From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordOxys means sharp or quick, and oxytēs sharpness or speed.
- In this workTheophrastus says people whose elements are densely arranged and broken into small pieces move quickly and take on many things, but complete few because of the rapid movement of their blood.
- In this editionThe apparatus reads πολλοῖς by Wimmer against manuscript πολλά.
- A place to readConnects dense small constituents, rapid blood movement, and many unfinished undertakings.
Meaning
Oxys means sharp or quick, and oxytēs sharpness or speed. Here the context is rapid behaviour and the movement of blood. Pykna and tethrausmena describe dense and broken-up constituents in the reported physical explanation.
Use in the book
Theophrastus says people whose elements are densely arranged and broken into small pieces move quickly and take on many things, but complete few because of the rapid movement of their blood. The resulting portrait is not a simple equation between speed and intelligence. The best cognitive mixture requires an appropriate mean in spacing and size, whereas this case explains a kind of ineffective rapidity.
The detail is important for distinguishing intellectual capacity from temperament-like performance. A person may be quick without bringing undertakings to completion, just as another may work slowly and laboriously. But the testimony does not name a modern attention disorder or establish a measurable physiological syndrome. Its explanatory terms remain elemental arrangement, blood movement, and observed patterns of activity as mediated by Theophrastus.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 10–11 (testimony)Theophrastus, On the Senses 11. Connects dense small constituents, rapid blood movement, and many unfinished undertakings.
Translation in this edition
The apparatus reads πολλοῖς by Wimmer against manuscript πολλά. The printed construction supports “setting their hand to many things,” but its detailed wording should not be treated as unproblematic transmitted verse.