From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordEidōlophaneis means image-like, apparition-like, or phantom-like in appearance.
- In this workAfter the initial separation of bodily parts, Aëtius places a stage in which the parts join and the resulting generations are phantom-like.
- In this edition“Phantom-like” is a translation of a descriptive compound, not proof that these creatures are unreal or bodiless.
- A place to readQualifies the second generations, in which parts grow together, as eidōlophaneis.
Meaning
Eidōlophaneis means image-like, apparition-like, or phantom-like in appearance. The accompanying phrase describes parts growing together. The unusual adjective qualifies the second generations in Aëtius, not an independently described class of immaterial spirits.
Use in the book
After the initial separation of bodily parts, Aëtius places a stage in which the parts join and the resulting generations are phantom-like. The word suggests something recognizable in appearance yet not straightforwardly a complete ordinary living kind. It does not by itself enumerate monstrous combinations or explain their survival and failure. Those familiar reconstructions must be distinguished from what this particular report actually preserves. The contrast with the third, whole-natured generations gives the term its immediate force: a phase of assembly precedes a different kind of bodily completeness. But the distinction between the second and third remains compressed, and no description of a transition mechanism occurs here. Treating the adjective as a precise biological classification would overstate the source.
Places to read
- A 72 (testimony)2Aëtius. Qualifies the second generations, in which parts grow together, as eidōlophaneis.
- A 72 (testimony)2Censorinus, On the Birthday. Gives a shorter joining-of-limbs account without this adjective or the fourfold division.
Translation in this edition
“Phantom-like” is a translation of a descriptive compound, not proof that these creatures are unreal or bodiless. The edition's phrase “seemings rather than animals” is an interpretive expansion.