Character and office · Lexicon

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordĒthos is rendered “character,” while timē is “office” in B 172 and “honours” in other settings.
In EmpedoclesB 172 places this differentiation immediately after equality and equal age.
In this editionRendering timē as “office” in B 172 makes its functional sense clear but obscures its verbal link with divine and human “honours” elsewhere.
A place to readEquality is accompanied by a different office and character for each.

Meaning

Ēthos is rendered “character,” while timē is “office” in B 172 and “honours” in other settings. The verb medei describes having charge or governance. Together these words make each enduring source more than a quantity: it has a distinctive way of being and a domain or share of activity.

Use in the book

B 172 places this differentiation immediately after equality and equal age. That sequence is the central point. A plural account of the world does not require one constituent to be ontologically older or more real than another, but it does require distinct effects and capacities. The warm sun, cold rain, and solid things from earth in B 212 illustrate how such differentiation can become perceptible.

Office also has a temporal dimension. The sources prevail in turn as time comes round, and B 30 makes Strife rise to its honours at the appointed fulfilment. Office is therefore not simply a fixed location allotted once for all. Its exercise belongs to the cycle's changing predominance.

B 110 brings ēthos into the account of what the listener cultivates in thought: the things under discussion grow into their own character according to each one's physis and may depart towards their own kind. The wording is deliberately continuous with the physical account. It does not require choosing between a wholly literal cargo of objects in the mind and a wholly detached metaphor. It does show that characteristic tendency remains meaningful in an account built from common constituents.

Places to read

B 17.27–29Equality is accompanied by a different office and character for each.
B 21.3–8Contrasting visible qualities provide evidence for differentiated sources.
B 30Strife rises to its honours when its time is fulfilled.
B 110.4–9Things develop into their own character according to each one's nature.

Translation in this edition

Rendering timē as “office” in B 172 makes its functional sense clear but obscures its verbal link with divine and human “honours” elsewhere. The lexicon restores that link without treating every social honour as a technical phase in the cosmic cycle.

Source note

The vocabulary combines rank, function, and disposition. No one modern category of physical property captures all three.