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 25 · I.25.3d–I.25.3e.2

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Book I Chapter 25 · I.25.3d–I.25.3e.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 588

3d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩

I.25.3d

Φιλόλαος ὁ Πυθαγόρειος ὑαλοειδῆ τὸν ἥλιον, δεχόμενον μὲν τοῦ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πυρὸς τὴν ἀνταύγειαν, διηθοῦντα δὲ πρὸς ἡμᾶς τό τε φῶς καὶ τὴν ἀλέαν, ὥστε τρόπον τινὰ διττοὺς ἡλίους γίγνεσθαι, τό τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ πυρῶδες καὶ τὸ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πυροειδὲς κατὰ τὸ ἐσοπτροειδές· εἰ μή τις καὶ τρίτον λέξει, τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνόπτρου κατ᾽ ἀνάκλασιν διασπειρομένην πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐγήν.

3e ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 1

I.25.3e.1

Ἐμπεδοκλῆς δύο ἡλίους, τὸν μὲν ἀρχέτυπον, πῦρ ὂν ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ ἡμισφαιρίῳ τοῦ κόσμου, πεπληρωκὸς τὸ ἡμισφαίριον, αἰεὶ κατ᾽ ἀντίκρυ τῇ ἀνταυγείᾳ ἑαυτοῦ τεταγμένον· τὸν δὲ φαινόμενον, ἀνταύγειαν ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ ἡμισφαιρίῳ, τῷ τοῦ ἀέρος τοῦ θερμομιγοῦς πεπληρωμένῳ, ἀπὸ κυκλοτεροῦς τῆς γῆς κατ᾽ ἀνάκλασιν γιγνομένην εἰς τὸν ἥλιον κρυσταλλοειδῆ, συμπεριελκομένην τῇ κινήσει τοῦ πυρίνου. Ὡς δὲ βραχέως εἰρῆσθαι συντεμόντι ἀνταύγειαν εἶναι τοῦ περὶ τὴν γῆν πυρὸς τὸν ἥλιον.

3e ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ · 2

I.25.3e.2

Τροπὴν δὲ γίγνεσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς περιεχούσης αὐτὸν σφαίρας κωλυόμενον ἄχρι παντὸς εὐθυπορεῖν καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν τροπικῶν κύκλων. Ἴσον δὲ τῇ γῇ τὸν κατὰ τὴν ἀνταύγειαν. Ἔκλειψιν δὲ γίνεσθαι σελήνης αὐτὸν ὑπερχομένης.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 25

p. 589

3d ⟨Aëtius⟩: Philolaus’ reflected sunlight

I.25.3d

Philolaus the Pythagorean held that the sun is glass-like. It receives the radiance of the fire in the world and filters both light and warmth through to us. Thus there are, in a sense, two suns: the fiery substance in heaven, and the fire-like appearance derived from it through the mirror-like body. Unless one also counts a third: the radiance scattered toward us by reflection from the mirror.⁷⁵⁵

3e ⟨Aëtius⟩: Empedocles’ two suns

I.25.3e.1

Empedocles held that there are two suns. The original is fire in one hemisphere of the world, filling that hemisphere and always stationed directly opposite its own reflection. The visible sun is a reflection in the other hemisphere, which is filled with air mixed with heat. This reflection is produced from the rounded earth onto the crystal-like sun, and is carried around with the movement of the fiery hemisphere. To put it briefly, the sun is a reflection of the fire surrounding the earth.⁷⁵⁶

3e ⟨Aëtius⟩: Turnings, size, and eclipse

I.25.3e.2

Its turning occurs because the sphere enclosing it and the tropic circles prevent it from continuing straight onward indefinitely. The sun formed by reflection is equal in size to the earth. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of it.⁷⁵⁷

755.The report distinguishes the source of fire, its mirror-like recipient, and the light reaching us. Its imagery combines filtering through glass with reflection from a mirror. The translation retains both descriptions instead of turning them into one precise modern optical model.

756.“Crystal-like sun” follows Wachsmuth’s printed hēlion krystalloeidē. The compressed account leaves the exact reflecting arrangement difficult to reconstruct. “Fiery hemisphere” makes explicit the referent of the final “fiery”; no replacement of “sun” with “heaven” has been made in the Greek or English.

757.The size statement expressly concerns the reflected, visible sun, not the original fire filling a hemisphere. The tropic circles mark the limits of the sun’s northward and southward travel.

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.