Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
The Greek and Latin of Hermann Diels · New English translation and notes.
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Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies · A 78
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 172Aëtius
Ἐ. τὰς μὲν σάρκας γεννᾶσθαι ἐκ τῶν ἴσων τῆι κράσει τεττάρων στοιχείων, τὰ δὲ νεῦρα πυρὸς καὶ γῆς ὕδατι διπλασίονι μιχθέντων, τοὺς δὲ ὄνυχας τοῖς ζώιοις γεννᾶσθαι τῶν νεύρων καθ' ὃ τῶι ἀέρι συνέτυχε περιψυχθέντων, ὀστᾶ δὲ δυεῖν μὲν ὕδατος καὶ γῆς, τεττάρων δὲ πυρός, ἔσω γῆς τούτων συγκραθέντων μερῶν. ἱδρῶτα ⟨δὲ⟩ καὶ δάκρυον γίνεσθαι τοῦ αἵματος τηκομένου καὶ παρὰ τὸ λεπτύνεσθαι διαχεομένου.
Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals
ἀρχὴ γὰρ ἡ φύσις μᾶλλον τῆς ὕλης, ἐνιαχοῦ δέ που αὐτῆι καὶ Ἐ. περιπίπτει, ἀγόμενος ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν φύσιν ἀναγκάζεται φάναι τὸν λόγον εἶναι, οἷον ὀστοῦν ἀποδιδοὺς τί ἐστιν· οὔτε γὰρ ἕν τι τῶν στοιχείων λέγει αὐτὸ οὔτε δύο ἢ τρία οὔτε πάντα, ἀλλὰ λόγον τῆς μίξεως αὐτῶν.
Aristotle, On the Soul
ὁμοίως δὲ ἄτοπον καὶ ⟨τὸ⟩ τὸν λόγον τῆς μίξεως εἶναι τὴν ψυχήν· οὐ γὰρ τὸν αὐτὸν ἔχει λόγον ἡ μίξις τῶν στοιχείων καθ' ἣν σὰρξ καὶ καθ' ἣν ὀστοῦν· συμβήσεται οὖν πολλάς τε ψυχὰς ἔχειν καὶ κατὰ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα, εἴπερ πάντα μὲν ἐκ τῶν στοιχείων μεμειγμένων, ὁ δὲ τῆς μίξεως λόγος ἁρμονία καὶ ψυχή.
Aristotle, On the Soul
ἕκαστον γὰρ αὐτῶν λόγωι τινί φησιν εἶναι· πότερον οὖν ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχή, ἢ μᾶλλον ἕτερόν τι οὖσα ἐγγίνεται τοῖς μέλεσι; ἔτι δὲ πότερον ἡ Φιλία τῆς τυχούσης αἰτία μίξεως ἢ τῆς κατὰ τὸν λόγον; καὶ αὕτη πότερον ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν ἢ παρὰ τὸν λόγον ἕτερόν τι;
Pseudo-Aristotle, On Breath
Ἐ. αἰτίαν ἁπλῶς τὴν τοῦ ὀστοῦ φύσιν. ⟨ἔτι δὲ⟩ εἴπερ ἅπαντα τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον ἔχει τῆς μίξεως, ἀδιάφορα ἐχρῆν ἵππου καὶ λέοντος καὶ ἀνθρώπου εἶναι.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies
p. 173Flesh, sinew, bone — the doctrine of ratio
Aëtius
Empedocles: flesh is generated from the four elements equal in their mixture; sinew from fire and earth mixed with twice as much water; the nails of animals are generated from sinews chilled at the point where they met the air; bone from two parts of water and of earth and four of fire, these parts blended together within the earth. Sweat and tears come about from the blood melting, and, as it is thinned, dispersing.
Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals
For nature is a starting-point more than matter is; and here and there Empedocles too stumbles upon this, led by the truth itself, and is forced to say that the being and the nature of a thing is its ratio — as when he gives his account of what bone is. For he does not say bone is any one of the elements, nor two or three of them, nor all of them, but the ratio of their mixture.
Aristotle, On the Soul
It is equally absurd that the soul should be the ratio of the mixture. For the mixture of the elements by which flesh comes to be does not have the same ratio as that by which bone does. It will follow that a creature has many souls, and has them all over its body — if indeed all its parts are made of the elements mixed, and the ratio of the mixture is harmony and soul.
Aristotle, On the Soul
For he says that each of them exists by a certain ratio. Is the ratio, then, the soul? Or is the soul rather something else, which comes to be present in the limbs? And further: is Love the cause of any chance mixture, or of the mixture that accords with the ratio? And is Love herself the ratio, or something other than the ratio?
Pseudo-Aristotle, On Breath
Empedocles gives, quite simply, the nature of bone as the cause. And further: if all things have the same ratio of mixture, then horse and lion and man would have to be indistinguishable.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies · A 78
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Empedocles survives not only through his poems but through the ancient writers who described his life, doctrines, medicine, cosmology, and extraordinary reputation. Volume II gathers the testimonia: ninety-nine numbered reports drawn from fifty-two authors across nine centuries. The English introduction appears full width; each Greek or Latin testimony then faces its new English translation.
Historical Text and Translation
The Greek and Latin reading text follows Hermann Diels’s third edition of Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (1912), retaining the supplied edition’s Diels-Kranz numbering and editorial signs. These witnesses must be read as a chain of transmission: many preserve valuable evidence, while others summarize, dispute, reshape, or repeat earlier accounts.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared the new English translation, introduction, notes, and reception appendices for this volume. The translation keeps each witness distinct and preserves its technical vocabulary, argumentative posture, and relationship to the surviving poetry in Volume I.
Rights
The ancient source works and Hermann Diels’s 1912 Greek and Latin edition are in the public domain. The 2026 English translation, introduction, notes, and editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.