Call them hollow, not empty — for they are full of air
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Asclepius — Πῶς λέγεις, ὦ τρισμέγιστε;
Hermes — Οὐ σῶμά ἐστιν ὁ ἀήρ;
Asclepius — Σῶμα.
Hermes — Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ σῶμα οὐ διὰ πάντων διήκει τῶν ὄντων, καὶ πάντα διῆκον πληροῖ; σῶμα δὲ οὐκ ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων κεκραμένον συνέστηκε; μεστὰ οὖν πάντα ἐστίν, ἃ σὺ φῂς κενά, τοῦ ἀέρος, εἰ δὲ τοῦ ἀέρος, καὶ τῶν τεσσάρων σωμάτων· καὶ συμβαίνει ὁ ἐναντίος λόγος ἐκφαίνεσθαι, ὅτι ἃ σὺ φῂς μεστά, ταῦτα πάντα κενά ἐστι τοῦ ἀέρος, ἐκείνων ὑπ' ἄλλων σωμάτων στενοχωρουμένων καὶ μὴ ἐχόντων δέξασθαι τὸν ἀέρα ἐν τόπῳ αὐτῶν. ταῦτα οὖν, ἃ σὺ φῂς εἶναι κενά, κοῖλα δεῖ ὀνομάζειν, οὐ κενά· ὑπάρχει γὰρ καὶ μεστά ἐστιν ἀέρος καὶ πνεύματος.
How do you say this, O Thrice-greatest? — Is the air not a body? — A body. — And does this body not pervade all the things that are, and, pervading them, fill them? And is not body composed, blended out of the four elements? Full, then, are all the things you call empty — full of air; and if of air, then of the four bodies too. And the contrary conclusion comes to light: that the things you call full are all empty of air, being so cramped by other bodies that they have no room to receive the air in their place. These, then, which you say to be empty, one must name hollow, not empty; for they are real, and full of air and of spirit.
Hermes proves there is no void by pointing to air. Is not the air a body? Asclepius agrees. Then this body pervades all that exists and, pervading, fills them; and body is compounded of the four elements. So the things you call empty are full — of air; and if of air, then of the four elemental bodies. The contrary conclusion follows: what you call full are empty of air, being so cramped by other bodies that they cannot admit it. Therefore the things you call empty should be named hollow, not empty — for they exist, and are full of air and spirit.
Hermes turns the abstract plenism of II.10 into a physical demonstration, and the instrument is air. The steps are put as questions Asclepius must grant: air is a body; that body goes through everything and, going through, fills it; and every body is a blend (κεκραμένον) of the four elements. It follows that the 'empty' jar is full — of air — and therefore of the four elemental bodies air carries with it. The interlinear keeps διήκω ('pervade') and πληρόω ('fill') adjacent so the reader watches the void being crowded out step by step. The doctrine is thoroughly Stoic: a continuous, body-pervading medium (here air, elsewhere πνεῦμα) that leaves no gap.
Then Hermes springs the reversal — 'the contrary argument comes to light (ὁ ἐναντίος λόγος ἐκφαίνεσθαι)': the things we call full (of water, of grain) are actually empty of air, since other bodies cramp them (στενοχωρουμένων) and leave no room for it. Fullness and emptiness trade places depending on what you measure. The section ends on a point that is almost lexical: these vessels should be called κοῖλα, 'hollow,' not κενά, 'empty.' It is the same move as II.9's 'name it hollow' precision about the mover — Hermetic teaching correcting the world one wrongly-used word at a time. Nothing is empty; the cosmos is full of air and πνεῦμα, and the last word of the section — 'spirit' — quietly lifts a physics lesson back toward the divine breath that has run through the treatise from the start.
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