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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Facing Pages · Branch 104 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 § 9
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 198On the Senses 9
τὴν δ' ἀκοὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἔσωθεν γίνεσθαι ψόφων, ὅταν ὁ ἀὴρ ὑπὸ τῆς φωνῆς κινηθεὶς ἠχῆι ἐντός. ὥσπερ γὰρ εἶναι κώδωνα τῶν ἴσων ἤχων τὴν ἀκοήν, ἣν προσαγορεύει σάρκινον ὄζον· κινουμένην δὲ παίειν τὸν ἀέρα πρὸς τὰ στερεὰ καὶ ποιεῖν ἦχον. ὄσφρησιν δὲ γίνεσθαι τῆι ἀναπνοῆι. διὸ καὶ μάλιστα ὀσφραίνεσθαι τούτους, οἷς σφοδροτάτη τοῦ ἄσθματος ἡ κίνησις· ὀσμὴν δὲ πλείστην ἀπὸ τῶν λεπτῶν καὶ τῶν κούφων ἀπορρεῖν. περὶ δὲ γεύσεως καὶ ἁφῆς οὐ διορίζεται καθ' ἑκατέραν οὔτε πῶς οὔτε δι' ἃ γίγνονται, πλὴν τὸ κοινὸν ὅτι τῶι ἐναρμόττειν τοῖς πόροις αἴσθησίς ἐστιν· ἥδεσθαι δὲ τοῖς ὁμοίοις κατά τε ⟨τὰ⟩ μόρια καὶ τὴν κρᾶσιν, λυπεῖσθαι δὲ τοῖς ἐναντίοις.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 199Hearing, smell, taste and touch
On the Senses 9
Hearing comes about from sounds inside, when the air, set moving by the voice, rings within. For the ear is a kind of bell for the sounds that come in, and he calls it a "sprout of flesh"; and when it is set moving it beats the air against the solid parts and makes a ringing. Smell comes about by breathing. Hence those smell most keenly in whom the movement of the breath is most violent; and the most odour flows off from fine and light bodies. About taste and touch he lays down nothing separately — neither how they come about nor through what — beyond the common point that perception is by fitting into the passages; and that we take pleasure in what is like us, both in respect of the parts and of the blend, and are pained by what is opposite.
Exposition, and the shortest part of the chapter.
"A sprout of flesh" is Empedocles' phrase for the ear, preserved at B 99, and the bell is Theophrastus' gloss on it. Note what happens to taste and touch: Empedocles gave them no separate mechanism, and Theophrastus says so plainly rather than supplying one. It is a good illustration of what this witness is worth — he records a gap where a doxographer would have filled it.
Bearing on Volume I. The context for B 99, and the point Theophrastus will press hard at § 20.
27 ἔσωθεν Karsten, from p. 220, 7: ἔξωθεν in the manuscripts. — 28 ὁ ἀήρ Diels: γάρ in the manuscripts. — κώδων here is a bell, not a trumpet, as at Philoponus, On the Soul 355, 17. — ἴσων is unintelligible; Diels conjectures εἰσιόντων, Schneider ἔσω. — 29 for σάρκινον ὄζον Diels suspects σάρκινον ὄγκον. — 34 ⟨τὰ⟩ supplied by Diels.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 § 9
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.