Observations placeholder
Empedocles - Purifications - Friends who inhabit the mighty town
Identifier
005932
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
We possess only about 100 lines of Empedocles' Purifications. 'It seems to be a mythical account of the world'. The first lines of the poem were preserved by Diogenes Laërtius.
According to Wikipedia
"It was probably this work which contained a story about souls where we are told that there were once spirits who lived in a state of bliss, but having committed a crime (the nature of which is unknown) they were punished by being forced to become mortal beings, reincarnated from body to body. Humans, animals, and even plants are such spirits. The moral conduct recommended in the poem may allow us to become like gods again."
So it is a description, in part anyway, of the so-called 'Fall'.
There is an implication within the poem that the story teller considered himself a god and thus one who had been through annihilation
A description of the experience
Purifications
Friends who inhabit the mighty town by tawny Acragas
which crowns the citadel, caring for good deeds,
greetings; I, an immortal god, no longer mortal,
wander among you, honoured by all,
adorned with holy diadems and blooming garlands.
To whatever illustrious towns I go,
I am praised by men and women, and accompanied
by thousands, who thirst for deliverance,
some ask for prophecies, and some entreat,
for remedies against all kinds of disease.