From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEispnoē is inward breathing.
- In this workAëtius twice explains inhalation through something inside the body giving way.
- In this editionThe important inward reading depends on an emendation of a transmitted outward term.
- A place to readExplains inhalation by heat withdrawing inward and permitting air's counter-entry.
Meaning
Eispnoē is inward breathing. Antepeisodos emphasizes an entry in return or counter-entry, matching the account's alternation of air and an internal material. The vocabulary describes a reciprocal sequence rather than an isolated act of taking air.
Use in the book
Aëtius twice explains inhalation through something inside the body giving way. In the earlier sequence, innate heat retreats inward and allows airy material its counter-entry. In the account of current breathing, returning blood leaves spaces into which air enters. These formulations are related but not simply identical: the moving internal agent changes between the descriptions. Both make inhalation dependent on displacement, not on a separately described voluntary act or the expansion of named lungs. The first entry of air after moisture withdraws is also distinguished from repeated inhalation. A lexical account therefore needs three moments: initial admission, recurrent intake linked to heat, and recurrent intake linked to blood. The summary does not settle their exact historical or physiological integration.
Places to read
- A 74 (testimony)Aëtius, innate-heat sequence. Explains inhalation by heat withdrawing inward and permitting air's counter-entry.
- A 74 (testimony)Aëtius, current-breathing sequence. Explains inhalation by blood returning and air entering the thinned spaces.
Translation in this edition
The important inward reading depends on an emendation of a transmitted outward term. A precise modern mechanical reconstruction should not ignore that repair, although the alternation of inward and outward breathing is clear in the report as edited.