From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhyllorrhoein means to shed leaves.
- In this workAëtius explains loss of leaves by an insufficient store of moisture: when that moisture is dried out in summer, the plant sheds its foliage.
- In this editionThe report does not map exactly onto a modern temperate deciduous–evergreen distinction.
- A place to readAttributes leaf shedding to too little moisture being dried out during summer.
Meaning
Phyllorrhoein means to shed leaves. The participial phrase describes moisture being dried out in summer. The word singles out an observable plant behaviour and attaches it to a difference in available fluid.
Use in the book
Aëtius explains loss of leaves by an insufficient store of moisture: when that moisture is dried out in summer, the plant sheds its foliage. Plants with more retain it. The contrast is quantitative and physiological, rather than a taxonomy based on leaf shape or species ancestry. It should be read in the geographical and seasonal terms actually reported. A familiar modern expectation of autumn leaf fall must not silently replace the testimony's summer drying. Nor does the passage identify the water store's location or explain how its loss detaches a leaf. Its explanatory scope is the contrast between retention and shedding under the pressure of drying. The adjoining discussion of plants taking suitable materials from soil makes nutrition relevant, but no complete balance of uptake and loss is supplied.
Places to read
- A 70 (testimony)2Aëtius. Attributes leaf shedding to too little moisture being dried out during summer.
- A 70 (testimony)2Aëtius, following clause. Contrasts plants with more moisture that retain leaves, illustrated by bay, olive, and palm.
Translation in this edition
The report does not map exactly onto a modern temperate deciduous–evergreen distinction. Its examples and summer timing should be kept visible rather than normalized into a universal botanical rule.