From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDiplasion means double or twice as much; apechein means to be distant.
- In this workThe ps.-Plutarch branch says that the moon is twice as far from the sun as from the earth.
- In this editionThe edition correctly foregrounds disagreement.
- A place to readMakes the moon–sun interval twice the moon–earth interval.
Meaning
Diplasion means double or twice as much; apechein means to be distant. A numerical comparison requires both the same quantity and securely identified terms. Here the quantity survives more firmly than the ordering of sun, moon, and earth.
Use in the book
The ps.-Plutarch branch says that the moon is twice as far from the sun as from the earth. The Stobaeus branch instead says that it is twice as far from the earth as from the sun. These are incompatible assignments of the longer interval, not equivalent formulations of one ratio. Diels proposes that the intended statement was that the sun is twice as far from the earth as the moon is. That is a third formulation and an editorial reconstruction, not a reading independently reported by either branch. The example is particularly important for a lexicon of testimony: a precise numeral can create an appearance of secure knowledge even when the objects it relates are unstable. No absolute distance, observational procedure, or argument for the ratio is given. The appropriate doctrinal conclusion is therefore qualified attribution of a two-to-one distance relation, with its surviving versions explicitly separated.
Places to read
- A 61 (testimony)Aëtius, ps.-Plutarch branch. Makes the moon–sun interval twice the moon–earth interval.
- A 61 (testimony)Aëtius, Stobaeus branch. Reverses which of those two intervals is twice the other.
- A 61 (apparatus)Diels, apparatus. Proposes instead a two-to-one relation between the solar and lunar distances from earth.
Translation in this edition
The edition correctly foregrounds disagreement. Its suggested original cannot be printed as Empedocles' established astronomical measurement or silently substituted for both transmitted reports.