Acragas

In the fifth century BC, Empedocles of Acragas, the Greek philosopher, proclaimed that the universe was composed of four primal elements: fire, air, water, and earth.

Krell's sixth chapter, 'Eight Labours of Mourning', cites writers that Krell takes Derrida to be working with, who have made mourning their topos: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty (whose treatment in this book is suggestive though brief), Benjamin, here not for the Trauerspiel but for the 'Angel of History', Heidegger, Irigaray, Nietzsche, Cixous, and Empedocles of Acragas. The chapter ends polemically, with Krell's impatience at academic dismissals of Derrida.

Phalaris, was a sixth-century BC tyrant of Acragas in Sicily, who became legendary for roasting his victims alive in a brazen bull.

A significant breakthrough came when Pindar established a link with the court of Theron of Acragas. Theron and Hieron I of Syracuse were to elicit much of Pindar's greatest poetry, and it was through these connections that Pindar's reputation spread throughout the Greek world.

343) and entered the army there, serving with distinction and rising to the rank of chiliarch (roughly equivalent to colonel) in campaigns against Acragas (Agrigento) and Aetna (Etna); frustrated with a lack of promotion, he turned to politics, and became involved with the oligarchic opposition (c.

Another significant fact about the real Empedocles is that he was an aristocrat of Acragas who agitated for democratic reform, yet seemed somewhat ambivalent about his position.

According to Briroi, who is surreptitiously following Polybius (I.14),(34) the original sources were two, both written from a partisan perspective: Fabius Pictor, representing the Roman side; and Philinus of Acragas, representing the Carthaginian side.(35) In the next stage of his discussion, Bruni deviates significantly from the position taken by Polybius.

Holderlin and Nietzsche on the tragic figure of Empedocles of Acragas, Derrida on Heidegger on Trakl, poet of the lunar sister, Blanchot on Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez with his eternal return of the same lunes or Moonday in One Hundred Days of Solitude, these are the men whose voices carry across David Krell's deeply contoured moonscape, where literature is indisputably the philosopher's preserve.

Principal battles: Acragas (Agrigento), Gela, Camarina (near Scoglitti) (406); Syracuse (Siracusa) (405); Syracuse (396).