Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 8 · I.8.39.1–I.8.39.2
Ancient Greek
p. 24039 Ἐκ τῶν Βίωνος Βουκολικῶν
39 Βίωνος· συνέχεια
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 8
p. 24139 Bion, Bucolic Poems
“Myrson, which delights you: spring, winter, autumn, or summer? Which do you most pray will come? Summer, when all we labor for comes to fulfillment? Sweet autumn, when hunger weighs lightly on people? Or even winter, when work is hard? For in winter many, keeping warm, delight in idleness and ease. Or has lovely spring pleased you more? Tell me what your heart chooses: our leisure lets us talk.”273
39 Bion, continued
“Mortals should not sit in judgment on divine works, for all these things are sacred and delightful. Yet for your sake, Cleodamus, I shall tell what I find sweeter than the others. I do not want summer, for then the sun scorches me; I do not want autumn, for its seasonal fruits breed sickness; I fear destructive winter, bringing snowfall and frost. May much-desired spring stay with me the whole year, when neither cold nor sun weighs upon us. In spring everything conceives; in spring all sweet things sprout, and for people night is equal to day.”274
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 8 · I.8.39.1–I.8.39.2
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.