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 110 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 20–21
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 210On the Senses 20
ἔτι δὲ τὸ περὶ τὴν ἀπορροήν, καίπερ οὐχ ἱκανῶς λεγόμενον περὶ μὲν τὰς ἄλλας ὅμως ἔστι πως ὑπολαβεῖν, περὶ δὲ τὴν ἁφὴν καὶ γεῦσιν οὐ ῥάιδιον. πῶς γὰρ τῆι ἀπορροῆι κρίνωμεν ἢ πῶς ἐναρμόττον τοῖς πόροις τὸ τραχὺ καὶ τὸ λεῖον; μόνου γὰρ δοκεῖ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ πυρὸς ἀπορρεῖν, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων οὐδενός. ἔτι δ' εἰ ἡ φθίσις διὰ τὴν ἀπορροήν, ὧιπερ χρῆται κοινοτάτωι σημείωι, συμβαίνει δὲ καὶ τὰς ὀσμὰς ἀπορροῆι γίνεσθαι, τὰ πλείστην ἔχοντα ὀσμὴν τάχιστ' ἐχρῆν φθείρεσθαι. νῦν δὲ σχεδὸν ἐναντίως ἔχει· τὰ γὰρ ὀσμωδέστατα τῶν φυτῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶ χρονιώτατα. συμβαίνει δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς Φιλίας ὅλως μὴ εἶναι αἴσθησιν ἢ ἧττον διὰ τὸ συγκρίνεσθαι τότε καὶ μὴ ἀπορρεῖν.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 211Effluence, and what it cannot explain
On the Senses 20
Further, the doctrine of effluence, though it is not stated adequately, can somehow be understood for the other senses, but not easily for touch and taste. For how shall we judge the rough and the smooth by effluence, or by their fitting into the passages? Of the elements, fire alone seems to flow off, and none of the others. Again, if wasting away is caused by effluence — which he uses as his commonest proof — and if odours also come about by effluence, then the things with the most odour ought to perish the soonest. In fact very nearly the opposite holds: the most fragrant of plants and of other things are the longest-lived. And it follows also that under the reign of Love there should be no perception at all, or less of it, since at that time things are being drawn together and not flowing off.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 20–21
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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.