Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 10 · I.10.heading–I.10.4

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Book I Chapter 10 · I.10.heading–I.10.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 288

Κεφάλαιον Ιʹ

I.10.heading

Περὶ ἀρχῶν καὶ στοιχείων τοῦ παντός.

1 Ἡσιόδου Θεογονίας

I.10.1

Ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα χάος γένετ’, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα Γαῖ’ εὐρύστερνος, πάντων ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ ἀθανάτων, οἳ ἔχουσι κάρη νιφόεντος Ὀλύμπου, Τάρταρά τ’ ἠερόεντα μυχῷ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης.

2 Ὁμήρου

I.10.2

Ὠκεανός θ’ ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται.

3 Ὀρφέως

I.10.3

Ἓν ⟨δὲ⟩ δέμας βασίλειον, ἐν ᾧ τάδε πάντα κυκλεῖται, πῦρ ⟨καὶ⟩ ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα καὶ αἰθήρ, νύξ τε καὶ ἦμαρ.

4 ⟨Ὁμήρου⟩

I.10.4

Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 10

p. 289

Chapter 10: Principles and Elements

I.10.heading

On the principles and elements of the universe.³²²

1 Hesiod, Theogony (116-119)

I.10.1

First of all Chaos came to be; then broad-breasted Earth, the ever-secure seat of all the immortals who possess snowy Olympus’s summit, and misty Tartarus in the depths of the broad-pathed earth.³²³

2 Homer, Iliad (14.246)

I.10.2

And Oceanus, who is the source from which all have sprung.

3 Orpheus

I.10.3

⟨And⟩ one sovereign body, within which all these circle: fire ⟨and⟩ water and earth and aether, night and day.³²⁴

4 ⟨Homer, Iliad (14.201)⟩

I.10.4

And Oceanus, source of the gods, and mother Tethys.³²⁵

322.Archai are origins or explanatory first principles; stoicheia are constituent elements. Their relation is itself disputed in the chapter, especially in excerpts 16b and 16c. The ancient elements should not be identified with the elements of modern chemistry.

323.Compare I.9.5, where the selection instead proceeds to Love. Here Tartarus, the deep region beneath the earth, completes the extract. Chaos is the primordial gap or chasm.

324.The excerpt presents the world’s constituents within one sovereign body. Aether names the upper, luminous region of the sky; its precise physical role varies among the authors collected here. The attribution is the source’s heading.

325.Oceanus and Tethys recur in excerpt 8 as a primordial married pair, and in 11b within an allegorical interpretation of Homer.

About This Reading Edition

Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.

Historical Text and Translation

The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.