Wine and oil · Lexicon

From the book

Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordB91 contrasts greater union with wine and unwillingness to unite with oil.
In EmpedoclesThe fragment preserves a difference between possible partners rather than a universal rule that all liquids combine.
In this editionThe ellipsis after wine is significant.
A place to readThe short fragment preserves the contrast in affinity but not its subject.

Meaning

B91 contrasts greater union with wine and unwillingness to unite with oil. The subject of that contrast is missing. “More in union” renders a term of fitting or accord, while “it will not” gives incompatibility the language of will.

Use in the book

The fragment preserves a difference between possible partners rather than a universal rule that all liquids combine. One and the same unnamed substance has a stronger affinity for wine than for oil. Such a difference matters to a philosophy in which mixture produces new mortal forms: not every contact has the same outcome, and a merely indiscriminate attraction would not explain the diversity of combinations.

B22 provides the broader language of things better fitted for blending and others standing far apart in their mixtures and forms. B91 can be read as a concrete instance of that kind of selective association, but its missing subject prevents a fully specified experiment from being recovered.

The description of wine as transformed water in B81 is relevant but not decisive. It explains how the poem characterizes wine’s origin, not which substance is comparing its relations with wine and oil in B91. A familiar modern demonstration involving water and oil may come to mind, yet the printed text should not be silently completed with water as its subject.

The anthropomorphic “will not” is typical of the poem’s active material language. It marks a disposition or incompatibility without requiring the reader to imagine an isolated conscious decision by the liquid.

Places to read

B 91The short fragment preserves the contrast in affinity but not its subject.
B 22Some things are better fitted for blending, while others are hostile in mixture and form.
B 81Wine receives a separate account as water altered within wood.

Translation in this edition

The ellipsis after wine is significant. The verse is not a complete sentence saying “water mixes with wine but not oil,” even if that is a tempting reconstruction. The entry retains the unidentified participant.