From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordIatrikos logos means a medical discourse or account.
- In this workDiogenes closes the Life by allotting six hundred verses to a Medical Discourse, after counting On Nature and Purifications together.
- In this editionThe equation of the two medical titles is supplied by the apparatus.
- A place to readAttributes six hundred verses to a Medical Discourse.
Meaning
Iatrikos logos means a medical discourse or account. The Suda’s iatrika katalogadēn designates medical writings in prose, in explicit contrast to verse. The lexical difference exposes a disagreement about literary form, not merely two interchangeable English titles.
Use in the book
Diogenes closes the Life by allotting six hundred verses to a Medical Discourse, after counting On Nature and Purifications together. The Suda instead lists Medical Writings in prose after its two-book poem. The apparatus identifies them as the same work, but the witnesses as printed do not establish that identification; a changed description, confusion of works, or different bibliographical tradition remain possible. Both notices matter because they classify medicine as part of the Empedoclean corpus. Neither proves that the work circulated under the exact title used today, nor permits recovery of its contents from the various physiological testimonia. Galen’s pairing of Empedocles and Pausanias in Italian medicine supports a medical reception independently of the disputed format of a medical book. The lexicon therefore keeps the bibliographical discrepancy visible rather than using it to manufacture a complete three-work canon.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 76–77 (testimony)Diogenes Laertius VIII 77. Attributes six hundred verses to a Medical Discourse.
- A 2 (testimony)The Suda. Lists medical material as prose.
- A 3 (testimony)Galen, On the Method of Healing. Places Empedocles and Pausanias within Italian medical competition.
Translation in this edition
The equation of the two medical titles is supplied by the apparatus. Verse and prose are materially different claims, and should remain so in a catalogue or discussion of authorship.