DiotimosReading Desk

Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon
Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 12 · I.12.3.1–I.12.3.2

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Ancient Greek Page · Branch 172 of 879

Book I Chapter 12 · I.12.3.1–I.12.3.2

Ancient Greek

p. 340

3 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 1

I.12.3.1

Ζήνωνος ⟨καὶ τῶν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ⟩. Τὰ ἐννοήματά φασι μήτε τινὰ εἶναι μήτε ποιά, ὡσανεὶ δὲ τινὰ καὶ ὡσανεὶ ποιὰ φαντάσματα ψυχῆς· ταῦτα δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἰδέας προσαγορεύεσθαι. Τῶν γὰρ κατὰ τὰ ἐννοήματα ὑποπιπτόντων εἶναι τὰς ἰδέας, οἷον ἀνθρώπων, ἵππων, κοινότερον εἰπεῖν πάντων τῶν ζῴων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὁπόσων λέγουσιν ἰδέας εἶναι.

3 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 2

I.12.3.2

Ταύτας δὲ οἱ Στωικοὶ φιλόσοφοί φασιν ἀνυπάρκτους εἶναι καὶ τῶν μὲν ἐννοημάτων μετέχειν ἡμᾶς, τῶν δὲ πτώσεων, ἃς δὴ προσηγορίας καλοῦσι, τυγχάνειν.

340

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 12

p. 341

3 ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Zeno, part 1

I.12.3.1

Zeno ⟨and his followers⟩. They say that concepts are neither somethings nor qualified things, but images in the soul that are, as it were, somethings and, as it were, qualified things. These were called “ideas” by the ancients. For the ideas are of things falling under the concepts: for example, human beings and horses, or, more generally, all living creatures and all the other things of which they say there are ideas.386

3 ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Zeno, part 2

I.12.3.2

The Stoic philosophers say that these do not subsist, and that we participate in the concepts but obtain the “cases,” which they call “appellations.”387

341

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.