The Death of Empedocles

On the eve of his final odes and hymns, Friedrich Hlderlin composed three versions of a dramatic poem on the suicide of the early Greek thinker, Empedocles of Acragas. This book offers the first complete translation of the three versions, along with translations of Hlderlin's essays on the theory of tragedy. David Farrell Krell gives readers a brief chronology of Hlderlin's life, an introduction to the life and thought of Empedoclesincluding Hlderlin's Empedoclesdetailed explanatory notes, and an analysis of the play and the theoretical essays, allowing for a full appreciation of this classic of world literature and philosophy.