From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEpigramma designates a short inscriptive or commemorative composition, but can also carry mockery.
- In this workThe Life introduces an epigram upon Pausanias before returning to the breathless woman.
- In this editionThe abbreviated citations refer to fuller fragments elsewhere in the edition, but the present entry does not silently reconstruct those poems.
- A place to readNames an epigram upon Pausanias but abbreviates its wording.
Meaning
Epigramma designates a short inscriptive or commemorative composition, but can also carry mockery. Elegeion is rendered an elegiac couplet in the Acron episode; tōthastikon explicitly marks a derisive epigram in the Suda’s medical notice.
Use in the book
The Life introduces an epigram upon Pausanias before returning to the breathless woman. Its actual text is represented only by beginning and ending cues, so the notice establishes attribution and subject more securely than recoverable content. The Acron anecdote instead asks what elegiac verse would be placed on the proposed family monument, then supplies an abbreviated, punning response built around “topmost” language and Acron’s name. A variant second line and an alternative attribution to Simonides follow. The Suda calls the Acron composition mocking. The genre thus spans honor and ridicule within the same biographical dossier. Neither attributed epigram can simply be treated as undisputed autobiography: one is drastically abbreviated here, the other has an explicit rival author. Their significance includes the public power of compact verse to grant distinction or puncture a claim to it.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 61–63 (biography)Diogenes Laertius VIII 61. Names an epigram upon Pausanias but abbreviates its wording.
- A 1 §§ 64–66 (biography)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 65. Connects the proposed inscription with equality, punning verse, a variant, and rival authorship.
- A 3 (testimony)The Suda, under “Acron”. Explicitly describes the Acron poem as mocking.
Translation in this edition
The abbreviated citations refer to fuller fragments elsewhere in the edition, but the present entry does not silently reconstruct those poems. The Simonides attribution and variant line are part of the evidence, not editorial inconveniences to suppress.