EMATHION, i-Matit'-Y-oft, son of Titan and Aurora, reigned in Macedonia, and gave his name to Emathia. According to some he was a famous robber destroyed by Hercules. EMPEDOCLES, eni-fild'-d-cl,w, a philosopher, poet, and historian, of Agrigentum, 444 B.C. He was the disciple of the Pythagorean Telauges, and warmly adopted the doctrine of metempsychosis. He wrote a poem on Pytha goreanism, in which he spoke of the various transmigrations of his own soul, through a girl, a boy, a shrub, a bird, a fish, and, lastly, Empedocles. His verses were much esteemed, and recited at the Olympic games. His phy sical philosophy was a combination of the Atomism of Democritus with the doctrines of Heraclitus and Pythagiiras. He held that there were four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire), moved by two forces, oNiu (Love), and verKac (Hatred), like the modem Attraction and Repulsion, and he admitted a third prin ciple, Necessity, to explain existing phenomena.
He thought that all things would return again to chaos ; that the principle of life was fire ; but that there was a Divine Being pervading the universe, from whom emanated inferior beings, den/ones; and that man was a fallen &emote. Empedocles was as remarkable for his social virtues and humanity as for his learning. He taught rhetoric in Sicily, and also cultivated mu•ic. His curiosity to inspect the crater of 'Etna proved fatal to him : but, according to some, he threw himself into it. to have it be lieved that he was a god, and had disappeared from earth ; but the volcano threw up one of his sandals. According to others, he lived to an extreme old age, and was drowned at sea. a town of Tarra conense now Amturias.