# Empedocles — Poetry character guide

> Empedocles in Poetry by Matthew Arnold.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Pausanias

**First appearance:** 0057-the-strayed-reveller

## Snapshot

A philosopher who debates with Pausanias on the slopes of Etna, weighing the power of mind against the gods' mockery.

## Who they are

Empedocles walks the high glens of Etna with his pupil Pausanias, who presses him to recount Pantheia's history while the harp of the boy Callicles drifts up from below. He insists that mind is the spell governing earth and heaven, yet his own words—that man's wit is never clear—return to haunt the argument. His restless teaching and the pull of the mountain's bare slopes set the poem's central meditation on knowledge, fear, and self-trust in motion.

## In the story

### [Act I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/chapters/act-i)

Delivers a lengthy philosophical monologue to Pausanias, arguing against blaming gods or fate for human suffering and advocating for self-examination and acceptance of life's limits.

### [Act I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/chapters/act-i)

The silent listener to Empedocles' discourse, addressed directly as 'thou son of Anchitus' and 'Pausanias'.

### [Act II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/chapters/act-ii)

Alone on Etna, he decides to end his life, feeling weary, banished, and unable to live with men or himself.

### [Act II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/chapters/act-ii)

Mentioned as having left; Empedocles reflects that he has learned his lesson and can now face life.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters/empedocles
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_16_se/characters