From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordΠεριγραφή is an outline or circumscription; πέρας is a limit; περίδρομος is a circuit or course around.
- In this workAëtius at A50 says that the circuit of the sun is the outline of the cosmos’s limit.
- In this editionAn “outline” is not automatically a solid shell.
- A place to readMakes the solar circuit the outline of the world’s limit.
Meaning
Περιγραφή is an outline or circumscription; πέρας is a limit; περίδρομος is a circuit or course around. The words define a boundary through a moving celestial path rather than by naming a separate enclosing substance.
Use in the book
Aëtius at A50 says that the circuit of the sun is the outline of the cosmos’s limit. The statement belongs beside the egg-like world and the greater breadth than height, but the excerpt does not explain exactly how the solar path maps onto the whole three-dimensional boundary. It is therefore safer to preserve the reported relation than to infer a complete geometric construction.
The “sun” itself is differently described elsewhere: A56 distinguishes an archetypal fiery source from the apparent reflected sun. A50 does not identify which terminology is presupposed or explain the optical complications. Importing that two-sun account into the boundary sentence would require an argument, especially since A56 is acknowledged to be obscure.
The entry’s value is to identify a specific spatial function assigned to a celestial circuit. It neither proves that the cosmos exhausts the All nor resolves the place of inert matter reported at A47.
Places to read
- A 50 (testimony)Aëtius II 1,4. Makes the solar circuit the outline of the world’s limit.
- A 47 (testimony)Aëtius I 5,2 (D. 291). Offers a separate distinction between the limited cosmos and the larger All.
Translation in this edition
An “outline” is not automatically a solid shell. The crystalline heaven is a related but distinct report, and the source does not explicitly equate all three descriptions.