From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordΦθορά is perishing or destruction; φθαρτός and ἄφθαρτος distinguish perishable and imperishable.
- In this workA44 says that Empedocles’ account substitutes separation for destruction strictly understood.
- In this editionThe distinction between constituent and compound is essential.
- A place to readReplaces destruction properly so called with separation of constituents.
Meaning
Φθορά is perishing or destruction; φθαρτός and ἄφθαρτος distinguish perishable and imperishable. Here the object matters: a world-order can perish while its constituents continue. “Destruction” need not mean the absolute disappearance of all being.
Use in the book
A44 says that Empedocles’ account substitutes separation for destruction strictly understood. Aristotle at A52 states the complementary point sharply: all things are perishable except the elements. The persistence of the four is thus consistent, in the reports, with the loss of a compound’s particular organization.
Aëtius attributes the cosmos’s destruction to the counter-prevailing of Love and Strife. Simplicius specifies Love drawing everything into one and destroying the cosmos of Strife while making the Sphairos. This blocks a simplistic assignment of destruction exclusively to Strife. Love can undo the differentiated world even as it unifies its constituents.
The A32 English sentence about the Sphairos being resolved into the elements must not be used as independent support for a destruction sequence: its supplemented Greek has the reverse direction, all these resolving into the Sphairos. The cycle’s general evidence remains substantial, but its particular transitions must be reconstructed from correctly distinguished passages.
Places to read
- A 44 (testimony)Aëtius I 24,2 (D. 320). Replaces destruction properly so called with separation of constituents.
- A 52 (testimony)Aëtius II 4,8; Aristotle, Metaphysics B 4. Reports cosmic destruction under alternating powers and exempts only elements from perishability.
- A 52 (testimony)Simplicius, De caelo 293,18. Makes Love destroy the cosmos of Strife in the process of producing the Sphairos.
Translation in this edition
The distinction between constituent and compound is essential. The English mistranslation at A32 reverses a transition and should not be harmonized away without notice.