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 111 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 20–21 (continued)
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 212On the Senses 21
ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τὴν ἀκοὴν ὅταν ἀποδῶι τοῖς ἔσωθεν γίνεσθαι ψόφοις, ἄτοπον τὸ οἴεσθαι δῆλον εἶναι πῶς ἀκούουσιν, ἔνδον ποιήσαντα ψόφον ὥσπερ κώδωνος. τῶν μὲν γὰρ ἔξω δι' ἐκεῖνον ἀκούομεν, ἐκείνου δὲ ψοφοῦντος διὰ τί; τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτὸ λείπεται ζητεῖν. ἀτόπως δὲ καὶ τὸ περὶ τὴν ὄσφρησιν εἴρηκεν. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ οὐ κοινὴν αἰτίαν ἀπέδωκεν· ἔνια μὲν γὰρ ὅλως οὐδ' ἀναπνέει τῶν ὀσφραινομένων. ἔπειτα τὸ μάλιστα ὀσφραίνεσθαι τοὺς πλεῖστον ἐπισπωμένους εὔηθες· οὐδὲν γὰρ ὄφελος μὴ ὑγιαινούσης ἢ μὴ ἀνεωιγμένης πως τῆς αἰσθήσεως. πολλοῖς δὲ συμβαίνει πεπηρῶσθαι καὶ ὅλως μηδὲν αἰσθάνεσθαι. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις οἱ δύσπνοοι καὶ οἱ πονοῦντες καὶ οἱ καθεύδοντες μᾶλλον ἂν αἰσθάνοιντο τῶν ὀσμῶν· τὸν πλεῖστον γὰρ ἕλκουσιν ἀέρα. νῦν δὲ συμβαίνει τοὐναντίον.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 213On the Senses 21
But as to hearing: when he makes it arise from sounds within, it is absurd to suppose that he has made clear how creatures hear, by putting a sound inside them as though from a bell. For it is by that bell that we hear things outside; but when the bell itself sounds, by what do we hear it? That is precisely the question still to be asked. What he has said about smell is absurd too. First, he has not given a cause that covers all cases, for some creatures that smell do not breathe at all. Then it is silly to say that those smell best who draw in the most breath: drawing breath is of no use if the sense is not healthy, or is not opened in some way. Many are maimed in it and perceive nothing at all. Besides, those short of breath, and those at hard labour, and those asleep would perceive odours better, for they draw in the most air. In fact the opposite happens.
The refutation, continued; one objection is drawn from botany.
Two objections of very different weight. The one about hearing is a genuine regress and is still recognisable as a live problem: explaining perception by an inner event only pushes the question back a step, and Theophrastus says so in one sentence. The one about fragrant plants is an appeal to the facts, and it is a good one — if smelling is losing substance, the most fragrant things should waste fastest, and they do not. The last remark of § 20 is the most interesting of all: under Love, where everything is drawn together and nothing flows off, there could be no perception. Theophrastus has noticed that Empedocles' physics of the cycle and his physics of the senses do not sit easily together.
Bearing on Volume I. Bears on B 27 and B 28, the Sphere under Love, where nothing moves and nothing flows.
2 συμβαίνει δέ Diels: συμβαίνειν in the manuscripts. — 4 φθείρειν in the manuscripts: corrected by Schneider. — 8 the sound made inside is Empedocles' own comparison; κώδωνας in the manuscripts, corrected by Sturz. — 9 ἐκεῖνον Schneider: ἐκεῖνα in the manuscripts. — 14 πεπληρῶσθαι in the manuscripts: corrected by Coray.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 20–21 (continued)
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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.