Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 262 of 879
Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.6–I.21.9.7
Ancient Greek
p. 5209 Ἑρμοῦ · 6
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Ἔτι δὲ νόησον, Τάτ, ὅτι καὶ ἀπαθεῖς εἰσιν, ὧν οἱ ἄλλοι ἀστέρες πάσχουσιν· οὔτε γὰρ ἐπεχόμενοι τὸν δρόμον στηρίζουσιν οὔτε κωλυόμενοι ἀναποδίζουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ μὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ φωτὸς τοῦ ἡλίου σκέπονται, ἅπερ πάσχουσιν οἱ ἄλλοι ἀστέρες· ἐλεύθεροι δὲ ὄντες ὑπεράνω πάντων ὥσπερ φύλακες ἀκριβεῖς καὶ ἐπίσκοποι τοῦ παντὸς περιέχονται τῷ νυχθημέρῳ τὸ πᾶν.
9 Ἑρμοῦ · 7
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Ἆρ᾽ οὖν καὶ οὗτοι, ὦ πάτερ, ἔχουσι πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐνέργειαν;
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Τὴν μεγίστην, ὦ τέκνον. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκείνοις ἐνεργοῦσι, πῶς οὐ καὶ ἡμῖν; καὶ καθ᾽ ἕνα ἕκαστον καὶ κοινῇ; Οὕτως, ὦ τέκνον, τῶν καθολικῶς πάντων συμβαινόντων τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ ἀπὸ τούτων ἐστίν, οἷον (ὃ λέγω νόησον) βασιλειῶν μετατροπαί, πόλεων ἐπαναστάσεις, λιμοί, λοιμοί, ἀμπώτεις θαλάσσης, γῆς σεισμοί, οὐδὲν τούτων, ὦ τέκνον, χωρὶς τῆς τούτων ἐνεργείας γίνεται.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 5219 Hermes: Unimpeded motion
⟨HERMES⟩ Understand further, Tat, that they are unaffected by what happens to the other stars. They are not checked in their course and brought to a standstill, nor hindered and made to move backward; nor are they hidden by the sun’s light, as the other stars are. Free above them all, like vigilant guardians and overseers of the universe, they encircle the all through the course of night and day.655
9 Hermes: Their action upon human beings
⟨TAT⟩ Then do these too, father, exert an influence upon us?
⟨HERMES⟩ The greatest, my child. If they act upon those stars, how could they fail to act upon us too, both upon each individual and upon us collectively? Thus, my child, the effective agency in everything that happens on a general scale comes from these: for example, consider what I say, changes of kingdoms, uprisings of cities, famines, plagues, ebbings of the sea, earthquakes. None of these, my child, occurs apart from their activity.656
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.6–I.21.9.7
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.
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.