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 33 of 54
On Nature · Book II · Fragments 60–71
Ancient Greek
p. 63Plut., Adv. Col. 1123 B
εἱλίποδ' ἀκριτόχειρα . . .Aelian., Nat. an. XVI 29
πολλὰ μὲν ἀμφιπρόσωπα καὶ ἀμφίστερνα φύεσθαι,βουγενῆ ἀνδρόπρωιρα, τὰ δ' ἔμπαλιν ἐξανατέλλεινἀνδροφυῆ βούκρανα, μεμειγμένα τῆι μὲν ἀπ' ἀνδρῶντῆι δὲ γυναικοφυῆ, σκιεροῖς ἠσκημένα γυίοις.Simplic. in Phys., p. 381, 29 sqq.
νῦν δ' ἄγ', ὅπως ἀνδρῶν τε πολυκλαύτων τε γυναικῶνἐννυχίους ὅρπηκας ἀνήγαγε κρινόμενον πῦρ,τῶνδε κλύ'· οὐ γὰρ μῦθος ἀπόσκοπος οὐδ' ἀδαήμων.οὐλοφυεῖς μὲν πρῶτα τύποι χθονὸς ἐξανέτελλον,ἀμφοτέρων ὕδατός τε καὶ ἴδεος αἶσαν ἔχοντες· 5τοὺς μὲν πῦρ ἀνέπεμπε θέλον πρὸς ὁμοῖον ἱκέσθαι,οὔτε τί πω μελέων ἐρατὸν δέμας ἐμφαίνονταςοὔτ' ἐνοπὴν οἷόν τ' ἐπιχώριον ἀνδράσι γυῖον.Simplic. in Cael., p. 529, 28 sq.
εἰ δέ τί σοι περὶ τῶνδε λιπόξυλος ἔπλετο πίστις,πῶς ὕδατος γαίης τε καὶ αἰθέρος ἠελίου τεκιρναμένων εἴδη τε γενοίατο χροῖά τε θνητῶνEmpedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I: On Nature · Book II
p. 64Plut., Adv. Col. 1123 B
shambling-footed, with hands past counting . . .
Aelian., Nat. an. XVI 29
Many came to be with faces and breasts on both sides,
ox-kinded with the prow of a man, and others sprang up in turn
man-kinded with the heads of oxen, mingled, here from men
and there of woman's growth, furnished with shadowy parts.
Simplic. in Phys., p. 381, 29 sqq.
But now come: how of men and of much-lamenting women
the fire, as it was being separated out, brought up the night-born shoots —
hear this; for my tale is not wide of the mark, nor unknowing.
First there sprang up out of the earth whole-natured forms,
having a portion of both, of water and of heat; 5
these the fire sent up, wishing to reach its like,
showing as yet no lovely frame of limbs,
nor the voice, nor the member native to men.
Simplic. in Cael., p. 529, 28 sq.
But if your belief about these matters was in any way wanting in substance —
how, out of water and earth and aither and sun
when they are mixed, the forms and colours of mortal things could come to be,
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · On Nature · Book II · Fragments 60–71
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.