From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordBous is an ox, here an ox-shaped manufactured offering.
- In this workFavorinus’ account, transmitted by Diogenes, says Empedocles sacrificed the honey-and-meal ox to sacred envoys.
- In this editionThe edition says the discrepancy proves or suggests antiquity of the underlying story; it is better treated as evidence of variation.
- A place to readSpecifies honey, barley-meal, and sacred envoys.
Meaning
Bous is an ox, here an ox-shaped manufactured offering. One version gives honey and barley-meal as its materials, the other myrrh and frankincense with costly aromatics. “Bloodless” is an analytical description of the substitution, not a quoted technical adjective in these notices.
Use in the book
Favorinus’ account, transmitted by Diogenes, says Empedocles sacrificed the honey-and-meal ox to sacred envoys. Athenaeus attaches an aromatic ox to an Olympic equestrian victory and explicitly explains it by Pythagorean abstinence from living things. These stories preserve the social form of an offering and distribution while replacing the slaughtered animal with a crafted likeness. Their interest lies in negotiating ethical restraint within a public ritual setting. The different materials should not be combined into one recipe: one produces an edible confection, the other an aromatic construction, at least as the text describes them. The Olympic context also carries the family-homonym problem, since the victory may have been transferred from another Empedocles. Variation may indicate a circulating narrative, but does not establish its original date or prove that either version records an observed event.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 53–55 (biography)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 53, reporting Favorinus, Memoirs. Specifies honey, barley-meal, and sacred envoys.
- A 11–A 12 (biography)Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters. Specifies aromatics, festival distribution, and abstinence as the rationale.
Translation in this edition
The edition says the discrepancy proves or suggests antiquity of the underlying story; it is better treated as evidence of variation. Athenaeus’ equestrian attribution is explicitly questioned in the apparatus.
Source note
The two notices are about substituting the sacrificial object while maintaining a public giving practice. They do not preserve a general set of ritual instructions.