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 85 of 126
Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies · A 72
Ancient Greek and Latin
p. 160Aëtius
Ἐ. τὰς πρώτας γενέσεις τῶν ζώιων καὶ φυτῶν μηδαμῶς ὁλοκλήρους γενέσθαι, ἀσυμφυέσι δὲ τοῖς μορίοις διεζευγμένας, τὰς δὲ δευτέρας συμφυομένων τῶν μερῶν εἰδωλοφανεῖς, τὰς δὲ τρίτας τῶν ὁλοφυῶν, τὰς δὲ τετάρτας οὐκέτι ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων οἷον ἐκ γῆς καὶ ὕδατος, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀλλήλων ἤδη, τοῖς μὲν πυκνωθείσης τῆς τροφῆς, τοῖς δὲ καὶ τῆς εὐμορφίας τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπερεθισμὸν τοῦ σπερματικοῦ κινήματος ἐμποιησάσης· τῶν δὲ ζώιων πάντων τὰ γένη διακριθῆναι διὰ τὰς ποιὰς κράσεις· τὰ μὲν οἰκειοτέραν εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ τὴν ὁρμὴν ἔχειν, τὰ δὲ εἰς ἀέρα ἀναπτῆναι, ὅσ' ἂν πυρῶδες ἔχηι τὸ πλέον, τὰ δὲ βαρύτερα ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, τὰ δὲ ἰσόμοιρα τῆι κράσει πᾶσι τοῖς θώραξι πεφωνηκέναι.
Censorinus, On the Birthday
E. autem egregio suo carmine … tale quiddam confirmat. primo membra singula ex terra quasi praegnate passim edita, deinde coisse et effecisse solidi hominis materiam igni simul et umori permixtam.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II: Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies
p. 161The four generations of living things
Aëtius
Empedocles: the first generations of animals and plants were in no way complete, but were disjointed, their parts not grown together; the second, as the parts grew together, were phantom-like; the third were of the whole-natured kinds; the fourth came no longer out of the like stuffs, such as earth and water, but now through one another — in some cases because the nourishment had been condensed, in others because the beauty of women had produced an excitement of the seminal motion. The kinds of all animals were distinguished by their particular mixtures: some had the impulse more at home in water; others, those with the larger share of fire, flew up into the air; the heavier went to the earth; and those of balanced mixture were in accord with every region.
Censorinus, On the Birthday
Empedocles, in that excellent poem of his, maintains something of this kind: first, single limbs were put forth here and there out of the earth as though it were pregnant; then they came together and made up the material of a solid man, mingled at once of fire and of moisture.
Socrates
Reading Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · Light, Sea, Plants and Bodies · A 72
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.