# Empedocles Death
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [February 16, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474 "2013-02-16T05:04:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Archaic\_Entity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archaic_Entity)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474/1 "2013-02-16T05:04:35Z")
As far as I had ever read about Empedocles, he threw himself into the volcano, not as a sacrifice, but to prove his immortality. The, probably, apocryphal story is that he walked into the volcano so that people would think he vanished and ascended into immortality, only to have the volcano spit his sandal back out to prove his deceit.
I’m unfamiliar with any story of his death as a sacrifice. I’d love to be enlightened.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474/2 "2013-02-16T11:57:43Z")
[(Link to related column)](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3093/have-virgins-ever-been-tossed-into-volcanoes-to-appease-the-gods)
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474/3 "2013-02-16T12:13:53Z")
It was a good thing he had Aetna, I always say.
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### Author:  [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474/4 "2013-02-16T13:57:56Z")
Several different stories about Empedocles’ death are given in the writings of Diogenes Laertius.
Here’s one:
> [@](#):
>
> Hippobotus says that he [Empedocles] rose up and went away as if he were going to mount Aetna; and that when he arrived at the crater of fire he leaped in, and disappeared, wishing to establish a belief that he had become a God. But afterwards the truth was detected by one of his slippers having been dropped.
Here’s another:
> [@](#):
>
> [W]hen the people of Selinus were on one occasion holding a festival on the bank of the river, Empedocles appeared among them; and they rising up, offered him adoration, and prayed to him as to a God. And he, wishing to confirm this idea which they had adopted of him, leaped into the fire.
However:
> [@](#):
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> Timaeus contradicts all these stories; saying expressly, that he [Empedocles] departed into Peloponnesus, and never returned at all, on which account the manner of his death is uncertain.
So we really don’t know.
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### Author:  [@Archaic\_Entity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archaic_Entity)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empedocles-death/650474/5 "2013-02-16T22:04:02Z")
> [@Steken](#):
>
> Several different stories about Empedocles’ death are given in the writings of Diogenes Laertius.
>
> Here’s one:
>
> Here’s another:
>
> However:
>
> So we really don’t know.
Exactly. I just don’t recall anything ever being said about him sacrificing himself for healing a woman.
Also, thanks, Mangetout, for tagging the column since I forgot to.