Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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 5 · I.5.heading–I.5.3

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Book I Chapter 5 · I.5.heading–I.5.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 166

Κεφάλαιον Εʹ

I.5.heading

Περὶ εἱμαρμένης καὶ τῆς τῶν γινομένων εὐταξίας.

1 Ὁμήρου Ἰλιάδος

I.5.1

Μοῖραν δ’ οὔτινά φημι πεφυγμένον ἔμμεναι ἀνδρῶν, οὐ κακόν, οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλόν, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται.

2 Εὐριπίδου Ἀνδρομέδας

I.5.2

… τὸ δαιμόνιον οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅπῃ μοίρας διεξέρχεται; στρέφει δ’ ἄλλοτ’ ἄλλως εἰς ἁμέραν.

3 Βακχυλίδου

I.5.3

Θνατοῖσι δ’ οὐκ αὐθαίρετοι οὔτ’ ὄλβος, οὔτ’ ἄκαμπτος ἄρης, οὔτε πάμφθερσις στάσις· ἀλλ’ ἐπιχρίμπτει νέφος ἄλλοτ’ ἐπ’ ἄλλαν γαῖαν ἁ πάνδωρος αἶσα.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 5

p. 167

Chapter 5: Fate and the order of events

I.5.heading

On fate and the orderly arrangement of what comes to pass.¹⁸⁰

1 Homer, Iliad

I.5.1

No man, I say, has ever escaped his fate, neither coward nor brave, once he has been born.¹⁸¹

2 Euripides, Andromeda

I.5.2

… Do you not see the divine power, how it passes through the allotments of fate? It turns now this way, now that, from day to day.¹⁸²

3 Bacchylides

I.5.3

Mortals cannot choose for themselves prosperity, unyielding war, or all-destroying civil strife; all-giving Fate brings a cloud close now over one land, now another.¹⁸³

180.The chapter’s chief term, heimarmenē, is usually translated “fate.” The poems also use Moira and Aisa, words associated with an allotted portion or lot. Personified Fate, the three Fates, and philosophical accounts of causal order remain distinguishable in the translation.

181.Iliad 6.488-489. Kakos and esthlos are rendered here as cowardly and brave, preserving the contrast in the warrior’s speech rather than imposing an exclusively moral opposition between wicked and good.

182.The source begins the excerpt with dots. “Allotments of fate” renders the plural moiras; the apparatus records uncertainty over that form and over the wording of the final line. The English follows the printed text.

183.“All-giving” translates pandōros: Fate dispenses painful as well as welcome conditions. Arēs, the war-god’s name, is used here for war; stasis is internal conflict or civil strife.

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.