Based on my readings of the contradictions in the various accounts, I would say he intended to die. He, in effect, I think, found a way of enacting the story o

Based on my readings of the contradictions in the various accounts, I would say he intended to die. He, in effect, I think, found a way of enacting the story of Empedocles, where Empedocles tries to die by jumping into a volcano so he will have just seemingly vanished and be believed to have ascended to godhood but was revealed by his bronze sandals. And in some ways seems reminiscent of Yukio Mishima. And it seems to have worked, to a degree. Over 2,000 years later, everyone from layman to politician invokes his name and death as often as they do Jesus. Not existing is often a really good way of kind of existing seemingly forever.