From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDekamēnos and heptamēnos express ten-month and seven-month periods.
- In this workA75 links the viability of ten-month and seven-month children to earlier cosmic days.
- In this editionA75's final words depend on Diels' correction and deletion, with a different conjecture by Casaubon also recorded.
- A place to readRelates ten-month and seven-month children to earlier lengths of the day.
Meaning
Dekamēnos and heptamēnos express ten-month and seven-month periods. Censorinus' septimo mense means in the seventh month. The months belong to ancient accounts of pregnancy and should not be silently converted into a modern clinical dating convention.
Use in the book
A75 links the viability of ten-month and seven-month children to earlier cosmic days. When humans first arose from earth, the sun supposedly travelled so slowly that a day equalled a present ten-month term; later it equalled seven months. The concluding assertion about growth in a single day is textually difficult. A83 separately includes Empedocles among many who allowed birth in the seventh month. That corroborates the circulation of a seven-month birth claim, but not the complete cosmic-day explanation. Neither notice is advice about contemporary neonatal viability. The ancient categories and corrupted wording do not supply modern gestational ages, survival probabilities, or care standards. As historical testimony, the important feature is that a reproductive time-scale is explained by reference to an earlier cosmic time-scale.
Places to read
- A 75 (testimony)Aëtius. Relates ten-month and seven-month children to earlier lengths of the day.
- A 83 (testimony)Censorinus, On the Birthday. Includes Empedocles in a list of those accepting seventh-month birth.
Translation in this edition
A75's final words depend on Diels' correction and deletion, with a different conjecture by Casaubon also recorded. The testimony's calendar units and wording should remain historical rather than being harmonized into exact modern weeks.
Source note
The phrase “ten months” should be retained as the ancient period reported here. Converting it to a fixed number of modern weeks without establishing the calendar convention would create false precision.