From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEmpsychos literally describes what has soul or life; apechomenos means abstaining.
- In this workAthenaeus ties the practice to Empedocles’ Pythagorean identity and says he molded an ox of costly aromatics for festival distribution.
- In this edition“Vegetarianism” is a useful modern lookup label but broader dietary rules are not detailed here.
- A place to readMakes Pythagorean abstinence the explicit reason for the aromatic ox.
Meaning
Empsychos literally describes what has soul or life; apechomenos means abstaining. The expression in Athenaeus marks avoidance of living creatures as the explanation for a substituted ox offering.
Use in the book
Athenaeus ties the practice to Empedocles’ Pythagorean identity and says he molded an ox of costly aromatics for festival distribution. The immediate context is ritual killing and a replacement offering. It supports an animal-abstention tradition, but does not specify a complete diet, the handling of every animal product, or all permitted ritual acts. The Life’s separate wind story orders asses to be flayed, a detail that complicates attempts to harmonize the entire biography under a single rigorously applied ethical code. That tension may reflect divergent narrative purposes rather than the historical author’s inconsistency. Diogenes’ doctrinal summary that the soul puts on animal and plant forms gives a related background, but the bloodless-sacrifice notice does not itself explain abstention by a full argument about transmigration.
Places to read
- A 11–A 12 (biography)Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters. Makes Pythagorean abstinence the explicit reason for the aromatic ox.
- A 1 §§ 59–60 (biography)Diogenes Laertius VIII 60, reporting Timaeus. Supplies the contrasting report of flaying asses.
- A 1 §§ 76–77 (testimony)Diogenes Laertius VIII 77. Reports successive animal and plant embodiments as separate doctrinal evidence.
Translation in this edition
“Vegetarianism” is a useful modern lookup label but broader dietary rules are not detailed here. The edition’s phrase “all killing was murder” is an interpretive summary, not the exact content of this brief Athenaeus notice.