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 112 of 126
Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 22–23
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 214On the Senses 22
οὐ γὰρ ἴσως καθ' αὑτὸ τὸ ἀναπνεῖν αἴτιον τῆς ὀσφρήσεως, ἀλλὰ κατὰ συμβεβηκός, ὡς ἔκ τε τῶν ἄλλων ζώιων μαρτυρεῖται καὶ διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων παθῶν· ὁ δ' ὡς ταύτης οὔσης τῆς αἰτίας καὶ ἐπὶ τέλει πάλιν εἴρηκεν ὥσπερ ἐπισημαινόμενος ὧδε … ὀσμῶν. οὐκ ἀληθὲς ⟨δὲ⟩ οὐδὲ τὸ μάλιστα ὀσφραίνεσθαι τῶν κούφων, ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ ὀσμὴν ἐνυπάρχειν. ὁ γὰρ ἀὴρ καὶ τὸ πῦρ κουφότατα μέν, οὐ ποιοῦσι δὲ αἴσθησιν ὀσμῆς.
On the Senses 23
ὡσαύτως δ' ἄν τις καὶ περὶ τὴν φρόνησιν ἀπορήσειεν, εἰ γὰρ τῶν αὐτῶν ποιεῖ καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν. καὶ γὰρ ἅπαντα μεθέξει τοῦ φρονεῖν. καὶ ἅμα πῶς ἐνδέχεται καὶ ἐν ἀλλοιώσει καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὁμοίου γίνεσθαι τὸ φρονεῖν; τὸ γὰρ ὅμοιον οὐκ ἀλλοιοῦται τῶι ὁμοίωι. τὸ δὲ δὴ τῶι αἵματι φρονεῖν καὶ παντελῶς ἄτοπον· πολλὰ γὰρ τῶν ζώιων ἄναιμα. τῶν δὲ ἐναίμων τὰ περὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἀναιμότατα τῶν μερῶν. ἔτι καὶ ὀστοῦν καὶ θρὶξ αἰσθάνοιτ' ἄν, ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐξ ἁπάντων ἐστὶ τῶν στοιχείων. καὶ συμβαίνει ταὐτὸν εἶναι τὸ φρονεῖν καὶ αἰσθάνεσθαι καὶ ἥδεσθαι καὶ ⟨τὸ⟩ λυπεῖσθαι καὶ ἀγνοεῖν· ἄμφω γὰρ ποιεῖ τοῖς ἀνομοίοις. ὥσθ' ἅμα τῶι μὲν ἀγνοεῖν ἔδει γίνεσθαι λύπην, τῶι δὲ φρονεῖν ἡδονήν.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Perception and Thought
p. 215Breathing is not the cause of smell; and the trouble with thinking by blood
On the Senses 22
For breathing is presumably not the cause of smelling in itself but incidentally, as is attested both by the other animals and by the conditions just mentioned. But he, taking this to be the cause, has said it over again at the end, as though setting his seal on it: "thus … of odours." Nor is it true that the lightest things are the most smelled; an odour must also be present in them. For air and fire are the lightest of all, and yet produce no perception of odour.
On the Senses 23
In the same way one might raise difficulties about thought, if he produces it and perception from the same things. For then everything will share in thinking. And at the same time, how can thinking come about both in an alteration and by the like? For the like is not altered by the like. And that we think with blood is altogether absurd: many animals are bloodless, and in those that have blood the parts about the sense-organs have least of it. Further, bone and hair would perceive, since they too are made of all the elements. And it follows that thinking and perceiving and taking pleasure and being pained and being ignorant are all one; for he produces both by unlikes, so that ignorance would have to be attended by pain, and thinking by pleasure.
The refutation, continued.
The objection that bone and hair would perceive is a fair one, and it follows from A 78: if everything is a ratio of the four roots, and perception is what the roots do when they meet their likes, then there is nothing to stop a hair from thinking. Theophrastus has put together two doctrines from different parts of the poem and drawn out what neither says on its own. Note also the small observational point tucked into the middle — that in blooded animals the sense organs are the parts with least blood in them.
Bearing on Volume I. Bears on B 105, where thought is the blood about the heart.
20 ⟨δέ⟩ Schneider. — 23 εἰ γάρ] compare ἐπεὶ οὖν at line 28. — 27 ἐναίμων Schneider: ἀναίμων in the manuscripts. — 29 ταὐτόν Stephanus: τοῦτο in the manuscripts. — 30 ⟨τό⟩ Schneider; the second τό deleted by Wimmer. The quotation is fragment B 102.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Perception and Thought · A 86 §§ 22–23
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.