Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Ancient Greek Page · Branch 265 of 879
Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.12–I.21.9.14
Ancient Greek
p. 5269 Ἑρμοῦ · 12
Μετὰ δὲ ταύτην ἐστὶν ἄλλος χορὸς ἀστέρων, οὓς ἡμεῖς προσηγοριῶν οὐ κατηξιώσαμεν, οἱ δὲ μεθ᾽ ἡμᾶς μιμησάμενοι μὲν καὶ αὐτοὶ προσηγορίας τούτοις θήσονται.
9 Ἑρμοῦ · 13
Κάτωθεν δὲ τῆς σελήνης εἰσὶν ἕτεροι ἀστέρες φθαρτοί, ἀργοί, πρὸς ὀλίγον χρόνον συνιστάμενοι, εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ γῆς ἀέρα ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς γῆς ἀναθυμιώμενοι, οὓς καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁρῶμεν διαλυομένους, τὴν φύσιν ὁμοίαν ἔχοντας τοῖς ἀχρήστοις τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ζῴων, ἐπὶ ἕτερον δὲ οὐδὲν γίνεται ἢ ἵνα μόνον φθαρῇ, οἷον τὸ τῶν μυιῶν γένος καὶ τῶν ψύλλων καὶ τῶν σκωλήκων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν ὁμοίων·
9 Ἑρμοῦ · 14
καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνα, ὦ Τάτ, οὔτε ἡμῖν οὔτε τῷ κόσμῳ χρήσιμά ἐστι, τοὐναντίον δὲ λυπεῖ ἐνοχλοῦντα, παρακολουθήματα ὄντα τῆς φύσεως καὶ κατὰ τὸ περισσὸν τὴν γένεσιν ἔχοντα· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀναθυμιώμενοι ἀστέρες τὸν μὲν ἄνω τόπον οὐ καταλαμβάνουσιν (ἀδυνατοῦσι γὰρ ὡς κάτωθεν ἀνιόντες), πολὺ δὲ ⟨τὸ⟩ ἐμβριθὲς ἔχοντες, ἑλκόμενοι κάτω ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ὕλης διαχέονται ταχέως καὶ διαλυθέντες πίπτουσι πάλιν εἰς γῆν μηδὲν ⟨ἕτερον⟩ ἐνεργήσαντες, ἢ μόνον ὀχλήσαντες τῷ ὑπὲρ γῆν ἀέρι.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 5279 Hermes: An unnamed company
After this comes another company of stars, which we have not thought worthy of names; but those who come after us will themselves give them names by imitation.661
9 Hermes: Perishable lights below the moon
Below the moon are other stars, perishable and inactive, which cohere for a short time, exhaled from earth itself into the air above it. We see them dissolve. Their nature resembles that of the useless creatures on earth, which come into being for nothing other than merely to perish, such as flies, fleas, worms, and other similar kinds.662
9 Hermes: Nature’s by-products
For those creatures, Tat, are useful neither to us nor to the world. On the contrary, they cause distress and trouble, being by-products of nature and owing their generation to its surplus. In the same way, the stars exhaled from earth do not reach the upper region, since they cannot do so when rising from below. Having great weight and being drawn downward by their own matter, they quickly disperse and, once dissolved, fall back to earth, having done nothing ⟨else⟩ but disturb the air above it.663
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.9.12–I.21.9.14
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.