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Empedocles 

ca. 492-432 BCE

Empedocles, eulogized by Lucretius as "the most remarkable of the poet-philosophers of Antiquity…Pythagorean in his ethical principles…made their doctrines public by means of his poems". In the fragments that remain he "sings of the 'Golden Age'…exhorting the world to abandon the foul diet of blood" (Howard Williams, Ethics of Diet, "Empedoklês") he exclaims, "Will ye not cease from evil slaughter? See ye not that ye are devouring each other in heedlessness of mind?'" (Empedocles, Fragments "On Purification").

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Empedocles [492-432 BCE], "On Purifications," in Fragments and Commentary, edited and translated by Arthur Fairbanks, in The First Philosophersof Greece (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1898; Online at Hanover Historical Texts Project, 2001).

Fragments

On Purifications

369. There is an utterance of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths whenever any one defiles his body sinfully with bloody gore or perjures himself in regard to wrong-doing, one of those spirits who are heir to long life, thrice ten thousand seasons shall he wander apart from the blessed, being born meantime in all sorts of mortal forms, changing one bitter path of life for another. For mighty Air pursues him Seaward, and Sea spews him forth on the threshold of Earth, and Earth casts him into the rays of the unwearying Sun, and Sun into the eddies of Air; one receives him from the other, and all hate him. One of these now am I too, a fugitive from the gods and a wanderer, at the mercy of raging Strife.

405. Nor had they any god Ares, nor Kydoimos (Uproar), nor king Zeus, nor Kronos, nor Poseidon, but queen Kypris. Her they worshipped with hallowed offerings, with painted figures, and perfumes of skilfully made odour, and sacrifices of unmixed myrrh and fragrant frankincense, casting on the ground libations from tawny bees. And her altar was not moistened with pure blood of bulls, but it was the greatest defilement among men, to deprive animals of life and to eat their goodly bodies.

415. And there was among them a man of unusual knowledge, and master especially of all sorts of wise deeds, who in truth possessed greatest wealth of mind for whenever he reached out with all his mind, easily he beheld each one of all the things that are, even for ten and twenty generations of men.

421. For all were gentle and obedient toward men, both animals and birds, and they burned with kindly love; and trees grew with leaves and fruit ever on them, burdened with abundant fruit all the year.

425. This is not lawful for some and unlawful for others, but what is lawful for all extends on continuously through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light.

427. Will ye not cease from evil slaughter? See ye not that ye are devouring each other in heedlessness of mind?

430. A father takes up his dear son who has changed his form and slays him with a prayer, so great is his folly! They are borne along beseeching the sacrificer; but he does not hear their cries of reproach, but slays them and makes ready the evil feast. Then in the same manner son takes father and daughters their mother, and devour the dear flesh when they have deprived them of life.

436. Alas that no ruthless day destroyed me before I devised base deeds of devouring with the lips!

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Ancient References to Empedocles on Animals and his Nature

Aristotle [384-322 BCE] Rhetoric [Excerpts from Aristotle's Rhetoric, A Hypertextual Resource (Compiled by Lee Honeycutt, Transcribed from the 1954 Edition of the translation by W. Rhys Roberts).

And so Empedocles, when he bids us kill no living creature, says that doing this is not just for some people while unjust for others, "Nay, but, an all-embracing law, through the realms of the sky "Unbroken it stretcheth, and over the earth's immensity."

Lucretius, [ca99-55BCE] "Empedocles Eulogized" in On The Nature of Things, Literally Translated into English Prose, by the Rev. John Selby Watson.…To Which is Adjoined the Poetical Version of John Mason Good (London, 1851; Digitized by Google, 2006).

But nought so wonderous, so illustrious nought,
So fair, so pure, so lovely, can it boast,
EMPEDOCLES, as thou! whose song divine,
By all rehearsed, so clears each with mystic lore,
That scarce mankind believed thee born of man.

Sextus Empiricus [2nd or 3rd c.], Against the Physicists, in Sextus Empiricus, Selections from the Major Writings of Scepticism, Man and God, edited by Philip P. Hallie, translated by Sanford G. Etheridge (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1985; Preview digitized by Google, 2007).

Pythagoras and Empedocles and the whole crowd of the Italian philosophers declare that we have a certain community of interest not only with one another and with the gods but also with the irrational animals. For there is one spirit which pervades all the universe like a soul, and which also makes us one with those animals. Hence, if we kill them and eat their flesh we shall be doing wrong and committing a sacrilege, because we are destroying our kin. And it was for this reason that these philosophers recommended abstinence from animal food, and declared those men were impious who stain the altar of the Blessed with the warm blood of victims.

Laertius Diogenes [3rd c. CE], "Empedocles" in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, translated by C.D. Yonge (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853 Online at Peitho's Web) .

Timaeus, in his ninth book, relates that he was a pupil of Pythagoras, saying that he was afterwards convicted of having divulged his doctrines, in the same way as Plato was, and therefore that he was forbidden from thenceforth to attend his school. And they say that Pythagoras himself mentions him when he says:

And in that band there was a learned man,
Of wondrous wisdom; one, who of all men
Had the profoundest wealth of intellect.

But some say that when the philosopher says this, he is referring to Parmenides. Neanthes relates, that till the time of Philolaus and Empedocles, the Pythagoreans used to admit all persons indiscriminately into their school; but when Empedocles made their doctrines public by means of his poems, then they made a law to admit no Epic poet. And they say that the same thing happened to Plato; for that he too was excluded from the school.

1883 | Howard Williams, "Empedokles" in The Ethics of Diet ([First Edition: London & Manchester, 1883] 2nd ed. (London & Manchester, 1896; Online at Animal Rights History, 2006).

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, s.v. "Empedocles"

There are strong similarities between Empedocles and the teachings of Pythagoras on the transmigration of souls. Empedocles is clearly a follower of Pythagoras, in his ethics and psychology at least, and shares his vegetarianism and pacifism.

In terms reminiscent of Hesiod's description of the coming horrors of the Iron Age in Works and Days, we see the appalling consequences of meat-eating: murder, cannibalism, the destruction of whole families and, by extrapolation, of entire societies. This is a radical position in both political and religious terms.

Slaughter and meat-eating are the most terrible of sins, indeed for [Empedocles] animal slaughter is murder and meat-eating is cannibalism.