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 17 · I.17.3.3–I.17.3.4

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English Page · Branch 200 of 879

Book I Chapter 17 · I.17.3.3–I.17.3.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 396

3 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 3

I.17.3.3

καὶ τοιαύτην περίοδον αἰεὶ καὶ διακόσμησιν ποιουμένου τὸν ἐν τῇ τῶν ὅλων οὐσίᾳ τόνον μὴ παύεσθαι. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἑνός τινος τὰ μέρη πάντα φύεται ἐκ σπερμάτων ἐν τοῖς καθήκουσι χρόνοις, οὕτω καὶ τοῦ ὅλου τὰ μέρη, ὧν καὶ τὰ ζῷα καὶ τὰ φυτὰ ὄντα τυγχάνει, ἐν τοῖς καθήκουσι χρόνοις φύεται.

3 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 4

I.17.3.4

Καὶ ὥσπερ τινὲς λόγοι τῶν μερῶν εἰς σπέρμα συνιόντες μίγνυνται καὶ αὖθις διακρίνονται γενομένων τῶν μερῶν, οὕτως ἐξ ἑνός τε πάντα γίγνεσθαι καὶ ἐκ πάντων [εἰς] ἓν συγκρίνεσθαι, ὁδῷ καὶ συμφώνως διεξιούσης τῆς περιόδου.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 17

p. 397

3 ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Cleanthes, part 2

I.17.3.3

As it continually carries out such a cycle and ordering, the tension in the substance of all things never ceases.⁴⁷⁵ For just as all the parts of a single individual grow from seeds at their proper times, so too the parts of the whole, among which are animals and plants, grow at their proper times.⁴⁷⁶

3 ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Cleanthes, part 3

I.17.3.4

And just as certain principles of the parts come together into a seed and are mixed, and are separated again when the parts have come into being, so all things arise from one, and from all things one is compounded [into], as the cycle proceeds in an orderly and harmonious way.⁴⁷⁷

475.The opening construction is difficult. This rendering takes fire as the implicit subject of “carrying out,” while “tension” is the subject of “never ceases.” Wachsmuth follows the correction ton ... tonon, an accusative, in place of the transmitted genitive tou ... tonou. His apparatus also records a proposal to insert “the fire” after the participle; the facing Greek does not add those words.

476.Tonos is tension or tautness, here a continuing condition within the substance of the world. The comparison treats the development of the whole through the pattern of an individual’s growth, with parts appearing at their appropriate times.

477.The logoi here are principles of the developing parts, gathered in the seed before those parts emerge distinctly. The rejected eis, “into,” is retained in brackets after the English verb; it should be omitted in a continuous reading. The remaining construction makes “one” the thing compounded from all things.

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.