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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Ancient Greek and Latin Page · Branch 103 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 7–8 (continued)
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 196On the Senses 8
συγκεῖσθαι δ' οὐχ ὁμοίως, ⟨ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων⟩, τὰς δ' ἐκ τῶν ἀντικειμένων, καὶ ταῖς μὲν ἐν μέσωι, ταῖς δ' ἐκτὸς εἶναι τὸ πῦρ· διὸ καὶ τῶν ζώιων τὰ μὲν ἐν ἡμέραι, τὰ δὲ νύκτωρ μᾶλλον ὀξυωπεῖν· ὅσα μὲν πυρὸς ἔλαττον ἔχει, μεθ' ἡμέραν· ἐπανισοῦσθαι γὰρ αὐτοῖς τὸ ἐντὸς φῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐκτός· ὅσα δὲ τοῦ ἐναντίου, νύκτωρ· ἐπαναπληροῦσθαι γὰρ καὶ τούτοις τὸ ἐνδεές· ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἐναντίοις ⟨ἐναντίως⟩ ἑκάτερον. ἀμβλυωπεῖν μὲν γὰρ καὶ οἷς ὑπερέχει τὸ πῦρ· ἐπαυξηθὲν ⟨γὰρ⟩ ἔτι μεθ' ἡμέραν ἐπιπλάττειν καὶ καταλαμβάνειν τοὺς τοῦ ὕδατος πόρους· οἷς δὲ τὸ ὕδωρ, ταὐτὸ τοῦτο γίνεσθαι νύκτωρ· καταλαμβάνεσθαι γὰρ τὸ πῦρ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος. ⟨γίγνεσθαι δὲ ταῦτα⟩, ἕως ἂν τοῖς μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἔξωθεν φωτὸς ἀποκριθῆι τὸ ὕδωρ, τοῖς δ' ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀέρος τὸ πῦρ. ἑκατέρων γὰρ ἴασιν εἶναι τὸ ἐναντίον. ἄριστα δὲ κεκρᾶσθαι καὶ βελτίστην εἶναι τὴν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἴσων συγκειμένην. καὶ περὶ μὲν ὄψεως σχεδὸν ταῦτα λέγει.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 197On the Senses 8
Eyes are not all put together alike: ⟨some out of like elements⟩ and others out of opposed ones, and in some the fire is at the centre, in others outside. This is why some animals see more keenly by day and others by night. Those that have less fire see by day, for their inner light is brought level by the light outside; those that have less of the opposite see by night, for in them too what is lacking is filled up. In the opposite cases each works ⟨the opposite way⟩. For those in whom the fire is in excess also see dimly: being further increased by day, it spreads over and takes possession of the passages of water; and in those in whom the water is in excess the same happens at night, the fire being taken over by the water. ⟨And this goes on⟩ until, for the one kind, the water is separated off by the light from outside, and for the other the fire is separated off by the air. For the cure of each is its opposite. The best-blended and best eye is the one composed of the two in equal parts. That is very nearly all he says about sight.
Exposition, before the criticism begins.
The lantern is Empedocles' own image and it survives in verse at B 84 — the eye as a lamp carried out into the night, with the fire inside and a screen of finer stuff around it. What Theophrastus adds is the machinery: two sorts of passage lying alternately, fire beside water, so that white and black are perceived by different apertures of the same organ. The account of night vision follows strictly from the compensation principle already seen at A 73: an eye sees best when the outside supplies what the inside lacks.
Bearing on Volume I. The prose behind B 84, and the fullest ancient statement of the theory of pores.
7 πως Diels: πρός in the manuscripts. — 10 ⟨ὕδωρ καὶ⟩ supplied by Diels. — 15 and 20 the angle brackets are Diels's supplements; 21 ⟨γὰρ⟩ Schneider. — 24 by ἀέρος Diels understands air including water. — 26 συγκειμένην Stephanus: συγκειμένων in the manuscripts.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 7–8 (continued)
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.