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The First Philosophers of Greece — Arthur Fairbanks (Parmenides)

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Aet. Plac. 11.8; Dox.868. Empedokles: (Thunder and lightning are) the impact of light on a cloud so that the light thrusts out the air which hinders it; the ex- tinguishing of the light and the breaking up of the cloud produces a crash, and the kindling of it produces light- ning, and the thunderbolt is the sound of the lightning. 11. 8; 875. Empedokles and the Stoics : Winter comes when the air is master, being forced up by condensation; and summer when fire is master, when it is forced down- wards. iii. 16; 961. Thesea is the sweat of the earth, brought out by the heat of the sun on account of increased pressure.

Aet. Plac. iv. 8; Theod. v.18; Doz. 889. Empe-
dokles: The soul is a mixture of what is air and aether
in essence. iv. 5; 892. Empedokles οἱ al.: Mind and
soul are the same, so that in their opinion no animal
would be absolutely devoid of reason. Theod. τ. 28; 892.
Empedokles et al.: The soul is imperishable. Aet. iv. 9;
396. Empedokles et al.: Sensations are deceptive.
897. Sensations arise part by part according to the sym-
metry of the pores, each particular object of sense being
adapted to some sense (organ). iv. 18; 408. Empe-

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dokles: Vision receives impressions both by means of rays and by means of images. But more by the second method ; for it receives effluences. iv. 14; 405. (Re- flections from mirrors) take place by means of effluences that arise on the surface of the mirror, and they are completed by means of the fiery matter that is sepa- rated from the mirror, and that bears along the air which lies before them into which the streams flow. iv. 6; 406. Empedokles : Hearing takes place by the impact of wind on the cartilage of the ear, which, he says, is hung up inside the ear so as to swing and be struck after the manner of a bell. iv. 17; 407. Empedokles: Smell is introduced with breathings of the lungs; whenever the breathing becomes heavy, it does not join in the per- ception on account of roughness, as in the case of those who suffer from a flux. iv. 22; 411. Empedokles : The first breath of the animal takes place when the moisture in infants gives way, and the outside air comes to the void to enter the opening of the lungs at the side; and after this the implanted warmth at the onset from without presses out from below the airy matter, the breathing out; and at the corresponding return into the outer air it occasions a corresponding entering of the air, the breathing in. And that which now controls the blood as it goes to the surface and as it presses out the airy matter through the nostrils by its own currents on its outward passage, becomes the breathing out ; and when the air runs back and enters into the fine openings that

re scattered through the blood, it is the breathing in.

““~ And he mentions the instance of the clepsydra.

Aet. Plac. v. 7; 419. Empedokles: Male or female
are born according to warmth and coldness; whence he
records that the first males were born to the east and
south from the earth, and the females tothe north. v. 8;
420. Empedokles: Monstrosities are due to too much or

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toe litthe seed (semen), or to disturbance of motion, or to division into several parts, or to a bending aside. v. 10; 421. Empedokles: Twins and triplets are due to excess of seed and division of it. v.11; 422, Empedokles: Like- nesses (of children to parents) are due to power of the fruitful seed, and differences occur when the warmth in the seed is dissipated.’ v.12; 423. Empedokles: Offspring are formed according to the fancy of the woman at the time of conception ; for oftentimes women fall in love with images and statues, and bring forth offspring like these. v. 14; 425. Empedokles: (Mules are not fertile) be- cause the womb is small and low and narrow, and attached to the belly in a reverse manner, so that the seed does not go into it straight, nor would it receive the seed even if it should reach it. v.15; 425. Empedokles.: The embryo is [not] alive, but exists without breathing in the belly; and the first breath of the animal takes place at birth, when the moisture in infants gives way, and when the airy matter from without comes to the void, to enter into the openings of the lungs. v. 19; 480. Kmpedokles: The first generations of animals and plants were never complete, but were yoked with mcongruous — parts; and the second were forms of parts that belong together ; and the third, of parts grown into one whole; and the fourth were no longer from like parts, as for instance from earth and water, but from elements already permeating each other; for some the food being condensed, for others the fairness of the females causing an excitement of the motion of the seed. And the classes of all the animals were separated on account of such mixings; those more adapted to the water rushed into this, others sailed up into the air as many as had the more of fiery matter, and the heavier remained on the earth, and equal portions in the. mixture spoke in ' Cf. Galen, Hist. Phil. 118; Dox. 642.

Empedokles 229

the breasts of all. v. 22; 484. Empedokles: Flesh is the product of equal parts of the four elements mixed together, and sinews of double portions of fire and earth mixed together, and the claws of animals are the product of sinews chilled by contact with the air, and bones of two equal parts of water and of earth and four parts of fire mingled together. And sweat and tears come’ from blood as it wastes away, and flows out because it has become rarefied. v.24; 485. Empedokles: Sleep is a moderate cooling of the warmth in the blood, death a complete cool- ing. v. 25; 487. Empedokles: Death is a separation of the fiery matter out of the mixture of which the man is composed ; so that from this standpoint death of the body and of the soul happens together; and sleep is a separating of the fiery matter. v.26; 488. Empedokles : Trees first of living beings sprang from the earth, before the sun was unfolded in the heavens and before day and night were separated; and by reason of the symmetry _ of their mixture they contain the principle of male and female ; and they grow, being raised by the warmth that is in the earth, so that they are parts of the earth, just as the foetus in the belly is part of the womb; and the fruits are secretions of the water and fire in the plants; and those which lack (sufficient) moisture shed their leaves in summer when it is evaporated, but those which have more moisture keep their leaves, as in the case of the laurel and the olive and the date-palm ; and differences in their juices are (due to) variations in the number of their component parts, and the differences in plants arise because they derive their homoeomeries from (the earth which) nourishes them, as in the case of grape-vines; for it is not the kind of vine which makes wine good, but the kind of soil which nurtures it. v. 26; 440: Empedokles: Animals are nurtured by the substance of what is akin to them [moisture], and

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they grow with the presence of warmth, and grow smaller
and die when either of these is absent; and men of the
present time, as compared with the first living beings,
have been reduced to the size of infants (?). v.28; 440.
Empedokles : Desires arise in animals from a lack of the
elements that would render each one complete, and
pleasures...

Theophr. Phys. opin. 8; Dox. 478. Empedokles of Agrigentum makes the material elements four: fire and air and water and earth, all of them eternal, and changing in amount and smallness by composition and . separation; and the absolute first principles by which these four are set in motion, are Love and Strife ; for the elements must continue to be moved in turn, at one time being brought together by Love and at another separated by Strife; so that in his view there are six first principles ; for sometimes he gives the active power to Love and Strife, when he says (vv. 67-68): ‘Now being all united by Love into one, now each borne apart by hatred engendered of Strife;’ and again he ranks these as elements along with the four when he says (vv. 77-80) : ‘ And at another time it separated so that there were many out of the one; fire and water and earth and boundless height of air, and baneful Strife apart from these, balancing each of them, and Love among them, their equal in length and breadth.’

Fr. 28; Dox. 495. Some say that the sea is as it
were a sort of sweat from the earth; for when the earth
is warmed by the sun it gives forth moisture; accord-
ingly it is salt, for sweat is salt. Such was the opinion
of Empedokles. |

Theophr. de sens. 7; Dox. 500. Empedokles speaks in
like manner concerning all the senses, and says that we
perceive by a fitting into the pores of each sense. So they

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Empedokles 231

are not able to discern one another’s objects, for the pores of some are too wide and of others too narrow for the object of sensation, so that some things go right through untouched, and others are unable to enter com- letely. And he attempts to describe what vision is; and he says that what is in the eye is fire and water, and what surrounds it is earth and air, through which light being fine enters, as the light in lanterns. Pores of fire and water are set alternately, and the fire-pores recog- nise white objects, the water-pores black objects; for the colours harmonise with the pores. And the colours move into vision by means of effluences. And they are not composed alike ...and some of opposite elements ; for some the fire is within and for others it is on the out- side, so some animals see better in the daytime and others at night; those that have less fire see better by day, for the light inside them is balanced by the light outside them; and those that have less: water see better at night, for what is lacking is made up for them. And in the opposite case the contrary is true; for those that have the more fire are dim-sighted, since the fire increasing plasters up and covers the pores of water in the daytime; and for those that have water in excess, the same thing happens at night; for the fire is covered up by the water.... Until in the case of some the water is separated by the outside light, and in the case of others the fire by the air; for the cure of each is its opposite. That which is composed of both in equal parts is the best tempered and most excellent vision. This, approximately, is what he says con- cerning vision. And hearing is the result of noises coming from outside. For when (the air) is set in motion _. by a sound, there is an echo within; for the hearing is as if were a bell echoing within, and the ear he calls an ‘offshoot of flesh’ (v. 815): and the air when it is set

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in motion strikes on something hard and makes an echo.! And smell is connected with breathing, so those have the keenest smell whose breath moves most quickly ; and the strongest odour arises as an effluence from fine — and light bodies. But he makes no careful discrimina- tion with reference to taste and touch separately, either how or by what means they take place, except the general statement that sensation takes place by a fitting