Life, Death, and Lightning: An Alternative Edition of Empedocles B 9 DK with Commentary

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative edition of a well-known fragment of Empedocles’ poem On Nature, B 9 DK. The fragment is quoted by Plutarch in Against Colotes, which survives in only two manuscripts. The lines are very corrupt and many scholars have proposed various solutions and corrections to restore their original meaning. I offer a novel critical edition of the fragment with an English translation, two introductory chapters on the context and content of the fragment, and a textual commentary. In the introduction, I submit that the focus of the fragment is the life-creating power of the element fire, represented by Zeus’ lightning, mingling with or separating itself from the other elements. The edition also includes a detailed apparatus reporting all variants and previous critical interventions, the most noteworthy of which are also discussed in the commentary.