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 52 · I.52.13–I.52.15

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 819 of 879

Book I Chapter 52 · I.52.13–I.52.15

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Ancient Greek

p. 1634

13

I.52.13

Ἑστιαῖος ὁ Περίνθιος τοῖς εἰδώλοις τὰς ἀκτῖνας ἀνέμιξε, προσαγορεύσας τὸ γιγνόμενον ἀκτινείδωλον.

14

I.52.14

⟨Ἀετίου.⟩

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς κατ᾽ ἀπορροίας τὰς συνισταμένας μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ κατόπτρου, πιλουμένας δ᾽ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐκκρινομένου ἐκ τοῦ κατόπτρου πυρώδους καὶ τὸν προκείμενον ἀέρα, εἰς ὃν φέρεται τὰ ῥεύματα, συμμεταφέροντος.

15

I.52.15

Λεύκιππος, Δημόκριτος, Ἐπίκουρος τὰς κατοπτρικὰς ἐμφάσεις γίνεσθαι κατ᾽ εἰδώλων ἐμφάσεις, ἅ τινα φέρεσθαι μὲν ἀφ᾽ ἡμῶν, συνίστασθαι δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ κατόπτρου κατ᾽ ἀντιπεριστροπήν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 52

p. 1635

13 · The ray-image

I.52.13

Hestiaeus of Perinthus mixed rays with images, calling the result a ray-image.¹⁹⁸⁸

14 · Effluences at a mirror

I.52.14

⟨Aëtius.⟩

Empedocles explains mirror images through effluences that collect on the mirror’s surface and are compacted by the fiery element emitted from the mirror, which also carries along the air in front of it, into which the streams travel.¹⁹⁸⁹

15 · Images turned about

I.52.15

Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus hold that appearances in mirrors arise through appearances of images, which travel from us and collect on the mirror with a turning about in the opposite direction.¹⁹⁹⁰

1988.The compound aktineidōlon joins aktis, ray, and eidōlon, image. The unusual English compound reproduces this deliberate fusion of the two explanatory terms. The name follows the main text’s corrected reading.

1989.The supplied group attribution covers excerpts 14-16: Aëtius IV.14.1-4, Diels p. 405 and following. Pileisthai suggests being pressed or felted together. The English takes the fiery element as both compacting the effluences and carrying the air, following the linked participles of the printed construction.

1990.The repeated emphaseis, appearances, follows the printed text, though the apparatus discusses several alternatives for the second occurrence. Antiperistrophē describes an opposite turning or reversal; the excerpt does not explain the precise geometry. The mirror image is traced to images traveling from the viewer.

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.