New Writings by Empedocles Discovered

The ideas of 5th Century BCE philosopher Empedocles have reached us only through paraphrases or fragmentary quotes of his work by later authors—until now. 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 ...