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 20 · I.20.10.1–I.20.10.2

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Book I Chapter 20 · I.20.10.1–I.20.10.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 490

10 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · 1

I.20.10.1

Θεοὶ θεῶν, ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργὸς πατήρ τε ἔργων, ἃ δι’ ἐμοῦ γιγνόμενα ἄλυτα ἐμοῦ γε θέλοντος. Τὸ μὲν οὖν δὴ δεθὲν πᾶν λυτόν· τό γε μὴν καλῶς ἁρμοσθὲν καὶ ἔχον εὖ λύειν θέλειν κακοῦ.

10 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · 2

I.20.10.2

Διὸ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐπείπερ γεγένησθε, ἀθάνατοι μὲν οὐκ ἐστέ, οὐδ’ ἄλυτοι τὸ πάμπαν, οὔτι μὲν δὴ λυθήσεσθέ γε, οὐδὲ τεύξεσθε θανάτου μοίρας, τῆς ἐμῆς βουλήσεως μείζονος ἔτι δεσμοῦ καὶ κυριωτέρου λαχόντες ἐκείνων, οἷς ὅτε ἐγίγνεσθε συνεδεῖσθε.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 20

p. 491

10 In the same work: The maker’s address

I.20.10.1

“Gods of gods, works whose maker and father I am: what comes into being through me cannot be dissolved while I will it so.⁶¹⁴ Everything that has been bound can indeed be loosened; yet to wish to dissolve what has been well fitted together and is in a good condition belongs to an evil being.”⁶¹⁵

10 Plato: A bond stronger than death

I.20.10.2

“Therefore, since you too have come into being, you are not altogether immortal or indissoluble. Nevertheless, you will certainly not be dissolved or meet with death as your lot, for you have received in my will a bond still greater and more sovereign than those with which you were bound together when you came into being.”⁶¹⁶

614.Timaeus 41a-b: the maker addresses the generated gods. The compressed opening “gods of gods” is retained; it is often understood as “gods, offspring of gods.” The relation of “works” to the preceding relative clause is difficult. The English gives the general sense without inserting an unmarked genealogy.

615.The statement distinguishes a composite thing’s capacity to be dissolved from the goodness of the maker who preserves it. The qualification “while I will it so” follows Stobaeus’s wording; the gods’ continued existence depends upon that will.

616.“Not altogether” qualifies the gods’ intrinsic immunity from death: as things that have come into being, they are capable of dissolution. Their actual preservation is guaranteed by the maker’s will. This assurance, rather than a denial of their generation, concludes the chapter.

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.