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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 50 · I.50.38.1–I.50.38.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 808 of 879

Book I Chapter 50 · I.50.38.1–I.50.38.2

Ancient Greek

p. 1612

38.1

I.50.38.1

Ἐν ταὐτῷ.

Μὴ τοίνυν ἀπολίπωμεν ὅσον ἐλλεῖπον αὐτοῦ. Λείπεται δὲ ἐνυπνίων τε πέρι καὶ νόσων τε τῶν ἄλλων καὶ μανίας, ὅσα τε παρακούειν ἢ παρορᾶν ἤ τι ἄλλο παραισθάνεσθαι λέγεται. Οἶσθα γάρ που ὅτι ἐν πᾶσι τούτοις ὁμολογουμένως ἐλέγχεσθαι δοκεῖ ὃν ἄρτι διῄειμεν λόγον, ὥστε παντὸς μᾶλλον ἂν ἡμῖν ψευδεῖς αἰσθήσεις ἐν αὐτοῖς γιγνομένας, καὶ πολλοῦ δεῖ τὰ φαινόμενα ἑκάστῳ ταῦτα καὶ εἶναι, ἀλλὰ πᾶν τοὐναντίον οὐδὲν ὧν φαίνεται εἶναι.

38.2

I.50.38.2

Ἀληθέστατα λέγεις, ὦ Σώκρατες.

Τίς δὴ οὖν, ὦ παῖ, λείπεται λόγος τῷ τὴν αἴσθησιν ἐπιστήμην τιθεμένῳ καὶ τὰ φαινόμενα ἑκάστῳ ταῦτα εἶναι τούτῳ ᾧ φαίνεται;

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Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 50

p. 1613

38.1 · Dreams and mistaken perceptions

I.50.38.1

In the same work.

“Let us not leave out what remains of the account. There remain dreams, other illnesses, madness, and everything called mishearing, misseeing, or some other mistaken perception. You surely know that all these are generally thought to refute the argument we have just been going through: in such cases our perceptions would above all be false, and it is far from true that the things appearing to each person actually are so. Quite the reverse: none of what appears is so.”1957

38.2 · The challenge to perception as knowledge

I.50.38.2

“What you say is entirely true, Socrates.”

“What argument, then, my boy, remains for someone who maintains that perception is knowledge, and that what appears to each person is so for the person to whom it appears?”1958

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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.