In this acclaimed book, Maria Michela Sassi reconstructs the intellectual world of the early Greek “Presocratics” to provide a richer understanding of the roots of what used to be called “the Greek miracle.” This unique study explores the full range of early Greek thinkers in the context of their worlds—from the Milesian natural thinkers, the rhapsode Xenophanes, and the mathematician and “shaman” Pythagoras, to the inspired Parmenides, the oracular Heraclitus, and the naturalist and seer Empedocles.