From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordNyktōr means by night.
- In this workTheophrastus reports that some eyes profit at night from the filling up of what they lack, while eyes with excessive water suffer because their fire is overtaken.
- In this editionThe printed description of what separates off excess fire includes “air,” which Diels interprets as air including water.
- A place to readExplains nocturnal advantage and disadvantage through elemental compensation and obstruction.
Meaning
Nyktōr means by night. The dossier uses it for conditions under which animals and different sorts of eyes see more or less keenly. It does not itself name a special anatomical apparatus.
Use in the book
Theophrastus reports that some eyes profit at night from the filling up of what they lack, while eyes with excessive water suffer because their fire is overtaken. Read against the daytime account, the two cases depend on balancing opposed constituents. Aristotle presents a more compact version: dark eyes contain more water and see poorly at night through deficiency of fire.
The critic's own discussion must be separated from this report. Theophrastus says most animals see all objects better by day, allowing exceptions whose own fire may be strong at night; he compares certain animals' conspicuous nighttime appearance. That tentative alternative is not further testimony that Empedocles ascribed luminescence to every night-seeing animal. Nor does the darkness objection against outgoing visual light by itself dispose of all the more complex distinctions reported in the chapter.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 7–8 (testimony)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 8. Explains nocturnal advantage and disadvantage through elemental compensation and obstruction.
- A 86 §§ 18–19 (polemical)Theophrastus, On the Senses 18. Makes exceptional night-seeing animals a qualified countercase in the critique.
- A 91 (polemical)Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals. Attributes dark eyes’ poor night vision to lack of fire, while rejecting the theory.
Translation in this edition
The printed description of what separates off excess fire includes “air,” which Diels interprets as air including water. That editorial explanation should not be silently inserted as an uncontested ancient formulation.