From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordΜίσυ is the ancient mineral or medicinal-material name retained in the translation as misy.
- In this workMisy closes Galen’s four-item A34 example.
- In this editionPreserve the untranslated material name unless additional historical evidence is introduced.
- A place to readNames misy as the final ingredient in the pulverized mixture illustrating enduring constituents.
Meaning
Μίσυ is the ancient mineral or medicinal-material name retained in the translation as misy. The excerpt gives the name without defining the substance, so an exact modern identification should not be fabricated from the list alone.
Use in the book
Misy closes Galen’s four-item A34 example. Rust, copper-flower, cadmia and misy are ground very finely and mixed so that no one ingredient can be handled separately from the others. The example illustrates how composite bodies might arise from persistent, unchangeable constituents.
The rhetorical value of an unfamiliar named substance differs from that of a generic word like “powder.” Galen gives a concrete preparation involving recognizable ingredients for his intended readers. For the reader of this edition, however, the name’s opacity is part of the source-critical situation: the philosophical role of the example can be understood without pretending to know its exact chemistry.
Nothing in the sentence assigns misy to a particular root or implies that Empedocles offered this list. Its evidentiary owner is Galen, whose illustration translates an elemental theory into the language of material preparation.
Places to read
- A 34 (testimony)Galen, In Hippocratis De natura hominis XV 32 K. Names misy as the final ingredient in the pulverized mixture illustrating enduring constituents.
Translation in this edition
Preserve the untranslated material name unless additional historical evidence is introduced. The local source does not support a modern chemical formula or a medicinal recommendation.