From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordDi’ allēlōn means through one another; the phrase contrasts generation by living beings with generation directly from material constituents.
- In this workThe fourth generations in A722 no longer arise directly from earth and water but through one another.
- In this editionThe words translated as the earlier “like stuffs” are textually suspect, and the apparatus lists several conjectures.
- A place to readContrasts the fourth generations through one another with earlier origins from earth and water.
Meaning
Di’ allēlōn means through one another; the phrase contrasts generation by living beings with generation directly from material constituents. Spermatikon kinēma is a seminal movement or excitation. Eumorphia denotes beauty or good form in the reported stimulus.
Use in the book
The fourth generations in A722 no longer arise directly from earth and water but through one another. The notice adds condensed nourishment in some cases and the beauty of women exciting seminal movement in others. These brief explanations join nutrition and attraction to reproduction, but the relation between the cases is not fully specified. The words should not be forced into a complete account of sperm formation or a universal psychology of mating. Nor does the contrast prove that the preceding stages all belonged to a single uninterrupted historical development. It establishes a conceptual distinction between earthborn generation and ongoing reproduction. The much more detailed accounts of seed, womb temperature, likeness, and multiple births at A8123 concern this latter setting and preserve additional, sometimes conflicting, doxographical elaborations.
Places to read
- A 72 (testimony)2Aëtius. Contrasts the fourth generations through one another with earlier origins from earth and water.
- A 81 (testimony)23Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals; Aëtius; Censorinus, On the Birthday. Supply differing explanations of sex, likeness, and birth within reproductive generation.
Translation in this edition
The words translated as the earlier “like stuffs” are textually suspect, and the apparatus lists several conjectures. The firm contrast is between direct material emergence and generation through others, not an exact preserved taxonomy of prior stuffs.