From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe comparison is literally to an egg: the cosmos lies in a manner resembling one.
- In this workAëtius at A50 says the heaven extends farther sideways than the distance upward from earth, explaining this by the egg-like disposition of the cosmos.
- In this editionThe image concerns the cosmos, not an egg-shaped earth or a creation myth in which the world hatches.
- A place to readExplains the world’s greater lateral extent by comparison with an egg, then gives the solar circuit as its limit.
Meaning
The comparison is literally to an egg: the cosmos lies in a manner resembling one. The surrounding words contrast breadth with height. The report offers an analogy of shape rather than a full geometrical specification.
Use in the book
Aëtius at A50 says the heaven extends farther sideways than the distance upward from earth, explaining this by the egg-like disposition of the cosmos. The text thus gives a relative dimension as well as an image. It does not state all axes or provide enough information for an exact modern ellipsoid diagram.
The notice is especially important beside the spherical Sphairos. The two descriptions need not refer to one object in one condition: the Sphairos belongs to the account of complete unification under Love, whereas the egg comparison concerns a differentiated world with earth and heaven. Yet that possible distinction should not be presented as a proven solution to every difficulty in the geometry. No fragment quoted here describes the egg-shaped cosmos.
The neighboring statement that the sun’s circuit outlines the cosmic boundary supplies another spatial claim, not an automatic blueprint connecting each dimension. The lexicon keeps the comparison concrete while declining to invent the missing geometry.
Places to read
- A 50 (testimony)Aëtius II 31,4 and II 1,4. Explains the world’s greater lateral extent by comparison with an egg, then gives the solar circuit as its limit.
Translation in this edition
The image concerns the cosmos, not an egg-shaped earth or a creation myth in which the world hatches. Those further meanings are not present in this testimony.