From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPectus is breast or heart as a seat of inward capacity; divini qualifies it as divine.
- In this workLucretius says the songs from Empedocles’ divine breast proclaim his brilliant findings so powerfully that he seems scarcely born of human stock.
- In this editionThe edition’s statement that no Greek source is equally warm is a comparative editorial judgment, not a fact established by the selection.
- A place to readEnds the praise with divine inward capacity, poems, discoveries, and almost nonhuman birth.
Meaning
Pectus is breast or heart as a seat of inward capacity; divini qualifies it as divine. Carmina are songs or poems, and praeclara reperta are splendid discoveries. The phrase combines poetic production and intellectual discovery in a single image.
Use in the book
Lucretius says the songs from Empedocles’ divine breast proclaim his brilliant findings so powerfully that he seems scarcely born of human stock. This is the culminating praise after the Sicilian landscape. It does not affirm the biographical claim that Empedocles physically became an immortal god, nor is it a testimony about the anatomical location of thought in blood. The elevated language honors poetic and intellectual achievement while preparing for disagreement. The appendix continues the comparison through a shrine within the heart whose responses are more rationally certain than the Pythia’s, then announces failure over first principles. The movement shows that reverence for an earlier poet need not imply acceptance of his physical system. The lexical imagery belongs to Lucretius’ rhetorical economy and should not be appropriated as Empedocles’ own account of inspiration.
Places to read
- A 21 (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things. Ends the praise with divine inward capacity, poems, discoveries, and almost nonhuman birth.
- Appendix I Lucretius (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things I 734–741. Extends sacred inward imagery while introducing doctrinal failure.
Translation in this edition
The edition’s statement that no Greek source is equally warm is a comparative editorial judgment, not a fact established by the selection. The near-divinity language is encomium, and must remain distinct from the literalized death legends.