From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordKotos is wrath or enduring resentment.
- In EmpedoclesB212 says that in Wrath things are different in form and apart, whereas in Love they come together and desire one another.
- In this editionThe translation preserves “Wrath” in both places rather than silently substituting “Strife.”
- A place to readWrath makes things separate and unlike, in direct contrast with Love.
Meaning
Kotos is wrath or enduring resentment. It occurs both as a named inhabitant of a grim region and as a power under whose influence things are separate. Its emotional vocabulary is part of the poem's physical language, not a reason to restrict it to a human psychological episode.
Use in the book
B212 says that in Wrath things are different in form and apart, whereas in Love they come together and desire one another. Within that explicit contrast, Wrath performs the separating role associated elsewhere with Strife. The expression nevertheless deserves its own lexical notice because Empedocles has chosen a different word and a different emotional emphasis.
B121 gives Kotos a place beside Murder and the tribes of other Dooms. That company underlines the destructive and afflictive character of wrath. It does not provide a separate biography of the personification. The two uses may illuminate one another, but the catalogue should not be converted into a catalogue of additional eternal substances beside the roots and Love and Strife. The text's use of named affects is more flexible than such an expanded inventory would suggest.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The translation preserves “Wrath” in both places rather than silently substituting “Strife.” This retains the lexical variation while allowing the physical function in B212 to be compared with Neikos.