From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe inflected plural χελύων names tortoises in the edition’s translation of B76.
- In EmpedoclesThe tortoise makes the shell argument travel beyond the initial sea-dwellers.
- In this edition“Tortoises” follows the supplied English.
- A place to readTortoises close the list of examples for earth situated on the exterior of flesh.
Meaning
The inflected plural χελύων names tortoises in the edition’s translation of B76. It appears at the end of a list concerned with hard external coverings. There is no further description of the animal’s habits or internal organs.
Use in the book
The tortoise makes the shell argument travel beyond the initial sea-dwellers. Shells, stony-skinned whelks, and tortoises all present an exterior in which earth occupies a conspicuous position above flesh. The comparison is anatomical and material, rather than a claim that the animals share one ordinary biological kind.
This is an especially clear example of why Empedocles' short animal references should not be treated as decorative filler. An animal familiar to ordinary observation supplies a test case for the account of how roots are positioned in a compound. The shell can be seen and felt; the reader is invited to understand a living arrangement through that visible contrast between hard outside and flesh within.
At the same time, the verse’s brevity sets a limit. It does not explain the shell’s growth, specify a numerical composition, or discuss the tortoise’s birth. Those topics cannot be borrowed from other fragments simply because they concern animal generation. The meaningful lexical result is the animal’s role in a particular physical demonstration.
Places to read
- B 76.1–3Tortoises close the list of examples for earth situated on the exterior of flesh.
Translation in this edition
“Tortoises” follows the supplied English. The isolated noun provides no basis for a finer modern taxonomic distinction among shelled reptiles.