Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 258 of 879
Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.7d.1–I.21.7d.2
Ancient Greek
p. 5127d ⟨Τοῦ αὐτοῦ⟩ · 1
Περὶ δὲ φύσιος καὶ ἁρμονίας ὧδε ἔχει· Ἁ μὲν ἐστὼ τῶν πραγμάτων, ἀΐδιος ἔσσα καὶ αὐτὰ μὰν ἁ φύσις, θεία ἐντὶ καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρωπίναν ἐνδέχεται γνῶσιν, πλὰν γα ἢ ὅτι οὐχ οἷόν τ᾽ ἦς οὐδὲν τῶν ἐόντων καὶ γιγνωσκόμενον ὑφ᾽ ἁμῶν γενέσθαι, μὴ ὑπαρχοίσας τᾶς ἐστοῦς τῶν πραγμάτων ἐξ ὧν συνέστα ὁ κόσμος καὶ τῶν περαινόντων καὶ τῶν ἀπείρων.
7d ⟨Τοῦ αὐτοῦ⟩ · 2
Ἐπεὶ δὲ ταὶ ἀρχαὶ ὑπᾶρχον οὐχ ὁμοῖαι οὐδ᾽ ὁμόφυλοι ἔσσαι, ἤδη ἀδύνατον ἦς κα αὐταῖς κοσμηθῆμεν, αἰ μὴ ἁρμονία ἐπεγένετο, ὡτινιῶν τρόπῳ ἐγένετο. Τὰ μὲν ὦν ὅμοια καὶ ὁμόφυλα ἁρμονίας οὐδὲν ἐπεδέοντο, τὰ δὲ ἀνόμοια μηδὲ ὁμόφυλα μηδὲ ἰσολαχῆ ἀνάγκα τᾷ τοιαύτᾳ ἁρμονίᾳ συγκεκλεῖσθαι, αἰ μέλλοντι ἐν κόσμῳ κατέχεσθαι.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 5137d ⟨The same author⟩: Nature and knowing
Concerning nature and harmony, the situation is this. The being of things, which is eternal, and indeed nature itself, is divine and admits of no human knowledge, except that none of the things that are and are known by us could have come into being unless the being of the things from which the world was constituted, both the limiters and the unlimiteds, already existed.645
7d ⟨The same author⟩: Why harmony is needed
Since the principles that already existed were neither alike nor of the same kind, they could not have been brought into order unless harmony had arisen in addition, however it arose. Things alike and of the same kind had no need of harmony; but things unlike, of different kinds, and unequally allotted must be bound together by such a harmony if they are to be held within an ordered world.646
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.7d.1–I.21.7d.2
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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.
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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.
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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.