From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Reflection
ἀνάκλασις
anaklasisAnaklasis names a turning or bending back.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAnaklasis names a turning or bending back.
- In StobaeusThe account of the rainbow describes sight striking droplets and being reflected.
- In this editionThe translation preserves “sight” where the source says sight.
- A place to beginReflected sight at droplets explains the rainbow.
- English renderings
- reflection
Meaning
Anaklasis names a turning or bending back. In optical discussions the thing reflected may be sight itself; that language is part of the explanation.
Use in the book
The account of the rainbow describes sight striking droplets and being reflected. The Aristotelian report groups rainbows, halos, mock suns, and related appearances by their shared cause, while distinguishing reflecting surfaces and conditions. A comet theory likewise compares the appearance with mirrors. The connection is explanatory, not evidence that all these phenomena are one kind of object.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The translation preserves “sight” where the source says sight. It does not automatically replace the ancient formulation with incoming light rays.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 227, 239–240.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Reflection
ἀντανάκλασις (antanaklasis); ἀνταύγεια (antaugeia); ἀνάκλασιν (anaklasin)
The words describe reflection or reflected radiance, with different emphasis on the turning-back process and the shining appearance.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe words describe reflection or reflected radiance, with different emphasis on the turning-back process and the shining appearance.
- In this workPs.-Plutarch at A30 says the sun is not fire in nature but a reflection of fire like that arising from water.
- In this editionThe edition’s references to B44 and B47 establish only contextual compatibility, not full verse confirmation of the two-sun doctrine.
- A place to readUses reflection from water as a comparison for the sun’s relation to fire.
Meaning
The words describe reflection or reflected radiance, with different emphasis on the turning-back process and the shining appearance. They belong to the witnesses’ optical language. Their occurrence does not by itself identify a modern law of reflection or a single specified reflective surface.
Use in the book
Ps.-Plutarch at A30 says the sun is not fire in nature but a reflection of fire like that arising from water. The water comparison makes the optical process intelligible while leaving its cosmic surface unspecified in that sentence. Aëtius at A56 gives a more complicated account involving a fiery hemisphere, an apparent sun, the rounded earth and a crystalline sun. The final summary again calls the sun a reflection of the fire around earth.
The notices are related but cannot be fully harmonized from the excerpt alone. A56’s apparatus explicitly acknowledges obscurity. Nor should the moon’s borrowed light in A55 or A60 be assumed to operate through exactly the same geometry: dependence on another source is a broader claim than the detailed two-sun account.
Reflection also connects cosmic description to the perception cluster’s mirror discussion. That connection is lexical and thematic; it does not make every optical testimony evidence for the same propagation mechanism. The user of the lexicon should move between those entries while retaining the different objects and explanatory contexts.
Places to read
- A 30 (testimony)Ps.-Plutarch, Stromateis, in Eusebius P.E. I 8,10. Uses reflection from water as a comparison for the sun’s relation to fire.
- A 56 (testimony)Aëtius II 20,13 (D. 350). Develops the more obscure account distinguishing fiery source and reflected visible sun.
Translation in this edition
The edition’s references to B44 and B47 establish only contextual compatibility, not full verse confirmation of the two-sun doctrine. No such verses are printed in A56.