From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPiloumenas means being pressed or compacted, with an association of close packing or felting.
- In this workThe mirror notice distinguishes effluences gathering on a surface from their being compacted there.
- In this editionThe apparatus explicitly prefers πιλουμένας to τελειουμένας.
- A place to readMakes the effluences compacted by fiery emission from the mirror.
Meaning
Piloumenas means being pressed or compacted, with an association of close packing or felting. Pyrōdous describes the fiery material responsible. These are words in Aëtius's account of reflection, not a separate statement about the universal action of cosmic Love.
Use in the book
The mirror notice distinguishes effluences gathering on a surface from their being compacted there. The second process is attributed to fiery material given off by the mirror, which also carries along the air ahead. A reflection is therefore not explained by arrival alone: an additional operation organizes or compresses what has arrived.
This small verb is crucial because alternative readings would materially change the account. The surviving sentence does not state a numerical density, an exact thickness, or a completed film. “Felting” can help a reader hear the concreteness of the image, but should not be turned into an assertion that the effluence consists of literal fibres. Nor does the verb warrant identifying this process with the compaction of elements elsewhere in the cosmological testimonies.
Places to read
- A 88 (testimony)Aëtius. Makes the effluences compacted by fiery emission from the mirror.
- A 88 (apparatus)Apparatus to Aëtius. Prints πιλουμένας from Stobaeus against the other branch’s τελειουμένας.
Translation in this edition
The apparatus explicitly prefers πιλουμένας to τελειουμένας. A translation such as “completed” would follow the rejected reading rather than the text adopted in this edition.