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Book I Chapter 30 · I.30.1.3–I.30.1.5
Ancient Greek
p. 6921 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3
Πῶς οὖν γίγνεται; Ὁρῶμεν δὴ κατὰ γραμμάς, ἢ κατ᾽ εὐθείας ἢ κατὰ καμπύλας ἢ κατὰ ἀνακλωμένας, γραμμὰς δὴ λόγῳ θεωρητὰς καὶ ἀσωμάτους.
1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 4
Κατὰ μὲν οὖν εὐθείας ὁρῶμεν τὰ ἐν ἀέρι καὶ τὰ διὰ τῶν λίθων τῶν διαυγῶν καὶ κεράτων, λεπτομερῆ γὰρ ταῦτα πάντα. ⟨Κατὰ⟩ καμπύλας δὲ γραμμὰς καθ᾽ ὕδατος βλέπομεν· κάμπτεται γὰρ ἡ ὄψις βίᾳ διὰ τὴν πυκνοτέραν τοῦ ὕδατος ὕλην· διὸ καὶ τὴν κώπην ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ μακρόθεν καμπτομένην βλέπομεν.
1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 5
Τρίτος τρόπος τοῦ βλέπειν τὰ ἀνακλώμενα, ὡς τὰ κατοπτρικά. Ἔστιν οὖν τὸ τῆς ἴριδος πάθος τοιοῦτον. δεῖ γὰρ ἐπινοῆσαι τὴν ὑγρὰν ἀναθυμίασιν εἰς νέφος μεταβάλλουσαν, εἶτα ἐκ τούτου κατὰ βραχὺ εἰς μικρὰς ῥανίδας νοτιζούσας. Ὅταν οὖν ὁ ἥλιος γένηται ἐν δυσμαῖς, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα ἶριν ἄντικρυς ἡλίου φαίνεσθαι· τότε γὰρ ἡ ὄψις προσπεσοῦσα ταῖς ῥανίσιν ἀνακλᾶται, ὥστε γίγνεσθαι τὴν ἶριν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 30
p. 6931 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Three paths of sight
How, then, does it arise? We see along lines, either straight, bent, or reflected: lines apprehensible by reason and without bodily substance.890
1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Straight and bent paths
Along straight lines we see things in air, and things through transparent stones and horn, for all these consist of fine particles. ⟨Along⟩ bent lines we see things beneath water: sight is forcibly bent because the material of water is denser. This is also why, from a distance, we see an oar in the sea as bent.891
1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Reflection from droplets
The third manner of seeing concerns reflected things, such as images in mirrors. The phenomenon of the rainbow is of this kind. We must conceive of the moist exhalation changing into cloud, and then gradually from cloud into small, moist droplets. When the sun is in the west, the rainbow must appear opposite the sun: sight then strikes the droplets and is reflected, so producing the rainbow.
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 30 · I.30.1.3–I.30.1.5
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.