From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordTechnēs is an inflected form of technē, craft or trained skill.
- In EmpedoclesThe painter simile states the value of trained craft explicitly: its makers are taught through mētis and proportion their materials.
- In this editionThe introduction warns that Harmonia's language is fitting and joinery rather than necessarily musical harmony.
- A place to readPainters exhibit trained craft and proportionate handling.
Meaning
Technēs is an inflected form of technē, craft or trained skill. Palamēisin refers to palms or hands in the work of Cypris. Synarmosthent’ describes things fitted together. These words belong to a broad productive vocabulary rather than a single modern theory of design.
Use in the book
The painter simile states the value of trained craft explicitly: its makers are taught through mētis and proportion their materials. Elsewhere the language of making is transferred to Aphrodite or Cypris. Forms are assembled, moist earth is worked and hardened by fire, and constituents meet within divine palms. Eyes are fastened with rivets of affection and bone is secured through Harmony's gluings. These images emphasize effective connections between materials, proportions, and resulting structures.
It would be misleading to treat the craft language as a separate decorative covering laid over an otherwise nonfigurative physical theory. The verbs of binding, fitting, hardening, and shaping are part of how the explanation is made intelligible. Conversely, they do not authorize an unrestricted inference to an external craftsman acting upon a universe from outside. The named divine powers are themselves involved in the described processes.
The human analogue is especially useful for readers: one can see how glue, a rivet, a mixture, or fired damp earth produces a result without assuming that every case uses the same mechanism. The individual comparisons therefore retain their distinctiveness. Coagulating milk is not chemically equated with painting; a joint is not identical to a divine power. Each supplies a familiar way of thinking about how otherwise separate materials can hold a form.
B 32's use of palamē for a faculty of observation creates an additional link between making and knowing. The same bodily vocabulary can describe the artisan's handling and the learner's grasp. The poem repeatedly makes its reader move between these senses, instead of choosing once for all between an entirely physical and an entirely mental idiom.
Places to read
- B 23.1–5Painters exhibit trained craft and proportionate handling.
- B 71.1–42Mortal forms and colours are described as fitted by Aphrodite.
- B 73Cypris works moistened earth into forms and gives it to fire to harden.
- B 87The anatomical making is expressed through rivets of affection.
- B 96Bone arises in crucibles and is fitted through Harmony’s gluings.
Translation in this edition
The introduction warns that Harmonia's language is fitting and joinery rather than necessarily musical harmony. The divine name and each particular craft image are treated in their own entries. This overarching article does not replace those local explanations.