The Death of Empedocles: A Mourning-play (SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

On the eve of his final odes and hymns, Friedrich Holderlin 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 Holderlin s essays on the theory of tragedy. David Farrell Krell gives readers a brief chronology of Holderlin s life, an introduction to the life and thought of Empedocles including Holderlin s Empedocles detailed 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."