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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Facing Pages · Branch 47 of 54
The Purifications · Fragments 146–128
Ancient Greek
p. 91Clem. Alex., Strom. IV 150,1/122,3
εἰς δὲ τέλος μάντεις τε καὶ ὑμνοπόλοι καὶ ἰητροίκαὶ πρόμοι ἀνθρώποισιν ἐπιχθονίοισι πέλονται.ἔνθεν ἀναβλαστοῦσι θεοὶ τιμῆισι φέριστοι.Clem. Alex., Strom. V 122,3
ἀθανάτοις ἄλλοισιν ὁμέστιοι αὐτοτράπεζοι,†ἐόντες† ἀνδρείων ἀχέων, ἀπόκληροι, ἀτειρεῖς.Theophr., Caus. plant. I 13,2
‹δένδρεα δ'› ἐμπεδόφυλλα καὶ ἐμπεδόκαρπα τέθηλενκαρπῶν ἀφθονίηισι κατ' ἠέρα πάντ' ἐνιαυτόν.Plut., Quaest. conv. 683 D
οὕνεκεν ὀψίγονοί τε σίδαι καὶ ὑπέρφλοια μῆλα.Theophr., Piet., ap. Porph., Abst. II 20; Porph., Abst. II 27
οὐδέ τις ἦν κείνοισιν Ἄρης θεὸς οὐδὲ Κυδοιμόςοὐδὲ Ζεὺς βασιλεὺς οὐδὲ Κρόνος οὐδὲ Ποσειδῶν,ἀλλὰ Κύπρις βασίλεια.τὴν οἵ γ' εὐσεβέεσσιν ἀγάλμασιν ἱλάσκοντογραπτοῖς τε ζώιοισι μύροισί τε δαιδαλεόδμοις 5σμύρνης τ' ἀκράτου θυσίαις λιβάνου τε θυώδους,Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I: The Purifications
p. 92Clem. Alex., Strom. IV 150,1/122,3
And at the last they become seers, and singers of hymns, and physicians,
and chieftains among men who dwell upon the earth;
and thence they spring up as gods, highest in honours.
Clem. Alex., Strom. V 122,3
sharing hearth and table with the other immortals,
having no share in the griefs of men, unwearied.
ἐόντες is obelised by Diels: the word cannot open a hexameter.
Theophr., Caus. plant. I 13,2
‹And trees› flourish with steadfast leaves and steadfast fruit,
with abundance of fruits in the air the whole year through.
Plut., Quaest. conv. 683 D
wherefore pomegranates are late-born, and apples full of sap.
Theophr., Piet., ap. Porph., Abst. II 20; Porph., Abst. II 27
Among them there was no god Ares, nor Battle-Din,
nor Zeus as king, nor Cronos, nor Poseidon,
but Cypris as queen.
Her they propitiated with pious images,
with painted figures and with subtly-scented perfumes, 5
with sacrifices of unmixed myrrh and fragrant frankincense,
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · The Purifications · Fragments 146–128
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.