CHAPTER V EMPEDOKLES OF AKRAGAS · 4

How tall trees and the fishes in the sea....

And even as at that time Kypris, preparing warmth,[562] after she had moistened the Earth in water, gave it to swift fire to harden it.... R. P. 171.

Leading the songless tribe of fertile fish.

All of those which are dense within and rare without, having received a moisture of this kind at the hands of Kypris....

This thou mayest see in the heavy-backed shell-fish that dwell in the sea, in sea-snails and the stony-skinned turtles. In them thou mayest see that the earthy part dwells on the uppermost surface.

It is the air that makes evergreen trees flourish with abundance of fruit the whole year round.

And so first of all tall olive trees bear eggs....

Wherefore pomegranates are late-born and apples succulent.

Wine is the water from the bark, putrefied in the wood.

Hair and leaves, and thick feathers of birds, and the scales that grow on mighty limbs, are the same thing.

But the hair of hedgehogs is sharp-pointed and bristles on their backs.

And even as when a man thinking to sally forth through a stormy night, gets him ready a lantern, a flame of blazing fire, fastening to it horn plates to keep out all manner of winds, and they scatter the blast of the winds that blow, but the light leaping out through them, shines across the threshold 5 with unfailing beams, as much of it as is finer;[563] even so did she (Love) then entrap the elemental fire, the round pupil, confined within membranes and delicate tissues, which are pierced through and through with wondrous passages. They keep out the deep water that surrounds the pupil, but they 10 let through the fire, as much of it as is finer. R. P. 177 b.

But the gentle flame (of the eye) has but a scanty portion of earth.

Out of these divine Aphrodite fashioned unwearying eyes.

Aphrodite fitting these together with rivets of love.

One vision is produced by both the eyes.

Know that effluences flow from all things that have come into being. R. P. 166 h.

So sweet lays hold of sweet, and bitter rushes to bitter; acid comes to acid, and warm couples with warm.

Water fits better into wine, but it will not (mingle) with oil. R. P. 166 h.

Brass mixed with tin.

The berry of the blue elder is mingled with scarlet.

And the black colour at the bottom of a river arises from the shadow. The same is seen in hollow caves.

Since they (the eyes) first grew together in the hands of Kypris.

The kindly earth received in its broad funnels two parts of gleaming Nestis out of the eight, and four of Hephaistos. So arose white bones divinely fitted together by the cement of proportion. R. P. 175.

The spine (was broken).

And the earth, anchoring in the perfect harbours of Aphrodite, meets with these in nearly equal proportions, 253with Hephaistos and Water and gleaming Air—either a little more of it, or less of them and more of it. From these did blood arise and the manifold forms of flesh. R. P. 175 c.

The bell... the fleshy sprout (of the ear).[564]

Thus[565] do all things draw breath and breathe it out again. All have bloodless tubes of flesh extended over the surface of their bodies; and at the mouths of these the outermost surface of the skin is perforated all over with pores closely packed together, so as to keep in the blood while a free 5 passage is cut for the air to pass through. Then, when the thin blood recedes from these, the bubbling air rushes in with an impetuous surge; and when the blood runs back it is breathed out again. Just as when a girl, playing with a water-clock of shining brass, puts the orifice of the pipe upon 10 her comely hand, and dips the water-clock into the yielding mass of silvery water,—the stream does not then flow into the vessel, but the bulk of the air inside, pressing upon the close-packed perforations, keeps it out till she uncovers the compressed stream; but then air escapes and an equal volume 15 of water runs in,—just in the same way, when water occupies the depths of the brazen vessel and the opening and passage is stopped up by the human hand, the air outside, striving to get in, holds the water back at the gates of the ill-sounding neck, pressing upon its surface, till she lets go with her hand. 20 Then, on the contrary, just in the opposite way to what 254happened before, the wind rushes in and an equal volume of water runs out to make room.[566] Even so, when the thin blood that surges through the limbs rushes backwards to the interior, straightway the stream of air comes in with a rushing swell; 25 but when the blood returns the air breathes out again in equal quantity.

(The dog) with its nostrils tracking out the fragments of the beast’s limbs, and the breath from their feet that they leave in the soft grass.[567]

Thus all things have their share of breath and smell.