The subject of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub’s Der Tod des Empedokles (The Death of Empedocles, 1987) is the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles (c. 490 BC – 430 BC), who lived in the Greek colony of Agrigentum in Sicily. His theories are mentioned in several of Plato’s dialogues. He maintained that all matter is made up of four irreducible elements: water,
earth, air and
fire. A m
ystic and a poe
t, he
is cons
idered to
be the founder
of class
ical rhetori
c. He is a
lso thought to
be the last Gr
eek philosoph
er to write
in verse;
two fragm
ents of his wo
rks surv
ive: Kath
armoi (Purifica
tions) and P
eri Phuseôs (On
Nature).
An advocate
of democ
racy, he came
into co
nflict w
ith his fello
w citizens of
Agrigentum a
nd, as re
sult, wa
s banished w
ith his
young
disciple
, Pausaniu
s. When he wa
s asked to re
turn, h
e preferred to
commit
suicide by t
hrowing himself
into the act
ive volcan
o at Mount Aet
na. The Ger
man writer Fri
edrich Höld
erlin wrote t
wo vers
ions of
Der Tod des E
mpedokles in 17
98 and 1800
, and
a final third v
ersion
in 1820, all
three ultim
ately unfi
nished. The
y were conce
ived as
five-ac
t trage
dies and all th
ree diffe
r in pl
ot. According
to Michael
Hamburger
, Hölderlin’s
English-
language
translato
r, the main
reason why
Hölderli
n finish
ed no version
of the play m
ust be that he
remained
too closel
y identi
fied with
Empedocle
s, at th
e very peri
od in hi
s life w
hen his own vi
ew of th
e poet as
philosop
her, prop
het and p
riest – and
as tragic her
o – was
subject to
perpetual c
risis a
nd re-examinati
on. Huil
let-Straub
’s The D
eath of
Empedocle
s is base
d on Höld
erlin’s first
version (the lo
ngest of the t
hree), wherea
s Black Sin
is bas
ed on the
third version.
　　The sub
ject of
Danièle Huil
let and Jean-M
arie Strau
b’s Der
Tod des Empe
dokles (Th
e Death
of Empe
do