Apples · Lexicon · Diotimos

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe edition renders the μῆλα of B80 as apples and their adjective as “full of sap.”
In EmpedoclesThe surviving line begins with a conclusion marker, so the apples' condition once answered to an explanation given earlier.
In this editionThe fruit identification and the phrase “full of sap” follow this edition’s choices.
A place to readApples are characterized as full of sap in the same verse as late-born pomegranates.

Meaning

The edition renders the μῆλα of B80 as apples and their adjective as “full of sap.” They accompany late-born pomegranates. The phrase directs attention toward a fruit’s bodily fullness, not merely its colour or outward shape.

Use in the book

The surviving line begins with a conclusion marker, so the apples' condition once answered to an explanation given earlier. That causal context is missing. It would be unwarranted to supply a precise theory of excess water, bark thickness, ripeness, or sweetness solely from the translated adjective.

The fruit is nevertheless a meaningful physical example. Empedocles can characterize plant products by an internal quality just as he characterizes animal tissue by density, moisture, or mixture. The apple’s fullness and the pomegranate’s timing are different observations placed side by side, suggesting a range of features to be explained rather than one generic category of fruitfulness.

Wine, described as water transformed within wood, offers another botanical passage in which internal fluid is central. The comparison helps a reader see the poet’s attention to plant materials; it does not establish that the sap-filled apple and wine result from an identical process. The entry therefore preserves the tangible quality stated in B80 while leaving its lost explanation unfilled.

Places to read

B 80Apples are characterized as full of sap in the same verse as late-born pomegranates.
B 81The account of wine gives a distinct example of fluid transformed within plant material.

Translation in this edition

The fruit identification and the phrase “full of sap” follow this edition’s choices. The bare verse does not warrant a precise modern cultivar, a chemical analysis, or a practical claim about ripeness.