From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTriquetris describes the island’s three-cornered shores.
- In this workThe praise of Empedocles begins by locating him within Sicily’s coast, surrounding sea, narrow separation from Italy, whirlpool, and volcanic fire.
- In this editionThe translation’s vivid “wrath,” “throat,” and “vomit” correspond to personifying language in the Latin.
- A place to readBuilds the Sicilian landscape before declaring Empedocles its greatest marvel.
Meaning
Triquetris describes the island’s three-cornered shores. Charybdis and Etna supply the threatening sea and volcanic marvels, while rebus opima bonis calls the land rich in good things. Lucretius’ vocabulary combines geographic praise with forces capable of violent movement.
Use in the book
The praise of Empedocles begins by locating him within Sicily’s coast, surrounding sea, narrow separation from Italy, whirlpool, and volcanic fire. The landscape first commands wonder in its own right, then is surpassed by the philosopher: the island has produced nothing more glorious, holy, marvelous, or dear. This is an encomiastic comparison, not a neutral itinerary or a physical account attributed to Empedocles. Etna’s threatening eruptions are part of the island’s power; the printed passage does not say that Empedocles died there. That omission matters because later reception so readily makes the volcano his defining biographical fact. Lucretius instead uses natural spectacle to magnify the achievement of a poet of nature whose doctrines he will challenge. Geography becomes an argument about intellectual stature.
Places to read
- A 21 (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things. Builds the Sicilian landscape before declaring Empedocles its greatest marvel.
- Appendix I Lucretius (reception)Lucretius, On the Nature of Things I 734–741. Continues from praise into criticism without withdrawing the predecessor’s greatness.
Translation in this edition
The translation’s vivid “wrath,” “throat,” and “vomit” correspond to personifying language in the Latin. They describe Lucretius’ representation of the volcano, not a quotation from Empedocles’ cosmology.