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 16 · I.16.heading–I.16.1.3

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Book I Chapter 16 · I.16.heading–I.16.1.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 378

Κεφάλαιον ΙϚʹ

I.16.heading

Περὶ χρωμάτων.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.16.1.1

Χρῶμά ἐστι ποιότης σώματος ὁρατὴ προηγουμένως.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.16.1.2

⟨Οἱ⟩ Πυθαγόρειοι χροιὰν ἐκάλουν τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν τοῦ σώματος, τὰ δὲ γένη τῶν χρωμάτων λευκόν τε καὶ μέλαν, ἐρυθρόν τε καὶ ὠχρόν· τὰς δὲ διαφορὰς τῶν χρωμάτων παρὰ τὰς ⟨ποιὰς⟩ μίξεις τῶν στοιχείων, τὰς δὲ τῶν ζῴων παρὰ τὰς ποικιλίας τῶν τροφῶν καὶ τῶν ἀέρων.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.16.1.3

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς χρῶμα εἶναι ἀπεφαίνετο τὸ τοῖς πόροις τῆς ὄψεως ἐναρμόττον. Τέτταρα δὲ τοῖς στοιχείοις ἰσάριθμα, λευκόν, μέλαν, ἐρυθρόν, ὠχρόν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 16

p. 379

Chapter 16: Colors

I.16.heading

On colors.

1 ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Definition

I.16.1.1

Color is a quality of a body that is visible in the primary sense.⁴⁴⁶

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: The Pythagoreans

I.16.1.2

⟨The⟩ Pythagoreans called the surface of a body its hue. They held the kinds of color to be white and black, red and pale yellow; differences of color arise from the ⟨particular kinds of⟩ mixture of the elements, and those in living creatures from differences in their foods and the airs around them.⁴⁴⁷

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Empedocles

I.16.1.3

Empedocles declared color to be what fits the passages of sight. There are four colors, equal in number to the elements: white, black, red, and pale yellow.⁴⁴⁸

446.The definition singles out color as a direct object of sight. Proēgoumenōs means primarily or in the first instance. Wachsmuth supplies the attribution to Aëtius for all of excerpt 1; the subdivisions used here separate its individual reports without changing their order.

447.Ōchron is rendered “pale yellow” throughout this chapter, distinct from Plato’s xanthon below. Wachsmuth retains ōchron here and in the reports of Empedocles and Democritus, although his apparatus considers it corrupt and mentions the proposed reading chlōron. The article and poias, “of what kind,” are editorial supplements. The final clause concerns variations of color in living creatures.

448.Poroi are passages or pores. The definition makes the fit between what reaches the eye and the passages of sight central to color perception. The report equates the number of colors with the number of elements without assigning each color to a particular element. Wachsmuth omits a manuscript repetition here of the preceding explanation involving mixtures and variations of food.

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.