Bell and fleshy sprig

Use in the book

The bell provides a model for sound inside a bounded object. The witness describes corresponding echoes or ringing within the ear. The image’s explanatory emphasis is therefore acoustic behaviour rather than the outward silhouette of the whole head. It should not be read as a claim that the ear contains a literal metal bell.

The fleshy sprig points instead to the character of a bodily structure: it is organic, small or projecting in the imagery, and made of flesh. “Sprig” continues the poem’s crossings between botanical and anatomical vocabulary, comparable to human shoots and sprouting heads. Its precise anatomical referent is not named in the supplied material.

The juxtaposition is especially valuable for understanding Empedocles' explanatory style. A single sense may be clarified through more than one comparison, each capturing a different feature. Combining them into a modern labeled diagram would obscure the limits of what is preserved. The secure achievement is a pair of concrete models, transmitted through a later discussion, rather than a complete dissected ear.

Places to read

1. B 99 (report)The headword materials are the isolated bell and fleshy-sprig expressions.
2. B 99 (editorial discussion)The printed surrounding words of Theophrastus distinguish a bell comparison from the naming of the fleshy structure.
3. B 62Human shoots offer a separate use of plant-growth vocabulary for anatomy.

Translation in this edition

The source note prints both Theophrastus' comparison and his verb of naming. This distinction is more informative than treating every word under a B-number as equally secure verbatim verse.

Use in the book

Theophrastus describes the auditory apparatus as a bell for incoming sounds; Aëtius adds the concrete picture of a cartilaginous part hanging and swinging inside the ear. These reports make the analogy a mechanism of impact and resonance, not merely decorative language.

Its explanatory limits form the point of §21. Theophrastus grants an inner bell-like sound and asks how that sound is heard. Making the bell internal does not by itself distinguish its sound from any other sound requiring a hearer. This criticism preserves a useful division between producing a stimulus and accounting for sensation. The shorter Aëtius notice transmits the image without the objection; that difference in presentation does not demonstrate a direct line of borrowing from one surviving text to the other.

Places to read

1. A 86 § 9 (testimony)Theophrastus, On the Senses 9. Uses the bell comparison in the positive hearing report.
2. A 86 §§ 20–21 (polemical)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 21. Turns the comparison into a question about hearing the internal sound.
3. A 93 (testimony)Aëtius. Describes an internal structure swinging and being struck like a bell.

Translation in this edition

The phrase τῶν ἴσων ἤχων in §9 is marked unintelligible in the apparatus, which offers conjectures. The smooth English “sounds that come in” therefore represents an interpretive repair rather than a secure phrase.

Use in the book

The phrase occurs within the account of a bell-like auditory apparatus. It gives a bodily, growing image to what the reporter then describes mechanically: motion beats air against solid parts and produces sound. Aëtius's description of a cartilaginous suspended part provides a related report, but the surviving texts do not prove that “sprout” is an exact name for the same anatomical structure in both.

The source-critical value of this small expression is especially high. It is one of the places where the witness signals the poet's own naming rather than offering only a paraphrase. Yet even here the transmitted noun is not entirely beyond question. The editor records a suspicion that “mass” or “lump” might stand in place of “sprout.” A lexicon should preserve the printed phrase and its attribution while making the conjectural alternative visible.

Places to read

1. A 86 § 9 (quotation)Theophrastus, On the Senses 9. Introduces the expression as Empedocles’ own designation.
2. A 86 § 9 (apparatus)Apparatus to Theophrastus, On the Senses 9. Notes Diels’s suspicion of σάρκινον ὄγκον in place of the printed phrase.
3. A 93 (testimony)Aëtius. Provides a related but differently worded account of the internal auditory structure.

Translation in this edition

The edition identifies the phrase with B99 in the companion volume. Here its secure location is the explicit naming report in A86 §9; its textual uncertainty should travel with that citation.