Humanitext Reader

Theophrastus · Fragments §116.1

The Potency of Mixtures and a Verse of Empedocles

Passage 121 of 196 · Greek

Summary

Theophrastus, in his work On Drunkenness, quotes verses of Empedocles to support his claim that a mixture is more potent.

§116.1Fr. 116 Θ. ἐν τῷ περὶ μέθης ζωρότερον φησὶν εἶναι τὸ κεκραμένον παρατιθέμενος Ἐμπεδοκλέους τάδε· "αἶψα δὲ θνητὰ φύοντο τὰ πρὶν μάθον ἀθάνατʼ εἶναι, ζωρά τε τὰ πρὶν ἄκρητα διαλλάσσοντα κελεύθους. "
Fr. 116 Theophrastus in his On Drunkenness says that what is mixed is more potent, quoting these words of Empedocles: "And immediately things grew mortal that before had learned to be immortal, and mixed things that before were unmixed, exchanging their paths."

Notes

  1. §116.1Θ. — An abbreviation by the initial letter for the proper name Θεόφραστος (Theophrastus) in the manuscript tradition.
  2. §116.1ζωρότερον — The comparative of the adjective ζωρός (originally 'sheer, unmixed'). Here it is interpreted and used by Theophrastus in the sense of 'better mixed and more potent (easier to intoxicate),' and the following quotation of Empedocles is presented as evidence for this usage.
  3. §116.1τὰ πρὶν μάθον — The article τά functions here as a poetic relative pronoun, meaning 'things which...'. μάθον is an epic form of the strong aorist third-person plural ἔμαθον with the loss of the augment.
  4. §116.1διαλλάσσοντα κελεύθους — A present active participle in the neuter plural nominative, agreeing with the subject τὰ πρὶν ἄκρητα. Used transitively, meaning 'exchanging or crossing paths,' describing the movement of the mixing process.

Cite this passage

Theophrastus, Fragments §116.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0093.tlg010x09.humanitext-grc1:116.1

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