From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAmphibola are ambiguous expressions; phenakizei means deceives or cheats.
- In this workAristotle uses Empedocles as an example of poetic language that can carry listeners along without making its meaning clear.
- In this edition“A long circuit of words” is the edition’s explanatory translation rather than a quoted technical genre-name.
- A place to readCompares prolonged poetic speech with ambiguous divination and compliant listeners.
Meaning
Amphibola are ambiguous expressions; phenakizei means deceives or cheats. The phrase about what is extensive “in a circuit” describes roundabout verbal elaboration. These are Aristotle’s evaluative terms for a rhetorical effect.
Use in the book
Aristotle uses Empedocles as an example of poetic language that can carry listeners along without making its meaning clear. The comparison is with people who assent to soothsayers’ ambiguous statements: apparent recognition may be supplied by the hearer rather than secured by precise explanation. This is a criticism of how verbal performance produces assent, distinct from the Meteorology’s complaint that metaphor fails to identify nature adequately. The two arguments converge on a demand for clarity but should not be reduced to a claim that the poetry is simply unintelligible or artistically unsuccessful. Conversely, the edition’s positive reinterpretation as a complaint about power does not cancel Aristotle’s accusation of deception. The passage exposes the vulnerability of authoritative, elevated discourse to a critic who wants its meaning to be accountable.
Places to read
- A 24–A 25 (polemical)2Aristotle, Rhetoric. Compares prolonged poetic speech with ambiguous divination and compliant listeners.
- A 24–A 25 (polemical)2Aristotle, Meteorology. Provides the adjacent but different objection that metaphor is insufficient for physical knowledge.
Translation in this edition
“A long circuit of words” is the edition’s explanatory translation rather than a quoted technical genre-name. The charge concerns an effect attributed by Aristotle, not an admission by Empedocles that he intended to mislead.