From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhygas is an exile or fugitive; alētēs a wanderer.
- In EmpedoclesB1152 gives exile both a temporal sentence and a physical itinerary.
- In this edition“Exile from god” retains the singular expression of B1152.
- A place to readThe sentence specifies wandering and changing paths of life; the final two lines identify the speaker as an exile.
Meaning
Phygas is an exile or fugitive; alētēs a wanderer. The phrase theothen locates the speaker's estrangement in relation to divinity, rendered “from god” here. The infinitive alalēsthai describes the wandering imposed by the decree. Together the expressions make displacement an enduring condition rather than a single departure.
Use in the book
B1152 gives exile both a temporal sentence and a physical itinerary. The offender must remain far from the blessed for thrice ten thousand seasons, growing into many mortal shapes. Upper air drives him into the sea; the sea spits him onto earth; earth casts him toward sunlight; the sun sends him into the aither's eddies. The agencies receive him from one another while all reject him. Thus passing somewhere new brings no settled refuge.
The closing confession changes the register from a general decree to personal testimony. The poet's “I” is presently among the wanderers because he trusted raving Strife. The surrounding fragments in this edition amplify loss through an unfamiliar place, a cave, and a remembered height of blessedness. These images may illuminate exile, but their editorial adjacency does not establish the continuous itinerary of an original poem. Nor can the sentence be securely converted into a historical duration in years: the text counts seasons.
Places to read
- B 115.6–14The sentence specifies wandering and changing paths of life; the final two lines identify the speaker as an exile.
- B 118Weeping accompanies sight of an unfamiliar place.
- B 119A broken exclamation recalls lost honour and blessedness.
Translation in this edition
“Exile from god” retains the singular expression of B1152. It need not identify a particular named god or establish departure from a spatially defined heaven. The quoted fragment supports estrangement more securely than a map of the other world.