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 compound epithet is translated “life-bearing” or “bringer of life.”
- In this workAt A332 Aëtius applies the epithet while identifying Hera with air.
- In this editionThe translation varies between “life-bearing” and “bringer of life.”
- A place to readRetains the epithet across the conflicting air and earth identifications.
Meaning
The compound epithet is translated “life-bearing” or “bringer of life.” Its two visible components associate bearing with life or livelihood. In the source it modifies Hera, not an anonymous productive force, and the witness’s explanation connects that bearing with sustenance.
Use in the book
At A332 Aëtius applies the epithet while identifying Hera with air. The Homeric Allegories preserves the same epithet but identifies Hera with earth. Hippolytus makes the interpretative link explicit by calling earth the bearer of fruits that support life. The stable epithet thus accompanies an unstable material identification, an important reminder that the meaning of an epithet can constrain interpretation without uniquely determining it.
The word deserves separate notice because its explanatory function would otherwise disappear inside the Hera entry. It converts a divine designation into a possible account of the root’s contribution to living bodies: the root is interpreted through what it provides. But only Hippolytus’ explanation is printed in developed form, and the dossier does not report the poet’s own reasoning. One cannot settle the dispute merely by repeating the intuitive connection between fruitful earth and life-bearing.
Places to read
- A 33 (testimony)2Aëtius I 3,20; Homeric Allegories, in Stobaeus. Retains the epithet across the conflicting air and earth identifications.
- A 33 (testimony)2Hippolytus, Refutatio VII 29. Develops the earth interpretation through the fruits that sustain life.
Translation in this edition
The translation varies between “life-bearing” and “bringer of life.” Neither English form licenses a separate fifth principle or a claim about biological reproduction absent from the notice.