From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordPanthea is the personal name supplied by Hermippus.
- In this workHermippus says Empedocles cured a woman of Acragas called Panthea and held a sacrifice because of it, with about eighty invitees.
- In this edition“Cured” follows the supplied translation; the excerpt gives no treatment and no independent verification of recovery.
- A place to readNames Panthea and makes her cure the reason for the sacrificial gathering.
Meaning
Panthea is the personal name supplied by Hermippus. Apēlpismenēn describes someone for whom hope has been abandoned, here by physicians; therapeusai means to treat or cure. The vocabulary stages success after others have despaired.
Use in the book
Hermippus says Empedocles cured a woman of Acragas called Panthea and held a sacrifice because of it, with about eighty invitees. The report thus gives the healing a named patient and a celebratory social occasion. It comes beside Heraclides’ breathless-woman narrative and the rival death stories, so it can function as an alternative explanation of the same narrative setting. But neither the name nor the details of abandonment establish that Panthea is securely identical with the woman allegedly preserved thirty days. The social consequence is clearer within the story than the medical mechanism: a cure produces gratitude, a feast, and a setting in which disappearance and divine status can be narrated. Panthea’s role should be retained without turning her into a modern documented patient or adding symptoms absent from Hermippus’ report.
Places to read
- A 1 §§ 69–70 (biography)Diogenes Laertius VIII 69, reporting Hermippus. Names Panthea and makes her cure the reason for the sacrificial gathering.
- A 1 §§ 67–68 (legend)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 67, reporting Heraclides. Provides the adjacent but differently framed breathless-woman narrative.
Translation in this edition
“Cured” follows the supplied translation; the excerpt gives no treatment and no independent verification of recovery. Identification with the unnamed woman is a hypothesis prompted by arrangement, not an explicit statement of identity.