Feathers · Lexicon

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordB82 names the dense or close-set feathers of birds.
In EmpedoclesThe comparison identifies a material continuity across forms that look and behave differently.
In this edition“Plumage” is an idiomatic collective rendering of the plural feathers.
A place to readBird plumage is compared with hair, leaves, and scales.

Meaning

B82 names the dense or close-set feathers of birds. The word translated “plumage” is placed within a list of bodily coverings, alongside hair, leaves, and scales. Its local emphasis is on a covering’s formation, not an explicit explanation of flight.

Use in the book

The comparison identifies a material continuity across forms that look and behave differently. Bird plumage belongs to the same physical field as a plant’s foliage and an animal’s hair or scales. Within Empedocles' account, a limited set of constituents can yield many structured appearances. This is a stronger claim than a loose decorative resemblance, but it is not a modern evolutionary derivation of feathers from another tissue.

The adjective rendered “close” or “dense” adds texture. The feathers are not merely present; they form a packed covering on stout limbs. Density elsewhere can determine how bodies are built or how passages receive and exclude things. The fragment itself does not develop those possible connections into a precise recipe for feathers.

B20’s “wing-faring boats” gives birds an entirely different figural treatment, emphasizing movement through a medium. The two passages are complementary: one views the bird as a constructed surface and the other as a moving whole. Keeping the entries distinct prevents the vivid flight metaphor from replacing the more specific comparison of coverings.

Places to read

B 82Bird plumage is compared with hair, leaves, and scales.
B 20.6–7The phrase wing-faring boats characterizes birds by locomotion.

Translation in this edition

“Plumage” is an idiomatic collective rendering of the plural feathers. The article’s wing-related lookup label should not imply that B82 itself explains the mechanics of flying.