From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Appointed turns
ἐν δὲ μέρει κρατέουσι (en de merei krateousi); ἐν μέρει αἴσης (en merei aisēs); ἀμοιβαῖος (amoibaios)
The phrase “in turn” is built from meros, a part or share; B 26 also invokes aisē, an allotted portion.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe phrase “in turn” is built from meros, a part or share; B 26 also invokes aisē, an allotted portion.
- In EmpedoclesB 172 states that the sources have distinct offices and prevail by turns as time comes round.
- In this edition“Turn appointed” renders a phrase of share or allotment in B 26.
- A place to readDistinct offices and characters coexist with successive predominance.
Meaning
The phrase “in turn” is built from meros, a part or share; B 26 also invokes aisē, an allotted portion. B 30 calls the time amoibaios, alternating or reciprocal. These words give change an order of succession rather than portraying cosmic dominance as an unrestricted victory once and for all.
Use in the book
B 172 states that the sources have distinct offices and prevail by turns as time comes round. B 26 closely repeats the claim but makes the cycle explicit and describes waning into one another and renewed growth in the allotted turn. The vocabulary of shares connects duration and predominance: a constituent or power has its scope without being the sole explanation of all things permanently.
B 30 intensifies the relation through the broad oath. Strife rises to honours when its time is fulfilled. The text does not name an external legislator here or set out a list of numerical phase lengths. What it supplies is the assurance that a change of dominance occurs within an established alternating order.
The short B 16 supports the endurance of the two powers, as understood from the quoting context. Together these passages make it unsafe to equate a period of dominant Love with the irreversible abolition of Strife. The opposed power may be excluded from a particular condition or region without ceasing to belong to the account as a whole.
Places to read
- B 17.27–29Distinct offices and characters coexist with successive predominance.
- B 26.1–2The cycle and allotted turn govern waning and renewed increase.
- B 30An alternating time established by oath governs the rise of Strife.
- B 16The quoted assurance of enduring duration is conventionally applied to both powers.
Translation in this edition
“Turn appointed” renders a phrase of share or allotment in B 26. It does not add the precise schedule reported from later materials in the introduction. The oath in B 30 should also not be automatically identified word for word with the decree in B 1152.
Source note
The alternation has an ethical and political resonance through office, honour, and oath, but the fragments do not prescribe a corresponding constitution for a human city.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Alternation
ἐν μέρει (en merei); παρὰ μέρος (para meros); ἐναλλὰξ (enallax); ἀντεπικράτειαν (antepikrateian)
The expressions mean by turns, alternately, and counter-prevailing or reciprocal predominance.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe expressions mean by turns, alternately, and counter-prevailing or reciprocal predominance.
- In this workPlato’s A29 makes turn-taking the feature that distinguishes the gentler Sicilian Muse from the more strenuous Ionian one: the All does not remain one-and-many in the same way always, but is friendly and unified at one time, hostile and multiple at another.
- In this editionNo numerical duration is supplied by these passages.
- A place to readCharacterizes the Sicilian position by the All’s unity and plurality at different turns.
Meaning
The expressions mean by turns, alternately, and counter-prevailing or reciprocal predominance. They describe a changing distribution of rule between the powers. They do not themselves specify equal duration, absolute exclusion of one power, or a calendar of the whole process.
Use in the book
Plato’s A29 makes turn-taking the feature that distinguishes the gentler Sicilian Muse from the more strenuous Ionian one: the All does not remain one-and-many in the same way always, but is friendly and unified at one time, hostile and multiple at another. Aristotle’s A38 similarly links prevailing and motion by turns, with rest in the intervening time, but he phrases the statement as an inference.
Aëtius at A52 speaks of the cosmos perishing according to the counter-prevailing of Love and Strife. Simplicius elaborates by assigning gathering and the production of Sphairos to Love, renewed separation and world-formation to Strife. These reports establish alternation as more than an ornamental opposition of names. Yet the specific sense of “between,” the degree of each power’s predominance, and the number of cosmogonies remain matters of interpretation.
The word is thus a precision tool: alternation is better supported than every symmetrical diagram that might be drawn from it.
Places to read
- A 29 (testimony)Plato, Sophist 242c-d. Characterizes the Sicilian position by the All’s unity and plurality at different turns.
- A 38 (polemical)Aristotle, Physics Θ 1, 252a7. Infers successive predominance and motion with intervening rest.
- A 52 (testimony)Aëtius II 4,8; Simplicius, De caelo 293,18. Connects reciprocal predominance with the perishing and renewal of worlds.
Translation in this edition
No numerical duration is supplied by these passages. “By turns” does not alone establish equal periods or completely symmetrical cosmic histories.