From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Salt
ἅλς
halsHals can denote salt; its forms must be read in context because related inflections also occur in the vocabulary of the sea.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordHals can denote salt; its forms must be read in context because related inflections also occur in the vocabulary of the sea.
- In StobaeusThe account of water’s properties attributes the solidification of salts and alkalis to admixture with hot, smoky exhalation.
- In this edition“Salts” follows the plural without identifying exact compounds unsupported by the passage.
- A place to beginSalts and alkalis illustrate solidification through an admixture.
- English renderings
- salt; salts
Meaning
Hals can denote salt; its forms must be read in context because related inflections also occur in the vocabulary of the sea.
Use in the book
The account of water’s properties attributes the solidification of salts and alkalis to admixture with hot, smoky exhalation. Salt is one material product among several whose qualities the theory seeks to explain. The plural need not designate a modern chemical classification of salts.
Places to read
- I.39.1.2Salts and alkalis illustrate solidification through an admixture.
Translation in this edition
“Salts” follows the plural without identifying exact compounds unsupported by the passage.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 254. The report is an epitome with its own wording, not a verbatim quotation of the parallel discussion in Aristotle.
From the book
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Common Salt and Sea-salt
Salis commuuis; Marini
Common salt and sea-salt appear separately in the ordinary preparation list.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordCommon salt and sea-salt appear separately in the ordinary preparation list.
- In KhunrathPage 68 lists them among bodily and spiritual salts employed with metals.
- In this editionThe printed commuuis is retained as the supplied transcription records it; the editorially understood word is common.
- A reading distinctionThe list does not state whether the two ordinary labels denote distinct specimens or overlapping commercial categories; this entry does not manufacture that distinction.
Meaning
Common salt and sea-salt appear separately in the ordinary preparation list. Their occurrence must be distinguished from the catholic salt of the Philosophers’ sea.
Use in the book
Page 68 lists them among bodily and spiritual salts employed with metals. Page 128, by contrast, identifies the sea of the required catholic salt as Magnesia itself. The familiar maritime word does not turn the latter answer into a direction to use an ordinary sea-derived salt.
Places to read
- 1599 p. 68The ordinary salt names occur in the laboratory catalogue.
- 1599 p. 128The separate philosophical sea is expressly identified as Magnesia.
Translation in this edition
The printed commuuis is retained as the supplied transcription records it; the editorially understood word is common.
Source note
The list does not state whether the two ordinary labels denote distinct specimens or overlapping commercial categories; this entry does not manufacture that distinction.
From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordHals is printed in B 56 and translated “salt.”
- In EmpedoclesThe passage shows how a formed material can arise by an action on what already exists.
- In this editionThe unusual breathing in the printed ἃλς is retained as source typography.
- A place to readSalt is compacted through the sun's driving beatings.
Meaning
Hals is printed in B 56 and translated “salt.” The line describes compaction: salt was fixed or congealed, driven together by the sun's beatings. Its force is more specific than a general assertion that the sun warms the sea, but the single verse preserves no quantitative or sequential explanation.
Use in the book
The passage shows how a formed material can arise by an action on what already exists. Its language fits the broader account of compaction and rearrangement rather than production from nothing. The solar beatings also give the sun a causal role in terrestrial formation, beyond its role as a visible witness to warmth and brightness.
Comparison with earth's sweat, the sea, is tempting because the fragments are adjacent in the edition and both concern familiar watery or mineral things. Yet their numbering and placement do not establish continuous original order. One should not claim that B 55–562 together supply a complete theory of sea-salt formation. Nor does the short description support a modern chemical identification of the ingredients or a reliable experimental recipe.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The unusual breathing in the printed ἃλς is retained as source typography. “Salt” is the supplied translation's choice; an independent lexical discussion of hals should not silently replace the edition's reading with “sea.”
Source note
The fragment is preserved by Hephaestion in a work on metre, an instance of how formal rather than doctrinal interests can determine which physical verse survives.