Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Ancient Greek Page · Branch 143 of 879
Book I Chapter 9 · I.9.16.1–I.9.16.2
Ancient Greek
p. 28216 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · αʹ
Ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ τῶν ὡρῶν τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ξύστασις μεστή ἐστιν ἀμφοτέρων τούτων, καὶ ἐπειδὰν μὲν πρὸς ἄλληλα τοῦ κοσμίου τύχῃ ἔρωτος, ἃ νῦν δὴ λέγω, τά τε θερμὰ καὶ τὰ ψυχρὰ καὶ τὰ ξηρὰ καὶ ὑγρὰ καὶ ἁρμονίαν καὶ κρᾶσιν λάβῃ σώφρονα, ἥκει φέροντα εὐετηρίαν τε καὶ ὑγίειαν ἀνθρώποις καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις τε καὶ φυτοῖς, καὶ οὐδὲν ἠδίκησεν· ὅταν δὲ ὁ μετὰ τῆς ὕβρεως ἔρως ἐγκρατέστερος καὶ περὶ τὰς τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ὥρας γένηται, διέφθειρέ τε πολλὰ καὶ ἠδίκησεν. οἵ τε γὰρ λοιμοὶ φιλοῦσι γίγνεσθαι ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων καὶ ἄλλα ἀνόμοια καὶ πολλὰ νοσήματα καὶ τοῖς θηρίοις καὶ τοῖς φυτοῖς. καὶ γὰρ πάχναι καὶ χάλαζαι καὶ ἐρυσῖβαι ἐκ πλεονεξίας καὶ ἀκοσμίας περὶ ἄλληλα τῶν τοιούτων γίγνεται ἐρωτικῶν, ὧν ἐπιστήμη περὶ ἄστρων τε φορὰς καὶ ἐνιαυτῶν ὥρας ἀστρονομία καλεῖται.
16 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · βʹ
Ἔτι τοίνυν καὶ αἱ θυσίαι πᾶσαι καὶ οἷς μαντικὴ ἐπιστατεῖ τέχνη, ταῦτα δ’ ἐστὶν ἡ περὶ θεούς τε καὶ ἀνθρώπους πρὸς ἀλλήλους κοινωνία, οὐ περὶ ἄλλο τί ἐστιν ἢ περὶ ἔρωτος φυλακήν τε καὶ ἴασιν. Πᾶσα γὰρ ἀσέβεια φιλεῖ γίγνεσθαι, ἐὰν μή τις τῷ κοσμίῳ ἔρωτι χαρίζηται μηδὲ τιμᾷ τε αὐτὸν καὶ πρεσβεύῃ ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἕτερον, καὶ περὶ γονέας καὶ ζῶντας καὶ τετελευτηκότας, καὶ περὶ θεούς· ἃ δὴ προστέτακται τῇ μαντικῇ ἐπισκοπεῖν τοὺς ἐρῶντας καὶ ἰατρεύειν· καὶ ἔστιν αὖ ἡ μαντικὴ φιλίας θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων δημιουργὸς τῷ ἐπίστασθαι τὰ κατ’ ἀνθρώπους ἐρωτικά, ὅσα τείνει πρὸς θέμιν καὶ εὐσέβειαν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 9
p. 28316 In the same work (188a-d), part 1
The constitution of the seasons of the year is also full of both these loves. When the things I have just mentioned, the hot and the cold, the dry and the moist, experience orderly love for one another and attain harmony and a temperate mixture, they bring a fruitful year and health to human beings, other animals, and plants, and do no harm. But when love accompanied by excess gains the upper hand in the seasons too, it destroys and injures many things. Plagues tend to arise from such conditions, along with many other diseases of various kinds in animals and plants. Frosts, hailstorms, and blights likewise result from the greed and disorder of these relations of love with one another. Knowledge of them in connection with the movements of the stars and the seasons of the year is called astronomy.318
16 In the same work, part 2
Moreover, all sacrifices and everything governed by the art of divination, that is, the communion of gods and human beings with one another, concern nothing other than the protection and healing of love. Every kind of impiety tends to arise when someone fails to gratify orderly love or honor and give it precedence in every action, and favors the other kind instead, in dealings with parents both living and dead, and with the gods. In these matters divination has been appointed to examine lovers and heal them. Divination in turn creates friendship between gods and human beings through its knowledge of human affairs of love, insofar as these tend toward divine law and reverence.319
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 9 · I.9.16.1–I.9.16.2
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.