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There are references in Freud's late writings to the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Empedocles. Freud indicated that Empedocles had, in essence, priority in the formulation of the dual-instinct theory. The purpose of this note is to present under one heading Freud's remarks concerning Empedocles, and the translation, from the original surviving fragments, of those of Empedocles' verses which pertain to this subject.
Freud presented his fullest discussion of Empedocles in a section of “Analysis Terminable and Interminable”, which is quoted at length below:
“I am well aware that the dualistic theory according to which an instinct of death, destruction or aggression claims equal partnership with Eros as manifested in libido, has met with little general acceptance and has not really established itself even among psychoanalysts. My delight was proportionately great when I discovered that our theory was held by one of the great thinkers of ancient Greece. So glad am I of this confirmation that I willingly sacrifice the prestige of originality, especially as I read so widely in earlier years that I can never be quite certain that what I thought was the creation of my own mind may not really have been an outcome of cryptoamnesia.
“Empedocles of Akragas, born about 495 B.C., was one of the grandest and most remarkable figures in the history of Greek civilization… Born at a time when the realm of science was not yet divided into so many provinces, he held some theories which inevitably strike us as primitive. He explained the variety of things by the fusion of four elements—earth, water, fire and air, and he held that all nature