 E.R.Dodds in his 1951 book, "The Greeks and the Irrational", argued that Empedocles was a combination of poet, magus, teacher, and scientist.Dodds argued that since much of the acquired knowledge of individuals like Pythagoras or Empedocles was somewhat mysterious even to those with a rudimentary education, it might be associated with magic or at least with the learning of a Magus.