From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordZeidōros is rendered “life-giving,” with “grain-giving” recorded as a related sense in the accompanying note.
- In EmpedoclesPlutarch reports that Empedocles aptly named Aphrodite life-giving, and compares Sophocles' different epithet for her.
- In this editionThe comparison with Sophocles belongs to Plutarch, not Empedocles.
- A place to readPlutarch attributes the epithet to Empedocles and identifies Aphrodite as its referent.
Meaning
Zeidōros is rendered “life-giving,” with “grain-giving” recorded as a related sense in the accompanying note. The preserved item is an epithet, not a complete verse. Its referent is supplied by the quoting author's sentence: Aphrodite.
Use in the book
Plutarch reports that Empedocles aptly named Aphrodite life-giving, and compares Sophocles' different epithet for her. That report gives the word a definite divine attachment. It fits the surviving Aphrodite and Cypris passages in which the goddess joins constituents into living forms, but it does not tell which lost passage originally contained the epithet.
The agricultural resonance of the alternative “grain-giving” broadens the image of productive life. It should not become a proof that Empedocles describes a particular crop ritual or treats Aphrodite as the same figure as every agricultural goddess. The word's value for the lexicon is precise: it adds a compact characterization of the generative goddess, transmitted through an explicit ancient attribution rather than a continuous fragment of her activity.
Places to read
- B 151 (report)Plutarch attributes the epithet to Empedocles and identifies Aphrodite as its referent.
- B 71.2–42Aphrodite’s joining of mortal forms supplies a relevant comparison.
- B 73Cypris works on forms and sends them to fire for hardening.
Translation in this edition
The comparison with Sophocles belongs to Plutarch, not Empedocles. The entry must not combine both poets’ epithets into a fabricated Empedoclean verse.