All You Need is Love (and Five Other Things) - Empedocles

-Empedocles (c. 490-430 BC) was born in Agrigentum (modern-day Agrigento), Sicily.
-We actually know a lot about what he wrote, or, at least, more than the other Pre-Socratics due to the discovery of some of his writings in the 1990s ("The Strasbourg Fragments").
   -Combines the religious mystique of Pythagoras, the impenetrability of Heraclitus, and the cosmic vision of Anaxagoras. 
-Empedocles claimed that HE was a god (!) and that he was decorated with wreaths everywhere he went, worshiped by the common folk, and was constantly bothered for prophecy and healing.
   -There's actually some possible validity to this.
   -Also allegedly raised a woman from the dead and cured an entire city of the plague.
   -Had long, flowing hair, a purple robe, and bronze-soled shoes.
   -Allegedly died by hurling himself into a volcano to vanish without a trace and prove that he was a god (?!).
-Perhaps influenced by Pythagoras, especially with his claims of divinity.
   -Believed in reincarnation, especially because he could remember past lives, including being a boy, a girl, a bird, a fish, and even a bush at one point.
   -Believed it was wrong to eat meat, because you could be eating your family or friends who had been reincarnated!
   -Wrote in hexameter poetry, similar to Parmenides.  Maybe influenced by him too, believing also that nothing ever changes and that everything already exists (as "roots") exists in the cosmos and that nothing can ever change or move (they just separate and recombine, which is the nature of the universe). 
      -The roots: air, water, fire, and earth; these are the basic ingredients of the world. 
         -Empedocles refers to the names of the roots as gods.  For example, fire is Hephaestus, water is Persephone (AKA Nestus), etc.
         -For example, combined together with certain proportions, bone is created. 
         -Used the analogy of painters being able to create a wide variety of new colors from just a few colors through mixing.
            -Then, who is the painter?  Empedocles believed in two- "Love" and "Strife". 
               -Because of these two cosmic forces, there is a waxing and waning of all cosmic cycles within the cosmos (which is a sphere).
                  -When Love is dominant, everything is mixed together and there is total harmony.  However, when Strife is dominant, everything separates back to their original roots.
                  -When there is a balance between the two, we get earth, people, plants, etc.
                     -Believed that before this, in the initial stages, you just had disembodied limbs and shit (gross).  That's how we get monsters too (like in Greek mythology).  However, these monsters eventually die out because they are "unsuitable". 
                     -Also believed that reproduction is an ability gained later in the cycle by plants and animals.