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.52.19.5–I.52.19.7

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 823 of 879

Book I Chapter 52 · I.52.19.5–I.52.19.7

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Ancient Greek

p. 1642

19.5

I.52.19.5

Παύεταί τε οὖν ὁρῶν, ἔτι τε ἐπαγωγὸν ὕπνου γίγνεται· σωτηρίαν γὰρ ἣν οἱ θεοὶ τῆς ὄψεως ἕνεκα ἐμηχανήσαντο, τὴν τῶν βλεφάρων φύσιν, ὅταν ταῦτα συμμύσῃ, καθείργνυσι τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς ἐντὸς δύναμιν, ἡ δὲ διαχεῖται καὶ ὁμαλύνει τὰς ἐντὸς κινήσεις, ὁμαλυνθεισῶν δὲ ἡσυχία γίγνεται, γενομένης δὲ πολλῆς μὲν ἡσυχίας βραχυόνειρος ὕπνος ξυμπίπτει,

19.6

I.52.19.6

καταλειφθεισῶν δέ τινων κινήσεων μειζόνων, οἷα καὶ ἐν οἵοις ἂν τόποις λίπωνται, τοιαῦτα καὶ τοσαῦτα παρέσχον τὰ ἀφομοιωθέντα ἐντὸς ἔξωθέν τε ἐγερθεῖσιν ἀπομνημονευόμενα φαντάσματα.

19.7

I.52.19.7

Τὸ δὲ περὶ τὴν τῶν κατόπτρων εἰδωλοποιίαν, καὶ πάντα ὅσα ἐμφανῆ καὶ λεῖα κατιδεῖν οὐδὲν ἔτι χαλεπόν· ἐκ γὰρ τῆς ἐντὸς ἐκτός τε τοῦ πυρὸς ἑκατέρου κοινωνίας ἀλλήλοις, ἑνός τε αὖ περὶ τὴν λειότητα ἑκάστοτε γενομένου καὶ πολλαχῇ μεταρρυθμισθέντος, πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐμφαίνεται, τοῦ περὶ τὸ πρόσωπον πυρὸς τῷ περὶ τὴν ὄψιν πυρὶ περὶ τὸ λεῖον καὶ λαμπρὸν ξυμπαγεῖ γιγνομένῳ.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 52

p. 1643

19.5 · The eyelids and sleep

I.52.19.5

“The perceiver therefore ceases to see, and the condition also induces sleep. For when one closes the eyelids, that structure which the gods contrived to safeguard sight, it confines the power of the fire within. This power spreads out and smooths the internal movements. When they are smoothed, quiet arises; and when the quiet is great, sleep with few dreams follows.”²⁰⁰⁰

19.6 · Residual movements and dreams

I.52.19.6

“But if some stronger movements remain, then, according to their character and the places where they remain, they produce images corresponding in kind and number, formed as likenesses within and remembered by those awakened from outside.”²⁰⁰¹

19.7 · Images on smooth surfaces

I.52.19.7

“It is no longer at all difficult to understand the production of images in mirrors and in all clear, smooth surfaces. For through the sharing of the inner and outer fires with one another, and their repeatedly becoming one at the smooth surface and being reshaped in many ways, all such appearances necessarily arise: the fire around the face joins firmly with the fire of vision as it forms at the smooth, bright surface.”²⁰⁰²

2000.The Greek shifts construction around the eyelids and their closure; the English makes the practical sequence explicit. Brachyoneiros means having few or slight dreams, not sleeping briefly. The account relates the degree of inner stillness to the character of sleep.

2001.The difficult printed construction is retained provisionally. The words exōthen te egertheisin are taken as by those awakened from outside; the apparatus records exō in the direct Platonic tradition, but it is not substituted. Phantasmata are the dream appearances produced by residual motions. Their correspondence concerns both character and number, toiauta kai tosauta.

2002.The explanation extends the joining of inner and outer fire to reflected images. Metarrythmisthen means rearranged or reshaped. The final participial construction is difficult; the English follows the printed dative xympagei gignomenōi, treating it as describing the visual fire at the surface, rather than replacing it with a different Platonic reading.

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.