From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAithrobatēs names a walker on air or the open sky; in this passage it is Abaris’ epithet.
- In this workNicomachus places Abaris beside Empedocles and Epimenides as recipients of extraordinary powers.
- In this editionThe source form is αἰθροβάτης, not a reconstructed adjective for Empedocles.
- A place to readGives Abaris the air-walking epithet in a comparison with Empedocles’ wind-aversion.
Meaning
Aithrobatēs names a walker on air or the open sky; in this passage it is Abaris’ epithet. “The Hyperborean” is the identifying designation attached to him. Neither expression is presented as an Empedoclean technical account of the air.
Use in the book
Nicomachus places Abaris beside Empedocles and Epimenides as recipients of extraordinary powers. The epithet functions as condensed evidence for the deed, just as Averter of Winds and Purifier do for the other two figures. This makes the notice a revealing reception frame: Empedocles is not being classified primarily by roots and causes, but by remarkable action within a Pythagorean succession. The presence of the air-walker changes how a reader hears the wind-averting title, even without an explicit statement that the mechanisms were alike. It does not prove a chronological development from engineering into magic, nor establish that Empedocles himself could or claimed to walk on air. The entry preserves a meaningful single-passage term while retaining its actual bearer.
Places to read
- A 13–A 14 (legend)Nicomachus, on the wonders of Pythagoras. Gives Abaris the air-walking epithet in a comparison with Empedocles’ wind-aversion.
Translation in this edition
The source form is αἰθροβάτης, not a reconstructed adjective for Empedocles. The edition’s sequence from wall to air-walking is a proposed history of legendary elaboration, not a transmission chain demonstrated by these names.