relation within differently extended genealogies.
Translation in this edition
Gorgias’ words are not preserved here as a direct, independently extant statement. They reach the reader through Satyrus and Diogenes; the edition’s certainty about what he learned should not erase that mediation.