From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Pomegranate
pomegranate; seeds of graces; seeds of glory
The pomegranate is a many-seeded fruit.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe pomegranate is a many-seeded fruit.
- In TraherneII.95 ends the story of Darius and Zopyrus with the king’s wish for as many faithful servants as a pomegranate has seeds.
- In this editionThe 2026 note identifies the allusion to Ecclesiastes 3:11.
- A place to beginDarius’s wish for many Zopyruses introduces the many-seeded fruit.
Meaning
The pomegranate is a many-seeded fruit. Traherne makes its crowded interior an image for the virtues potentially contained in the world’s enjoyment. Seed is therefore a useful subsidiary term: the image concerns a power of growth rather than a mere abundance of separate objects.
Use in the book
II.95 ends the story of Darius and Zopyrus with the king’s wish for as many faithful servants as a pomegranate has seeds. II.96 takes the fruit out of that anecdote and turns it into a model of creation received inwardly. The world, sown in the heart, contains the beginnings of grace and glory.
Traherne immediately qualifies the assertion that all virtues lie in the world: he means in its fruition. The virtues do not grow automatically from physical proximity to things. Considered enjoyment awakens a response to the giver. Recognition that one inhabits a dominion bestowed by God should produce fidelity, gratitude, and reluctance to betray the benefactor in the very midst of his gifts.
The image also joins creation to redemption. The world is greater than Babylon, and its restoration has cost more than the injuries of Zopyrus. The fruit’s many seeds thus gather ethical consequences within a single enjoyed inheritance. This is an account of moral fertility: rightly receiving the world makes possible a life that bears the character of the love through which it was given.
Places to read
In this edition
The 2026 note identifies the allusion to Ecclesiastes 3:11. Scripture supplies the world placed in the heart; the pomegranate and the explanation of its seeds are Traherne’s development, not wording quoted from Ecclesiastes.
Source note
Primary text: II.95–962. Supplied 2026 editorial note 160 identifies Ecclesiastes 3:11 and distinguishes the biblical wording behind the image.
From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe pomegranates in B80 are qualified as late-born.
- In EmpedoclesThe opening “wherefore” signals an explanation whose earlier premise is lost.
- In this editionThe rendering “late-born” retains the birth-image.
- A place to readThe single verse calls pomegranates late-born and begins with an inferential “wherefore.”
Meaning
The pomegranates in B80 are qualified as late-born. The adjective describes timing through the language of birth, continuing the poem’s habit of making plant production legible in reproductive terms. The noun and its descriptor survive within one short line.
Use in the book
The opening “wherefore” signals an explanation whose earlier premise is lost. Empedocles was not simply naming attractive fruits; the line presents the pomegranates' lateness as a consequence of something already said. The lexicon can identify the result, but not the missing cause.
The adjacent apples are described by fullness of sap rather than lateness. That contrast preserves two different kinds of botanical observation in a single verse: time of appearance and internal abundance. It is unnecessary to force both fruits under one unsupported seasonal or thermal theory. Elsewhere the book does connect warmth with bodily formation, but that does not supply the particular explanation missing here.
The enduring fruit of B77.78 offers a useful comparison because it too makes time important to botanical description. Neither passage gives a planting calendar or practical horticultural instruction. The pomegranate’s role is a local example of explained natural difference, whose causal frame has been clipped by transmission.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The rendering “late-born” retains the birth-image. A modern season label would be more specific than the supplied evidence, which does not state a month, region, or comparison crop.