Vergil’s Empedoclean Universe
Vergil’s Empedoclean Universe

Summary/Abstract: The author revisits the problem of the role of the song of Iopas in Aeneid 1 in order to corroborate and extend the observations of Damien Nelis about the functional coherence of Empedoclean concord and discord in Vergil’s epic narrative. The indirect nature of Vergil’s allusions to Empedocles, the author argues, reflects the nature of the abstract, conceptual presence of Empedoclean philosophical principles in the world that the poem describes. The role of the Empedoclean backdrop in the Aeneid is found to be primarily aesthetical. The study of Vergil’s Empedoclean allusions contributes not only to our understanding of the principles that animate the poet’s literary universe, but also the principles that unite his entire poetic opus, in which Empedoclean principles play a recurring role.

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