Footnotes

^51:1 Others translate: 'Muse of such things as it is lawful for mortals to hear, escort me from the realms of Piety, driving my well-harnessed car!'

Here there is probably a gap, where Empedocles takes up his address to Pausanias again.

^52:1 διασηθέντος (Diels), from διασήθω, 'sift'; but he translates: 'when my speech has passed through the sieve of your inward parts.' Clement read διατμηθέντος, which gives: 'when my argument has been analysed in your inner parts', a perfectly sound meaning.

^53:1 ἁπάντῃ (Sextus); Simplicius read ἑκαστον, which has been emended to ἑκάστῳ (Panzerbieter): 'equal in weight to each' (of the Elements).

^54:1 Empedocles probably used Philotês, not Philia; both words mean Love in the widest sense, not merely Eros.

^55:1 λυγρά is usually translated 'sorry', 'grieved'; but cp. Odyssey IV. 230: φάρμακα λυγρά.

^55:2 The Muse.

^56:1 Of this fragment, v. 3= B17, v. 34 and B21, v. 13; vv. 5, 6 = B17, vv. 7, 8; vv. 8-12 = B17, vv. 9-13.

^56:2 i.e., content with these conditions, self-sufficient.

^57:1 i.e., not yet fallen to the bottom.

^57:2 i.e., 'completely', so that no fault could be found with the mixture.

^57:3 ἥλιον Clem.; corrupt.

^59:1 σκιεροῖς (Kranz); Diels read στείροις ('sterile').

^59:2 ἀναμιμνήσκων, a dubious emendation by Diels for ἀμμίσγων, 'mingling' (male and female).

^59:3 ἁδρομελέστεροι: Karsten for MSS. ἀνδρωδέστεροι.

^60:1 εἴδεα. Diels read ἴδεα from ἴδος (damp heat).

^60:2 Plutarch, who quotes this, did not know the meaning of ὑπέρφλοιον, but was told by scholars that φλοίειν is used to mean 'to be in its prime', 'to flourish', and as the apple is the fruit which best preserves its prime, the poet called it 'of surpassing or enduring ripeness'. Empedocles is explaining the effect of the sun on various fruits.

^61:1 λοχάζετο here is intransitive. Burnet wrongly takes it as transitive and supplies 'she (Love)' as the subject. For the accusative κούρην cp. Hdt. v. 121, ἐλόχησαν ὁδόν 'occupied the road with an ambuscade'.

^61:2 This fragment concerns dyeing, as illustrative of the power of assimilation of one substance by another. The MSS. read κρόκου or κρόκον, for which Diels substituted κόκκος, 'berry'; and ἀκρίς, for which Wilamowitz suggested ἀκτῆς, from ἀκτέα, 'elder'. If the MSS. readings κρόκου and ἀκτίς be retained, the fragment can be more plausibly translated: 'The ray of bright(?) saffron mingles with the linen.' The emendations are ingenious but improbable.

^62:1 Klepsydra: not here the water-clock, but a domestic vessel for picking up small quantities of liquid out of a larger vessel. See Hugh Last, Class. Q. XVIII (1924), pp. 169 sqq. for description and illustration.

^62:2 ἠθμοῖο, the base of the water-catcher, pierced with holes through which the liquid enters. This, the reading of a few less good MSS., is probably correct. Burnet prefers the commoner ἰσθμοῖο (the control-pipe at the top of the vessel), because of δυσηχέος ('noisy'), which he thinks means 'gurgling', as when a bottle full of water is turned upside down; such an experiment is described in Aristotle, Probl. 943. But this is not to the point here: the water-catcher was not turned upside down, but the flow of liquid was regulated by opening and shutting the upper entrance with the hand.

^63:1 The hunting-dog is referred to. Smell, an emanation from the animal, is given off only when it is alive; hence, when dead, it does not leave traces of interest to other animals.

^64:1 Reading corrupt.

^64:2 ὤσπερ ἔοικα. Diels translated this 'as I deserve', which, as Kranz says, is impossible. Another reading is ἔοικε, 'as is proper'. See Companion, p. 178, note.

^65:1 ἔργα τε ῥευστά. Diels (followed by Burnet) thought that this referred to floods; but bodily ailments are here in question. Bignone suggested 'works of dissolution'. Kranz translates 'the work of Rheuma', i.e. of diseases due to excess of the moist element, as opposed to fevers ('wasting diseases').

^67:1 vv. 1, 2, = B29, vv. 1, 2.

^67:2 Divine law as opposed to human law; said to refer in particular to the prohibition of animal-slaughter.

^67:3 οἱ δ᾽ ἀπορεῦνται, emendation of Diels, who takes 'they' as 'the attendants at the sacrifice'. If the MSS. reading of δὲ πορεῦνται λισσόεμνοι be retained, the meaning is: 'they (the victims) come up to beg for mercy'.

^68:1 An uncertain restoration by Diels of a passage quoted for grammatical reasons, from the Herculanean MSS.

^68:2 Quoted by Plutarch to show that Empedocles does not use epithets idly for the sake of fine writing, but in order to bring out the exact nature or function of something.

^68:3 Connected with Demeter in Orphic mythology; said to have been used by Empedocles to mean 'belly'.