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.heading–I.17.1.3

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Book I Chapter 17 · I.17.heading–I.17.1.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 390

Κεφάλαιον ΙΖʹ

I.17.heading

Περὶ μίξεως καὶ κράσεως.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.17.1.1

Θαλῆς καὶ οἱ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ κράσεις εἶναι τὰς τῶν στοιχείων μίξεις κατ’ ἀλλοίωσιν.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.17.1.2

⟨Οἱ περὶ Ἀναξαγόραν καὶ Δημόκριτον⟩ τὰς κράσεις κατὰ παράθεσιν γίγνεσθαι τῶν στοιχείων.

1 ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 3

I.17.1.3

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς καὶ Ξενοκράτης ἐκ μικροτέρων ὄγκων τὰ στοιχεῖα συγκρίνει, ἅπερ ἐστὶν ἐλάχιστα καὶ οἱονεὶ στοιχεῖα στοιχείων.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 17

p. 391

Chapter 17: Mixture and Blending

I.17.heading

On mixture and blending.

1 ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩: Thales

I.17.1.1

Thales and his followers held blends to be mixtures of the elements through alteration.⁴⁶⁶

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Anaxagoras and Democritus

I.17.1.2

⟨The followers of Anaxagoras and Democritus⟩ held that blends arise through the juxtaposition of the elements.⁴⁶⁷

1 ⟨Aëtius⟩: Empedocles and Xenocrates

I.17.1.3

Empedocles and Xenocrates construct the elements out of smaller masses, which are the smallest things and, as it were, elements of elements.⁴⁶⁸

466.Mixis and krasis are rendered “mixture” and “blending.” Their precise relation varies among the reports; excerpt 4 distinguishes them more narrowly. Alloiōsis means alteration, here contrasted with the juxtaposition described next. Wachsmuth supplies the attribution to Aëtius for all of excerpt 1.

467.The entire subject is supplied in the base edition from the parallel report in the Opinions attributed to Plutarch, I.17. Parathesis means placing things beside one another; the report contrasts this with alteration of the elements themselves.

468.The wording posits constituents more fundamental than the things ordinarily called elements. Onkoi are masses or bodies; the report does not call them atoms. “Smaller” follows the printed mikroterōn, although Wachsmuth notes a parallel reading meaning “smallest.” The English takes the final clause to describe the constituent masses.

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.