Once Xenophanes and Pythagoras brought philosophy westward, Italy and Sicily soon produced their own thinkers. Pythagoras influenced Empedocles of Akragas, perhaps the most famous Sicilian of antiquity and a colorful character. Like Pythagoras, he believed in reincarnation and was said to have hurled himself into the volcano of Mount Etna in order to persuade the world by disappearing that he had turned into God (unfortunately, his sandal was spewed back out, thus undermining his claim). Where the Milesians had argued about which substance was primary, Empedocles identified all four classical
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