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 105 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 10–11
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 200On the Senses 10
ὡσαύτως δὲ λέγει καὶ περὶ φρονήσεως καὶ ἀγνοίας. τὸ μὲν γὰρ φρονεῖν εἶναι τοῖς ὁμοίοις, τὸ δ' ἀγνοεῖν τοῖς ἀνομοίοις, ὡς ἢ ταὐτὸν ἢ παραπλήσιον ὂν τῆι αἰσθήσει τὴν φρόνησιν. διαριθμησάμενος γάρ, ὡς ἕκαστον ἑκάστωι γνωρίζομεν, ἐπὶ τέλει προσέθηκεν ὡς ἐκ τούτων … ἀνιῶνται. διὸ καὶ τῶι αἵματι μάλιστα φρονεῖν· ἐν τούτωι γὰρ μάλιστα κεκρᾶσθαι τὰ στοιχεῖα τῶν μερῶν.
On the Senses 11
ὅσοις μὲν οὖν ἴσα καὶ παραπλήσια μέμεικται καὶ μὴ διὰ πολλοῦ μηδ' αὖ μικρὰ μηδ' ὑπερβάλλοντα τῶι μεγέθει, τούτους φρονιμωτάτους εἶναι καὶ κατὰ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἀκριβεστάτους, κατὰ λόγον δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἐγγυτάτω τούτων, ὅσοις δ' ἐναντίως, ἀφρονεστάτους. καὶ ὧν μὲν μανὰ καὶ ἀραιὰ κεῖται τὰ στοιχεῖα, νωθροὺς καὶ ἐπιπόνους· ὧν δὲ πυκνὰ καὶ κατὰ μικρὰ τεθραυσμένα, τοὺς δὲ τοιούτους ὀξεῖς φερομένους καὶ πολλοῖς ἐπιβαλλομένους ὀλίγα ἐπιτελεῖν διὰ τὴν ὀξύτητα τῆς τοῦ αἵματος φορᾶς· οἷς δὲ καθ' ἕν τι μόριον ἡ μέση κρᾶσίς ἐστι, ταύτηι σοφοὺς ἑκάστους εἶναι· διὸ τοὺς μὲν ῥήτορας ἀγαθούς, τοὺς δὲ τεχνίτας, ὡς τοῖς μὲν ἐν ταῖς χερσί, τοῖς δὲ ἐν τῆι γλώττηι τὴν κρᾶσιν οὖσαν· ὁμοίως δ' ἔχειν καὶ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας δυνάμεις.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 201Thought is in the blood, and character follows the blend
On the Senses 10
He speaks in the same way about thought and ignorance. Thinking is by the like, ignorance by the unlike, thought being either the same as perception or very close to it. For having reckoned up how by each thing we know each, he added at the end that out of these all things are fitted together and joined. This is why we think above all with the blood: for in the blood, above all, the elements of the parts are blended.
On the Senses 11
Those in whom the elements are mixed in equal and nearly equal measure, and neither too widely spaced nor too small nor excessive in size, are the most intelligent and the most exact in their perceptions; and in proportion, those who come nearest to them; while those in the contrary condition are the most senseless. Those in whom the elements lie loose and rare are sluggish and laborious; those in whom they are dense and broken up small are quick-moving, and, setting their hand to many things, finish few, because of the swiftness with which their blood travels. Those who have the balanced blend in some one part are wise in that part: hence some are good speakers and others good craftsmen, the blend being in the hands of the one and in the tongue of the other. And it is the same with the other faculties.
Exposition, with a verse quotation embedded.
This is the passage that makes Empedocles' psychology a physiology. Thought is not a faculty but a state of a fluid, and a man's character is the geometry of his own blood: loose particles make him slow, small hard ones make him quick and unfinished, and a good blend in the tongue makes him an orator. It is the oldest surviving temperament theory in Europe, and the ancestor of everything the humoral tradition would build for the next two millennia.
Bearing on Volume I. The prose behind B 105, "the blood around the heart is men's thought."
5 ἐστί deleted by Mullach. — 12 πολλοῖς Wimmer: πολλά in the manuscripts. The quotation at the end of § 10 is fragment B 107.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 10–11
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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.