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 19 · I.19.2.1–I.19.2.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 219 of 879

Book I Chapter 19 · I.19.2.1–I.19.2.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 434

2 Ἑρμοῦ · 1

I.19.2.1

Ἑρμοῦ ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς Ἀσκληπιόν.

⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Πᾶν τὸ κινούμενον οὐκ ἐν κινουμένῳ κινεῖται, ἀλλ’ ἐν ἑστῶτι· καὶ τὸ κινοῦν δὴ ἕστηκεν, ἀδυνατοῦν συγκινεῖσθαι.

⟨ἈΣΚ.⟩ Πῶς οὖν, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε, τὰ ἐνθάδε συγκινεῖται τοῖς κινουμένοις; τὰς γὰρ σφαίρας ἔφης τὰς πλανωμένας κινεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπλανοῦς σφαίρας.

2 Ἑρμοῦ · 2

I.19.2.2

⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Οὐκ ἔστιν αὕτη, ὦ Ἀσκληπιέ, συγκίνησις, ἀλλ’ ἀντικίνησις· οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως κινοῦνται, ἀλλ’ ἐναντίως ἀλλήλαις. Ἡ δὲ ἐναντίωσις τὴν ἀντέρεισιν τῆς κινήσεως ἑστῶσαν ἔχει· ἡ γὰρ ἀντιτυπία στάσις φορᾶς. Διὸ καὶ αἱ πλανώμεναι σφαῖραι ἐναντίως κινούμεναι ἀλλήλαις ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπλανοῦς, τῇ ἐναντίᾳ ὑπαντήσει περὶ τὴν ἐναντιότητα ἑστῶσαν αὐτὴν ὑπ’ αὐτῆς κινοῦνται.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 19

p. 435

2 Hermes: What makes motion possible

I.19.2.1

From Hermes, from the discourse addressed to Asclepius.⁵³³

⟨Hermes⟩ Everything that moves moves in something stationary, not in something moving. And what imparts motion is itself stationary, being unable to move together with what it moves.

⟨Asclepius⟩ How, then, Trismegistus, do things here move together with moving things? For you said that the wandering spheres are moved by the sphere of the fixed stars.⁵³⁴

2 Hermes: Opposed motions

I.19.2.2

⟨Hermes⟩ This, Asclepius, is not joint motion but countermotion: the spheres do not move alike, but in opposition to one another. Their opposition keeps the resistance to their motion stationary, for resistance brings locomotion to a standstill. Thus the wandering spheres, moved in opposition to one another by the sphere of the fixed stars, are moved by opposition itself, through their contrary encounter, around that opposition which itself stands still.⁵³⁵

533.The extract corresponds to Corpus Hermeticum II.6-9, between the passages collected in chapter 18. The speaker labels are supplied by Wachsmuth using the separate Hermetic tradition. Trismegistus means “thrice greatest.”

534.The “wandering” spheres are those of the planets, distinguished from the sphere of the fixed stars. “Fixed” describes the stars’ relation to one another, not an absence of motion in their sphere. The dialogue itself immediately asks how motion can depend on what is stationary.

535.The last sentence is textually and syntactically difficult. Wachsmuth alters the relations among the spheres to “one another, by the fixed sphere”; the separately transmitted Hermetic text has different wording. This translation takes the final pronouns as referring to “opposition,” retaining the argument that opposed motions depend on a stable resistance. It does not resolve the sentence into a more precise astronomical mechanism.

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.