Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 8 · I.8.37–I.8.38.1

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Ancient Greek Page · Branch 120 of 879

Book I Chapter 8 · I.8.37–I.8.38.1

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 236

37 Κλεοβούλου σοφοῦ τῶν αἰνιγμάτων

I.8.37

Εἷς ὁ πατήρ, παῖδες ⟨δὲ⟩ δυώδεκα· τῶν δὲ ἑκάστῳ κοῦραι ἑξήκοντα, διάνδιχα εἶδος ἔχουσαι· αἳ μὲν λευκαὶ ἔασιν ἰδεῖν, αἳ δ’ αὖτε μέλαιναι· ἀθάναται δέ τ’ ἐοῦσαι ἀποφθινύθουσιν ἅπασαι.

38 Μοσχίωνος

I.8.38.1

Πρῶτον δ’ ἄνειμι καὶ διαπτύξω λόγῳ ἀρχὴν βροτείου καὶ κατάστασιν βίου· ἦν γάρ ποτ’ αἰὼν κεῖνος, ἦν ποθ’ ἡνίκα θηρσὶν διαίτας εἶχον ἐμφερεῖς βροτοί, ὀρειγενῆ σπήλαια καὶ δυσηλίους φάραγγας ἐνναίοντες· οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν οὔτε στεγήρης οἶκος, οὔτε λαΐνοις εὐρεῖα πύργοις ὠχυρωμένη πόλις· οὐ μὴν ἀρότροις ἀγκύλοις ἐτέμνετο μέλαινα καρποῦ βῶλος ὀμπνίου τροφός, οὐδ’ ἐργάτης σίδηρος εὐιώτιδος θάλλοντας οἴνης ὀρχάτους ἐτημέλει, ἀλλ’ ἦν ἀκύμων †κωφεύουσα ῥέουσα γῆ. βοραὶ δὲ σαρκοβρῶτες ἀλληλοκτόνους παρεῖχον αὐτοῖς δαῖτας· ἦν δ’ ὁ μὲν Νόμος ταπεινός, ἡ Βία δὲ σύνθρονος Διί, ὁ δ’ ἀσθενὴς ἦν τῶν ἀμεινόνων βορά.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 8

p. 237

37 Cleobulus the sage, Riddles

I.8.37

One father, ⟨and⟩ twelve sons; each of them has sixty daughters, divided into two kinds in appearance: some are white to look upon, others black; though immortal, all of them pass away.²⁶⁹

38 Moschion

I.8.38.1

First I shall go back and unfold in words human life’s beginning and its condition. There was once that age, there was a time when mortals lived in ways resembling beasts, dwelling in mountain caves and sunless ravines. There was as yet no roofed house, no broad city fortified with towers of stone. No curved ploughs cut the dark soil, nurse of nourishing grain; no laboring iron tended the flourishing vineyards of wine that prompts the Bacchic cry. The earth was barren, †deaf and flowing.²⁷⁰ Carnivorous feeding gave them feasts in which they killed one another. Law was lowly, while Violence shared the throne of Zeus, and the weak were food for the stronger.²⁷¹

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.