From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordGeneseis are generations, origins, or processes of coming-to-be.
- In this workA722 begins with incomplete, disjointed parts of animals and plants; it next describes forms arising as those parts join; the third generations are whole-natured; the fourth come through one another rather than directly from materials such as earth and water.
- In this editionThe edition calls the sequence strictly evolutionary and independently confirmed by a reader of the poem.
- A place to readSets out four numbered kinds of generation and then differences among animal kinds.
Meaning
Geneseis are generations, origins, or processes of coming-to-be. Aëtius orders them as first, second, third, and fourth. The numerical arrangement is the report's explicit organizing device; it does not itself establish a continuous chronology through an entire cosmic cycle.
Use in the book
A722 begins with incomplete, disjointed parts of animals and plants; it next describes forms arising as those parts join; the third generations are whole-natured; the fourth come through one another rather than directly from materials such as earth and water. The account thus distinguishes bodily assembly, whole-bodied emergence, and reproduction. Its place within an Empedoclean cosmic cycle remains a further interpretive problem. A list of successive kinds of generation need not be a single uninterrupted developmental story occurring once in one direction. Censorinus describes separate limbs issuing from a pregnant earth and joining into a human compound of fire and moisture. Varro compresses earthborn humanity into a garden-herb comparison. These Latin testimonies confirm circulation of the motif, but neither reproduces all four stages. Censorinus' praise of the poem is not sufficient evidence of independent direct consultation. The much-disputed later clauses about animal habitats add mixture-based differentiation, while A73 supplies a different account of fiery animals seeking moisture. A careful reading preserves both the ordered list and these limits on its reconstruction.
Places to read
- A 72 (testimony)2Aëtius. Sets out four numbered kinds of generation and then differences among animal kinds.
- A 72 (testimony)2Censorinus, On the Birthday. Describes earth producing limbs which combine into a human compound.
- A 72 (reception)2Varro, Eumenides. Compares earthborn men to a garden herb.
Translation in this edition
The edition calls the sequence strictly evolutionary and independently confirmed by a reader of the poem. Those claims outrun the excerpts. Several closing clauses are corrupt or conjecturally repaired; no modern evolutionary mechanism is established.
Source note
Varro's one-line comparison with a garden herb attests a compact Roman reception of earthborn humanity, but contains no fourfold division. It cannot independently certify the complete numbered scheme.