Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
On Nature · The Purifications · Ancient Greek with a new English translation.
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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 11 of 54
On Nature · Proem · Fragments 3–115
Ancient Greek
p. 19Sext. Emp., Adv. math. VII 125
ἀλλ' ἄγ' ἄθρει πάσηι παλάμηι, πῆι δῆλον ἕκαστον,μήτε τιν' ὄψιν ἔχων πίστει πλέον ἢ κατ' ἀκουήν 10ἢ ἀκοὴν ἐρίδουπον ὑπὲρ τρανώματα γλώσσης,μήτε τι τῶν ἄλλων, ὁπόσηι πόρος ἐστὶ νοῆσαι,γυίων πίστιν ἔρυκε, νόει θ' ἧι δῆλον ἕκαστον.Clem. Alex., Strom. V 18, 4
ἀλλὰ κακοῖς μὲν κάρτα μέλει κρατέουσιν ἀπιστεῖν.ὡς δὲ παρ' ἡμετέρης κέλεται πιστώματα Μούσης,γνῶθι διασσηθέντος ἐνὶ σπλάγχνοισι λόγοιο.Plut., De def. or. 418 C
. . . κορυφὰς ἑτέρας ἑτέρηισι προσάπτωνμύθων μὴ τελέειν ἀτραπὸν μίαν . . .Schol. ad Plat Gorg. 498e.
καὶ δὶς γάρ, ὃ δεῖ, καλόν ἐστιν ἐνισπεῖν.Plut., De exil. 607 C; Hippol., Haer. VII 29, 14-23
ἔστιν Ἀνάγκης χρῆμα, θεῶν ψήφισμα παλαιόν,ἀίδιον, πλατέεσσι κατεσφρηγισμένον ὅρκοις·εὖτέ τις ἀμπλακίηισι φόνωι φίλα γυῖα μιήνηι,Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I: On Nature · Proem
p. 20Sext. Emp., Adv. math. VII 125
But come, observe with every faculty in what way each thing is clear;
hold no sight in greater trust than what accords with hearing, 10
nor loud-echoing hearing above the plain evidence of the tongue,
nor withhold trust from any other of the limbs, wherever there is a channel for understanding,
but understand each thing in the way in which it is clear.
Clem. Alex., Strom. V 18, 4
But the base are very much bent on distrusting those who prevail.
As the pledges of our Muse command you, then,
know this, once the argument has been sifted through your inward parts.
Plut., De def. or. 418 C
. . . fastening one summit to another,
not to complete a single path of words . . .
Schol. ad Plat Gorg. 498e.
For what must be said, it is well to say even twice.
Plut., De exil. 607 C; Hippol., Haer. VII 29, 14-23
There is a decree of Necessity, an ancient ordinance of the gods,
everlasting, sealed fast with broad oaths:
whenever one, in his transgressions, defiles his own limbs with bloodshed,
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · On Nature · Proem · Fragments 3–115
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Empedocles of Acragas wrote philosophy as poetry: a cosmic account of the four roots, Love, and Strife alongside a religious vision of exile, purification, and return. This Volume I reader preserves the supplied edition’s complete English introduction before changing to Ancient Greek and line-for-line English facing pages for the surviving fragments of On Nature and The Purifications.
Historical Text and Translation
The Ancient Greek reading text follows Hermann Diels’s Poetarum philosophorum fragmenta (1901) and Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (1903). The supplied edition retains Diels’s iota adscripts, editorial brackets, fragment numbering, and the ancient author and location that preserve each quotation. It excludes the Strasbourg and Cairo papyri, later papyrological reconstructions, and the Diels-Kranz A-fragments for the reasons stated in its Introduction.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this new translation directly from the Greek printed opposite it. The translation is line-for-line: each English line answers the Greek line that faces it, while English syntax is allowed to continue across verse boundaries when clarity requires it.
Rights
Empedocles’s ancient Greek work and Hermann Diels’s 1901/1903 Greek editions are in the public domain. The 2026 English translation, introduction, and editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.