Did a Greek Philosopher Jump Into a Volcano to Prove He Was a God?

Empedocles of Acragas (circa 490–430 B.C.) was an eccentric Greek philosopher and poet from Sicily whose work deeply influenced Western philosophy for centuries. Yet his life is often overshadowed by the dramatic legend surrounding his death: that he threw himself into the volcano of Mount Etna to prove his divinity.

Considered one of the most important philosophers before Socrates (469–399 B.C.), Empedocles is credited with writing two poetic works, "On Nature" and "Purifications," which touched on various topics across physics, cosmology, biology, cognition and ethics.

He is perhaps best known for developing the theory that all matter consists of four fundamental elements. This idea, which Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) later adopted and refined, posits that everything in the universe is composed of four root elements—earth, air, fire and water—that are moved and changed by the opposing cosmic forces of love and strife.

Described as donning purple robes, a golden girdle and bronze sandals, Empedocles was equally famous as a flamboyant mystic and healer who supposedly brought a dead woman back to life. He believed in an eternal cycle of rebirth called transmigration and claimed to have lived past lives as “a boy and a girl, a shrub and a bird and a fish.” He also openly told his followers he was an immortal deity who had been exiled from the gods for following strife. These beliefs fed into myths that surround his death.

In the third century A.D., biographer Diogenes Laërtius summarized various accounts of Empedocles’ death, many of which stated that Empedocles was or became a god. The writer Heraclides of Pontus, for example, claimed Empedocles vanished overnight following a feast, amid bright lights and a booming voice that called from the sky.

The best-known legend, however, describes his death in a volcano. In one version, Empedocles ended a pestilence affecting the town of Selinunte. In turn, the townspeople worshiped him. To prove his godhood, Empedocles marched to the summit of Sicily’s active volcano, Mount Etna, leapt into the fiery crater and disappeared, supposedly ascending to Mount Olympus, home of the Greek gods.

But Empedocles’ attempt to vanish without a trace backfired. As the legend goes, the volcano revealed his mortality by regurgitating one of his bronze sandals onto the crater rim.

“There is no point in denying that he could have died by jumping into the volcano: he could have,” writes philosopher Peter Kingsley in Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. But whether Empedocles actually met his end in Mount Etna is beside the point, Kingsley argues. More important is how the legend offers a glimpse into the mystical beliefs of the ancient world.

Did his death by volcano actually happen? Probably not. The ancient Greek historian Timaeus of Tauromenium, who lived a century after Empedocles’ time, said the philosopher left Sicily for Peloponnesus and never returned. Likely, the philosopher died there. One account suggests Empedocles simply died of an illness he developed after falling off a carriage and breaking his leg.