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 40 · I.40.heading–I.40.1.2

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Book I Chapter 40 · I.40.heading–I.40.1.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 762

Κεφάλαιον Μʹ

I.40.heading

Περὶ τοῦ παντός.

Ἐκ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον ἐπιστολῆς.

1

I.40.1.1

⟨κεφ. 2⟩ Κόσμος μὲν οὖν ἐστι σύστημα ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν τούτοις περιεχομένων φύσεων. Λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὁ κόσμος ἑτέρως, ἡ τῶν ὅλων τάξις τε καὶ διακόσμησις ὑπὸ θεοῦ τε καὶ διὰ θεῶν φυλαττομένη.

2

I.40.1.2

Ταύτης δὲ τὸ μὲν μέσον [καὶ] ἀκίνητόν τε καὶ ἑδραῖον ⟨ἡ⟩ φερέσβιος εἴληχε γῆ, παντοδαπῶν ζῴων δεσπόζουσα καὶ μήτηρ· τὸ δὲ ὕπερθεν αὐτῆς πᾶν τε καὶ πάντῃ πεπερατωμένον εἰς τὸ ἄνω τὸ τῶν θεῶν οἰκητήριον οὐρανὸς ὠνόμασται· πλήρης δ᾽ ὢν σωμάτων θείων, ἃ δὴ καλεῖν ἄστρα εἰώθαμεν, κινούμενος κίνησιν ἀίδιον ἐν περιαγωγῇ καὶ ἐν κύκλῳ συγχορεύει πᾶσι τούτοις ἀπαύστως δι᾽ αἰῶνος.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 40

p. 763

Chapter 40: On the universe

I.40.heading

On the universe.

From Aristotle’s letter to Alexander.⁹⁸⁷

1 · Two senses of cosmos

I.40.1.1

⟨Chapter 2⟩ The cosmos, then, is a system composed of heaven and earth and the natures contained within them. “Cosmos” is also used in another sense: the arrangement and ordering of all things, maintained by God and through gods.⁹⁸⁸

2 · Earth and heaven

I.40.1.2

Its center, [and] motionless and firmly set, has fallen to ⟨the⟩ life-bearing earth, mistress and mother of every kind of animal. Everything above it, bounded on every side toward the upper region, the dwelling of the gods, is called heaven. Filled with divine bodies, which we are accustomed to call stars, it moves eternally in revolution and dances in a circle with them all, unceasingly through all time.⁹⁸⁹

987.The source identifies this as De mundo (On the Cosmos), chapters 2-5. The treatise was transmitted under Aristotle’s name; most modern scholars regard its author as someone else, hence “Pseudo-Aristotle.” Its date remains disputed. See Betegh and Gregorić, “Multiple Analogy in Ps.-Aristotle, De mundo 6,” Classical Quarterly 64 (2014), opening discussion. The attribution printed here is Stobaeus’s heading. Wachsmuth’s chapter markers refer to De mundo; the square-bracketed chapter 4 marker is a cross-reference, not rejected text; the numbered subdivisions in this translation are for comparison of the facing text.

988.Kosmos can name both the universe and its orderly arrangement. The printed Greek has singular “God” followed by plural “gods”; these are preserved. Wachsmuth’s apparatus records a singular “through God” in other witnesses to De mundo. The English does not harmonize the two forms.

989.The rejected “and” and supplied article follow Wachsmuth. The earth is stationary at the center in this account. The wording about the upper boundary is compressed; the translation retains the supplied edition’s “toward the upper region.” “Mistress and mother” follows its despozousa kai mētēr, rather than the different wording of the parallel text.

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.