From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Cosmic conflagration
ἐκπύρωσις
ekpyrōsisEkpyrōsis denotes burning up.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEkpyrōsis denotes burning up.
- In StobaeusThe report about Heraclitus and Hippasus makes fire both the principle and the agent of the world’s dissolution.
- In this edition“Conflagration” marks the cosmic process; “scorching heat” preserves the local climatic use without importing a world-ending event.
- A place to beginThe world and bodies resolve into fire.
- English renderings
- conflagration; burning up
Meaning
Ekpyrōsis denotes burning up. In cosmological accounts it can name the world’s resolution into fire, but not every occurrence has that universal scope.
Use in the book
The report about Heraclitus and Hippasus makes fire both the principle and the agent of the world’s dissolution. The Stoic report allows surrounding void for this expansion; Posidonius limits its extent to what the dissolution requires. In the climatic account of an inclined world, however, the same noun means scorching heat that renders regions uninhabitable. The scale and subject determine the sense.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Conflagration” marks the cosmic process; “scorching heat” preserves the local climatic use without importing a world-ending event.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 126, 147, 160.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Conflagration
ἐκπύρωσιν (ekpyrōsin); εἰς πῦρ ἀναλυθήσεσθαι (eis pyr analythēsesthai)
Ἐκπύρωσις is burning out or conflagration, here explicitly the Stoic expectation to which Hippolytus compares the account he attributes to Empedocles.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordἘκπύρωσις is burning out or conflagration, here explicitly the Stoic expectation to which Hippolytus compares the account he attributes to Empedocles.
- In this workAt A31 Hippolytus says everything is composed from fire and will be dissolved into fire; he then says the Stoics very nearly agree, expecting conflagration.
- In this editionThe English omits the explicit expectation-of-conflagration phrase present in the Greek.
- A place to readAttributes return to fire, then explicitly compares Stoics awaiting conflagration.
Meaning
Ἐκπύρωσις is burning out or conflagration, here explicitly the Stoic expectation to which Hippolytus compares the account he attributes to Empedocles. The phrase about being resolved into fire occurs immediately before the comparison.
Use in the book
At A31 Hippolytus says everything is composed from fire and will be dissolved into fire; he then says the Stoics very nearly agree, expecting conflagration. This is a particularly clear case of interpretation through a later school’s doctrine. It does not establish that Empedocles used the word ekpyrosis or held the Stoic cycle in its own terms.
The report is also in tension with the persistence of four roots at A28. Rather than treating the two as parts of a settled single account, the reader should recognize Hippolytus’ assimilation and retain the conflict. Fire may have an important cosmological role without becoming the one substance into which earth, water and air cease to exist.
The entry additionally catches a translation omission. The printed English includes the comparison with Stoic opinion but does not render the Greek’s final reference to their expecting conflagration. That omission can make the assimilative vocabulary less visible than it is in the source.
Places to read
- A 31 (testimony)Hippolytus, Refutatio I 3 (D. 558), §1. Attributes return to fire, then explicitly compares Stoics awaiting conflagration.
- A 28 (testimony)Simplicius, Physics 25,21, from Theophrastus. Provides the contrasting four-root persistence account that limits use of the fire-only report.
Translation in this edition
The English omits the explicit expectation-of-conflagration phrase present in the Greek. The term’s local owner is the Stoic comparison, not an Empedoclean quotation.