ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 181

OTTO KERN

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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.

SUMMARY: This testimony begins with the assumption that the philosopher Empedocles had a grandfather who was also named Empedocles; the testimony consists of two quotations: the first, from The Learned Banqueters of Athenaeus, says that Empedocles (the grandfather) was a Pythagorean who won at the Olympic Games; the second quotation, from Diogenes Laërtius, tells the same story about the Olympic win, but attributes it to the philosopher, not the grandfather.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 181

Perhaps also Empedocles of Agrigento (ancient Ἀκράγας), the grandfather of the philosopher, should be considered among the Orpheotelesti of Sicily (Beloch Griech. Gesch. II 1², 238) Δειπνοσοφισταί Ἀθηναίον Ναυκρατίου I 3 e:

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς δ’ ὁ Ἀκραγαντῖνος ἵπποις Ὀλύμπια νικήσας, Πυθαγορικὸς ὢν καὶ ἐμψύχων ἀπεχόμενος, ἐκ σμύρνης καὶ λιβανωτοῦ καὶ τῶν πολυτελεστάτων ἀρωμάτων βοῦν ἀναπλάσας διένειμε τοῖς εἰς τὴν πανήγυριν ἀπαντήσασιν.

“And Empedocles of Agrigentum, having gained the victory in the horse race at the Olympic games, as he was himself a Pythagorean, and as such one who abstained from meat, made an image of an ox of myrrh, and frankincense, and the most expensive spices, and distributed it among all who came to that festival.”

(trans. C. D. Yonge, 1854)

While Diogenes Laërtius wants to restore the same story to the grandson Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων Διογένους Λαερτίου VIII 53:

Σάτυρος δ᾽ ἐν τοῖς Βίοις φησὶν ὅτι Ἐμπεδοκλῆς υἱὸς μὲν ἦν Ἐξαινέτου, κατέλιπε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς υἱὸν Ἐξαίνετον· ἐπί τε τῆς αὐτῆς Ὀλυμπιάδος τὸν μὲν ἵππωι κέλητι νενικηκέναι, τὸν δ᾽ υἱὸν αὐτοῦ πάληι ἤ, ὡς Ἡρακλείδης ἐν τῆι Ἐπιτομῆι, δρόμωι. ἐγὼ δὲ εὗρον ἐν τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι Φαβωρίνου [FHG III 578 fr. 3], ὅτι καὶ βοῦν ἔθυσε τοῖς θεωροῖς ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ἐκ μέλιτος καὶ ἀλφίτων.

“But Satyrus, in his Lives, asserts, that Empedocles was the son of Exænetus, and that he also left a son who was named Exænetus. And that in the same Olympiad, he himself gained the victory with the single horse; and his son, in wrestling, or, as Heraclides says in his Abridgment, in running. But I have found in the Commentaries of Phavorinus, that Empedocles sacrificed, and gave as a feast to the spectators of the games, an ox made of honey and flour.”

(trans. C. D. Yonge, 1853)

On the Etruscans see v. F. Weege Etruskische Malerei 1921, 22.

The story of the birth of the Gods: Orphic Theogony.

We know the various qualities and characteristics of the Gods based on metaphorical stories: Mythology.

Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.

Introduction to the Thæí (the Gods): The Nature of the Gods.

How do we know there are Gods? Experiencing Gods.