From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe phrase explicitly names the first breath of the first living thing.
- In this workThe initial entry of air is explained through a prior withdrawal of moisture from newborn creatures.
- In this edition“Space so left empty” translates a local evacuation in the narrated process.
- A place to readDescribes the first breath through moisture withdrawing and external air entering opened vessels.
Meaning
The phrase explicitly names the first breath of the first living thing. Apochōrēsis is a withdrawal or departure; here it is moisture that withdraws. The formulation places an initiating event before the repeated movement of respiration.
Use in the book
The initial entry of air is explained through a prior withdrawal of moisture from newborn creatures. External airy material enters the space thereby vacated through vessels opened to it. The singular first living thing and the plural newborn creatures coexist in the summary, so it is unwise to turn the notice into a narrowly specified birth scene. The distinction from “breathing now” also suggests a cosmogonic or primordial context, not merely the first breath of every modern infant. After this initial displacement, innate heat drives an alternating outward and inward movement. The report therefore differentiates the occasion that starts breathing from the mechanism that continues it. It does not explain where the departing moisture goes or whether every relevant bodily passage opens simultaneously.
Places to read
- A 74 (testimony)Aëtius, opening sequence. Describes the first breath through moisture withdrawing and external air entering opened vessels.
- A 74 (testimony)Aëtius, later sequence. Contrasts this first-breath account with present breathing through movements of blood.
Translation in this edition
“Space so left empty” translates a local evacuation in the narrated process. It should not alone establish an independently existing void, especially in a tradition that elsewhere denies void.