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Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.1–I.21.9.2
Ancient Greek
p. 5169 Ἑρμοῦ ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς Τάτ · 1
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Ἐπεί μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν γενικοῖς λόγοις ὑπέσχου δηλῶσαι περὶ τῶν τριάκοντα ἓξ δεκανῶν, νῦν μοι δήλωσον περὶ αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς τούτων ἐνεργείας.
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Οὐδεὶς φθόνος, ὦ Τάτ, καὶ ὁ κυριώτατος πάντων λόγος καὶ κορυφαιότατος οὗτος ἂν εἴη· σὺ δὲ νόει οὕτως. Ἔφαμέν σοι περὶ τοῦ ζωδιακοῦ κύκλου, τοῦ καὶ ζῳοφόρου, καὶ τῶν πέντε πλανητῶν καὶ ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ τοῦ ἑκάστου τούτων κύκλου.
9 Ἑρμοῦ · 2
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Ἔφης γάρ, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε.
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Οὕτως βούλομαί σε νοεῖν καὶ περὶ τῶν τριάκοντα ἓξ δεκανῶν μεμνημένον ἐκείνων, ἵν᾽ εὔγνωστός σοι καὶ ὁ περὶ τούτων λόγος γένηται.
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Μέμνημαι, ὦ πάτερ.
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Ἔφαμέν που, ὦ τέκνον, περιεκτικὸν τῶν ἁπάντων εἶναι σῶμα· ἐννόησον οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὥσπερ κυκλοειδὲς σχῆμα· καὶ γὰρ οὕτως ἔχει τὸ πᾶν.
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Τοιοῦτον σχῆμα νοῶ οὕτως ὡς λέγεις, ὦ πάτερ.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 5179 Hermes, From the Discourse to Tat
⟨TAT⟩ In your earlier general discourses you promised to explain the thirty-six decans to me. Now explain them and their activity.
⟨HERMES⟩ I withhold nothing, Tat; this would be the most authoritative and highest of all discourses. Understand it in this way. We spoke to you about the zodiacal circle, also called the sign-bearing circle, and about the five planets, the sun, the moon, and the circle of each of them.650
9 Hermes: Preparing the image
⟨TAT⟩ You did indeed, Trismegistus.
⟨HERMES⟩ I want you to understand the thirty-six decans in the same way, remembering those earlier matters so that the account of these too may be clear to you.
⟨TAT⟩ I remember, father.
⟨HERMES⟩ We said, my child, that there is a body enclosing everything. Picture for yourself a circular shape, for that is how the universe is formed.
⟨TAT⟩ I picture such a shape just as you describe it, father.651
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.1–I.21.9.2
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.