If [Iulian] has taken up the opinion that we [Christians] braved danger for the sake of drama, and not for the truth, let them play with the Empedokleses, Aristaioses, Empedotimoses and Trophonioses, and number among such unfortunates as the one who with the Sicilian crater made himself a god, so he thought, and sent himself up from among us to a better ending, but was given up by his favorite sandal expelled from the fire. And he was revealed to be not a god among men, but a conceited man, and unphilosophic among the dead, and not even of average intelligence. And they who from their own distress and introversion hid in some inaccessible places, and then were found out, they were not more honored because of their trick, but were openly despised for it.
Author: Gregory of Nazianzos
Title of Work: First Invective Against Iulian (Oration 4)
Location in Work: 59
Date of Work: c. 362 CE
Original Language: Greek (Attic/Patristic)
Original Text:
∆εύτερον δὲ, εἰ δόξης ἐπιθυμίᾳ κινδυνεύειν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλὰ μὴ τῆς ἀληθείας, ὑπέλαβε· ταῦτα μὲν παιζέτωσαν παρ’ ἐκείνοις Ἐμπεδοκλεῖς, καὶ Ἀρισταῖοι, καὶ Ἐμπεδότιμοί τινες, καὶ Τροφώνιοι, καὶ τοιούτων δυστυχῶν ἀριθμός· ὧν ὁ μὲν τοῖς Σικελικοῖς κρατῆρσιν ἑαυτὸν θεώσας, ὡς ᾤετο, καὶ εἰς τὴν κρείττονα λῆξιν ἀφ’ ἡμῶν ἀναπέμψας, τῷ φιλτάτῳ σανδάλῳ κατεμηνύθη παρὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐκβρασθέντι· καὶ οὐ θεὸς ἐδείχθη μετ’ ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ’ ἄνθρωπος κενόδοξος, καὶ ἀφιλόσοφος μετὰ θάνατον, καὶ οὐδὲ τὰ κοινὰ συνετός· οἱ δὲ ἀδύτοις τισὶν ἑαυτοὺς ἐγκρύψαντες ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς νόσου καὶ φιλαυτίας, εἶτ’ ἐλεγχθέντες, οὐ μᾶλλον ἐκ τῆς κλοπῆς ἐτιμήθησαν ἢ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ λαθεῖν καθυβρίσθησαν.
Reference Edition: Migne, Adversus Julianum prior
Source of Date of Work: Elm, Sons of Hellenism, 383
Commentary:
Empedokles was a mid-5th century philosopher from the Greek colony of Akragas in Sicily. Gregory is referring to a legend in which Empedokles ended his life by throwing himself into a volcano in order to make it appear that he had vanished but was betrayed when the volcana belched out his sandal, as told in Diogenes Laertios’ biography (8.2). Empedokles was also mentioned together with Aristeas in works by Clement of Alexandria, Iamblichos and Tzetzes. On his philosophy, see Kingsley and Parry, Empedocles. For testimonies and fragments of texts attributed to him, DK Empedokles (31).
In Aristeas’ case, Gregory is presumably referring to Herodotos’ story of Aristeas’ disappearance from the fuller’s shop and reappearance in Kyzikos.
Empedotimos was a character who saw a vision under the influence of Hades and Persephone while separated from his friends on a hunting excursion, in a work by the late Classical philosopher Herakleides of Pontos. Gregory seems to have interpreted that separation as hiding. Empedotimos was also mentioned together with Aristeas in texts by Clement of Alexandria and Proklos of Lykia. See Wehrli, Herakleides Pontikos.
Trophonios was a Boiotian son of Apollo of the heroic age who killed his brother to conceal their crime and was punished by being swallowed by the earth, but was later discovered in a subterranean cave, which became a famous oracular site (Pausanias 9.37.4-8 and 9.39.3-9.40.3). Plutarch told a story of a man being struck by a falling rock while in the cave and having a near-death vision of the transmigration of souls.
Concordance: EGEP Aristeas T15; EGF Aristeas T14; PEG Aristeas T16; Bolton, Aristeas T&F 23