From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe edition renders the four mineral names as rust, copper-flower, cadmia and misy; χνοώδη describes a fine, powdery condition.
- In this workGalen illustrates Empedocles’ unchangeable elements by asking the reader to imagine grinding the named materials very finely and mingling them until none can be handled or taken apart separately from the others.
- In this edition“Copper-flower” is this edition’s rendering of χαλκῖτις; historical mineral nomenclature is not chemically exact.
- A place to readSupplies the mineral-grinding comparison for composite bodies made from unchangeable constituents.
Meaning
The edition renders the four mineral names as rust, copper-flower, cadmia and misy; χνοώδη describes a fine, powdery condition. These traditional mineral or medicinal names should not be assigned exact modern chemical formulas without evidence beyond the passage.
Use in the book
Galen illustrates Empedocles’ unchangeable elements by asking the reader to imagine grinding the named materials very finely and mingling them until none can be handled or taken apart separately from the others. The analogy distinguishes persistence of ingredients from their ready perceptual or practical separability. It does not state that a new fifth ingredient has replaced the four.
The image is Galen’s, as the edition explicitly notes. It differs from Aristotle’s brick wall in the scale and intimacy of the pieces, while retaining distinguishable original ingredients at the explanatory level. The statement that one cannot separate them should not be exaggerated into a claim of absolute metaphysical inseparability; the passage gives an illustration of a mixed preparation, not a proof about every possible operation.
The edition also compares Empedocles’ painters at B23, but that verse is not printed here. The safe local result is that later medical explanation has recast an elemental theory through a familiar practice of pulverization and preparation.
Places to read
- A 34 (testimony)Galen, In Hippocratis De natura hominis XV 32 K. Supplies the mineral-grinding comparison for composite bodies made from unchangeable constituents.
Translation in this edition
“Copper-flower” is this edition’s rendering of χαλκῖτις; historical mineral nomenclature is not chemically exact. The simile must be credited to Galen, and the B23 comparison remains an editorial cross-reference.