Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 30 of 879
Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.28a–I.1.28b
Ancient Greek
p. 5628 ⟨Ἀδήλου Πλατωνικοῦ⟩ (αʹ)
Φημὶ κατ’ ἀμφοτέρων λέγεσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ τε δημιουργοῦ καὶ τοῦ κόσμου. Καὶ μοι δοκῶ πρῶτα κατὰ νόμους τοὺς ἐμαυτοῦ Πλάτωνι χρήσεσθαι μάρτυρι τῆς τοιαύτης δόξης. Πλάτων γάρ τοι καὶ αὐτὸς Δία μὲν καλεῖ τὸν δημιουργὸν τῶν ἁπάντων, θεὸν δὲ καὶ τόνδε τὸν κόσμον. Τὸν μὲν δημιουργὸν τρόπῳ τοιῷδε· ἐπειδὰν ἐν Φαίδρῳ περὶ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς φορᾶς διαλέγηται, τάδε φησὶ περὶ τοῦ μεγάλου Διός· “Ὁ δὴ μέγας ἡγεμὼν ἐν οὐρανῷ Ζεύς, ἐλαύνων πτηνὸν ἅρμα, πρῶτος πορεύεται, διακοσμῶν πάντα καὶ ἐπιμελούμενος· ⟨τῷ δ’ ἕπεται στρατιὰ θεῶν τε καὶ δαιμόνων⟩.”
28 ⟨Ἀδήλου Πλατωνικοῦ⟩ (βʹ)
Οἶμαι σαφὴς ἐν τούτοις ὑπάρχει μνημονεύσας τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν ἁπάντων· καὶ γὰρ ἀνέθηκεν αὐτῷ τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῶν περὶ τὸν κόσμον θεῶν· ἔφη γοῦν ἕπεσθαι τῇ ἐκείνου πορείᾳ τοὺς στρατιώτας θεούς· στρατιώτας δὲ ἐκάλεσε τοὺς τῇδε θεούς, οἳ τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου τῆς γενέσεως στρατηγοῦσιν.
Ὁμοίως Ὀνάτας ὁ Πυθαγόρειος ἐπεμνήσθη τοῦ τε δημιουργοῦ καὶ τῶν ἑπομένων τούτῳ θεῶν, λέγων οὕτως· “τοὶ δ’ ἄλλοι θεοὶ ποτὶ τὸν πρᾶτον θεὸν καὶ νοατὸν οὕτως ἔχοντι, ὥσπερ χορευταὶ ποτὶ κορυφαῖον καὶ στρατιῶται ποτὶ στραταγόν.”
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 1
p. 5728 ⟨An unidentified Platonist⟩ (1)
I maintain that the name “god” is applied to both the maker and the cosmos. I think I should first, in keeping with my own principles, call Plato as a witness to this view.55 For Plato himself calls the maker of all things Zeus, and also calls this cosmos a god.
He speaks of the maker in this way. When discussing the movement of the universe in the Phaedrus, he says this of great Zeus: “Zeus, the great leader in heaven, drives a winged chariot and goes first, ordering and caring for everything; ⟨an army of gods and divine spirits follows him⟩.”56
28 ⟨An unidentified Platonist⟩ (2)
I think it is clear that in these words he has spoken of the maker of everything. For he assigned to him a following of gods concerned with the cosmos: he said that the gods who serve as soldiers follow on his journey. He called the gods of this realm soldiers because they command the warfare of coming-to-be here.57
Similarly, Onatas the Pythagorean mentioned both the maker and the gods who follow him, saying: “The other gods stand in relation to the first and intelligible god as members of a chorus to their leader, or soldiers to their general.”58
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.28a–I.1.28b
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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.
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.