Everlasting leaves and fruit · Lexicon

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe paired compounds in B77.78 describe steadfast leaves and steadfast fruit.
In EmpedoclesThe couplet depicts flourishing growth marked by abundance rather than by bare survival.
In this editionThe initial words meaning “and trees” are supplemented in angle brackets.
A place to readThe full couplet describes enduring foliage and fruit with abundance throughout the year.

Meaning

The paired compounds in B77.78 describe steadfast leaves and steadfast fruit. “Everlasting” in the headword is a convenient lookup label for enduring presence; the verse’s explicit temporal measure is the whole year, not an abstract claim of eternity.

Use in the book

The couplet depicts flourishing growth marked by abundance rather than by bare survival. Leaves and fruits remain, and fruits fill the air throughout the year. The parallel compounds bind vegetative covering and reproductive production into one sustained condition. A tree that merely kept its leaves would be a narrower image than the one printed here.

This matters when the fragment is placed beside B80’s late-born pomegranates and sap-filled apples. The source is interested in differences of timing and fullness among plant products, but it does not preserve the connecting argument between these passages. One should not assume that the year-round trees are the pomegranates and apples or that their different temporal descriptions can be reconciled by an invented climate.

The editorial location under the Purifications may encourage a reading of idealized abundance. That possibility remains distinct from a demonstrated original setting. The quoted lines themselves name no age of Cypris, no paradise, and no moral qualification for access to the fruit. Their secure content is a vividly continuous flourishing.

Places to read

B 77.78The full couplet describes enduring foliage and fruit with abundance throughout the year.
B 80Another botanical verse singles out fruit timing and sap, without supplying a continuous context.

Translation in this edition

The initial words meaning “and trees” are supplemented in angle brackets. The B77.78 label is the edition’s combined heading and should be retained in references; it does not mean that two independently complete botanical poems survive.