Empedocles in the Herculaneum Papyri: An Update

With the exception of PStrasb Gr. inv. 1665-6, which contains the fragments of 74 lines belonging to the poem On Nature, all the papyri concerning Empedocles generally preserve either short quotations or references to his thought. In particular, the Herculaneum papyri let us know Epicurus, Hermarchus, and Philodemus’ reception of Empedocles’ work, and in PHerc. 1012, containing a work attributed to Demetrius Laco, we can also find Empedocles’ quotations useful for the constitution of his text. I propose here a new study of the testimonia concerning Empedocles in the Herculaneum papyri in the light of some recent studies in Epicureanism and new editions.