From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordSpondai are libations, poured offerings.
- In EmpedoclesThe community casts the honey libations onto the ground among its other pious offerings.
- In this editionThe English colour is “yellow,” not “golden,” and should not be used to make the modern heading Golden age a literal phrase in the verse.
- A place to readYellow honey is poured to the ground as libations.
Meaning
Spondai are libations, poured offerings. The substance in B1282 is honey, described with the colour adjective translated “yellow.” The phrase belongs to the worship of Cypris; it is not a surviving instruction to pour wine.
Use in the book
The community casts the honey libations onto the ground among its other pious offerings. The direction is explicit, while vessel, quantity, spoken formula, and occasion are not. Honey's inclusion helps make the positive ritual scene concrete: bloodless worship uses a material that can be offered rather than merely abstaining from a prohibited act.
The following line contrasts the altar with one drenched in bulls' blood. A reader may accordingly see a replacement of violent pouring with a gentler gift, but the poem does not explicitly say the honey was poured onto the altar or assigned as a one-for-one substitute for blood. It says ground. Preserving that distinction keeps an evocative interpretation from becoming a fabricated ritual detail.
Places to read
- B 128.7–8Yellow honey is poured to the ground as libations.
Translation in this edition
The English colour is “yellow,” not “golden,” and should not be used to make the modern heading Golden age a literal phrase in the verse. The plural “honeys” of the Greek is rendered idiomatically as honey.