Warmth and cold in generation · Lexicon

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordB65 names cold and, in an editorial supplement, heat; B67 uses the comparative “warmer” for the region associated with a male-bearing belly.
In EmpedoclesThe surviving sequence suggests an explanation of bodily differences through the thermal circumstances of development.
In this editionThe strongest caution is textual: B65’s neat hot/male versus cold/female balance is partly restored by an editor.
A place to readCold is preserved in the account of women; the male-and-heat clause is bracketed as supplied.

Meaning

B65 names cold and, in an editorial supplement, heat; B67 uses the comparative “warmer” for the region associated with a male-bearing belly. The terms describe conditions in generation, not separate generative substances additional to the roots.

Use in the book

The surviving sequence suggests an explanation of bodily differences through the thermal circumstances of development. Some material, poured into “pure places,” becomes female after meeting cold. The supplied counterpart makes male development depend on heat. B67 then gives an independent statement about the warmer male-bearing region and follows it with darkness, manliness, and increased hairiness.

That account is important as an instance of Empedocles' search for continuous physical explanation across conception, bodily form, and visible surface qualities. It should not be converted into contemporary biological advice. The poem is explaining an ancient pattern of sex difference through hot and cold; the fragment is not evidence that a person’s temperature reveals or determines fetal sex in the way asserted.

The direction of explanation also differs from B62. There separating fire raises the first undifferentiated forms toward its like. Here thermal variation belongs to differentiation in reproduction. Similar physical vocabulary need not mark an identical event or one immediately adjacent step in the original poem.

Places to read

B 65Cold is preserved in the account of women; the male-and-heat clause is bracketed as supplied.
B 67The male-bearing belly is placed in the warmer region, followed by a description of male bodily traits.
B 62.1–6Fire explains upward emergence of whole-natured forms, a distinct generative episode.

Translation in this edition

The strongest caution is textual: B65’s neat hot/male versus cold/female balance is partly restored by an editor. B67 supports a link between warmth and male development, but it does not recover every missing word of B65.