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 18 · I.18.3.3–I.18.3.4

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Book I Chapter 18 · I.18.3.3–I.18.3.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 418

3 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · 3

I.18.3.3

⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ σῶμα οὐ διὰ πάντων διήκει τῶν ὄντων καὶ πάντα διῆκον πληροῖ; σῶμα δὲ οὐκ ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων κεκραμένον συνέστηκε; Μεστὰ οὖν πάντα ἐστίν, ἃ σὺ φῂς κενά, τοῦ ἀέρος, εἰ δὲ τοῦ ἀέρος, καὶ τῶν τεσσάρων σωμάτων· καὶ συμβαίνει ὁ ἐναντίος λόγος ἐκφαίνεσθαι, ὅτι ἃ σὺ φῂς μεστά, ταῦτα πάντα κενά ἐστι τοῦ ἀέρος ἐκείνων ὑπ’ ἄλλων σωμάτων στενοχωρουμένων καὶ μὴ ἐχόντων τόπον δέξασθαι τὸν ἀέρα. Ταῦτα οὖν, ἃ σὺ φῂς ⟨κενά⟩, κοῖλα δεῖ ὀνομάζειν, οὐ κενά· ὑπάρξει γὰρ μεστά ἐστιν ἀέρος καὶ πνεύματος.

3 Ἐν ταὐτῷ · 4

I.18.3.4

⟨ἈΣΚ.⟩ Ἀναντίρρητος ὁ λόγος, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε. Τὸν οὖν τόπον, ἐν ᾧ κινεῖται τὸ πᾶν, τί εἴπωμεν;

⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Ἀσώματον, ⟨ὦ⟩ Ἀσκληπιέ.

⟨ἈΣΚ.⟩ Τὸ οὖν ἀσώματον ⟨τί⟩ ἐστι;

⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Νοῦς ⟨καὶ λόγος⟩, ὅλος ἐξ ὅλου ἑαυτὸν ἐμπεριέχων, ἐλεύθερος σώματος παντός, ἀπλανής, ἀπαθής, ἀναφής, αὐτὸς ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἑστώς, συγχωρητικὸς πάντων καὶ σωτήριος τῶν ὄντων, οὗ ὥσπερ ἀκτῖνές εἰσι τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἡ ἀλήθεια, τὸ ἀρχέτυπον φῶς, τὸ ἀρχέτυπον τῆς ψυχῆς.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 18

p. 419

3 Hermes: Hollow rather than empty

I.18.3.3

⟨Hermes⟩ Does this body not pass through all existing things and fill everything it passes through? And is body not constituted by a blend of the four? Everything you call empty is therefore full of air; and if full of air, then full of the four bodies.⁵⁰⁸ The contrary account then emerges: everything you call full is empty of air, because those things are crowded with other bodies and have no room to receive the air. So the things you call ⟨empty⟩ should be called hollow, not empty; for in their actual existence they are full of air and breath.⁵⁰⁹

3 Hermes: Mind and reason

I.18.3.4

⟨Asclepius⟩ The argument cannot be refuted, Trismegistus. What, then, shall we call the place in which the whole moves?

⟨Hermes⟩ Incorporeal, ⟨O⟩ Asclepius.

⟨Asclepius⟩ ⟨What⟩, then, is the incorporeal?

⟨Hermes⟩ Mind ⟨and reason⟩, a whole wholly enclosing itself, free of every body, unerring, unaffected, intangible, standing in itself, making room for all things and preserving what exists. Its rays, as it were, are the good, truth, archetypal light, and the archetype of the soul.⁵¹⁰

508.“The four” are the elemental bodies, conventionally fire, air, water, and earth. The inference here treats the air occupying a vessel as itself involving a blend; the translation preserves this compressed claim.

509.The opposition turns on what a container is empty of. Pneuma is rendered “breath” beside “air,” without imposing the account of pneuma given by Chrysippus in the previous chapter. Wachsmuth supplies “empty” in the penultimate sentence.

510.Nous is mind or intellect; logos here is reason. “What” and “and reason” are supplied from the separate Hermetic tradition. Wachsmuth likewise follows that tradition for “intangible” and “light,” where Stobaeus’s manuscripts have “invisible” and “of breath/spirit.” The image is of archetypal light, not a physical ray. The assignment of these questions and answers follows Wachsmuth’s restoration of the speakers.

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.