From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEpipōmatizein is to cap or cover as with a lid.
- In this workThe magnetic explanation depends on removal of this obstruction.
- In this editionThe phrase “like a lid” renders the force of the Greek verb.
- A place to readMakes the stone’s emissions displace air that caps iron’s passages.
Meaning
Epipōmatizein is to cap or cover as with a lid. The participle describes air lying over the iron's pores and holding back its effluences. The lid is a comparison embodied in a verb, not a separately manufactured structure inside the metal.
Use in the book
The magnetic explanation depends on removal of this obstruction. Effluences from the stone push away and move the capping air; the cleared pores then permit a massed outflow from iron, which follows that outflow toward the stone. The air therefore provides the proposed switch between the iron's initial state and its subsequent movement.
Alexander challenges the selectivity of the switch. Why can only the stone's emissions move this air? The theory uses common physical processes of displacement and fitting, yet requires a distinctive interaction at this step. Without explaining that distinction, it has named the event needed for magnetic movement rather than fully explained why the event occurs specifically here. The entry preserves a small but decisive mechanical term which would disappear if the entire notice were summarized only as effluence plus pores.
Places to read
- A 89 (testimony)2Alexander of Aphrodisias, Questions, first excerpt. Makes the stone’s emissions displace air that caps iron’s passages.
- A 89 (polemical)2Alexander of Aphrodisias, Questions, second excerpt. Asks why only emissions from the stone can remove this obstruction.
Translation in this edition
The phrase “like a lid” renders the force of the Greek verb. It should not become a literal plate, membrane, valve, or other anatomical-style apparatus unsupported by the text.