Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 331 of 879
Book I Chapter 28 · I.28.2.4–I.28.2.6
Ancient Greek
p. 6582 Ἀρριανοῦ · 4
Φέρονταί τε ἀτάκτως οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν κομητῶν, ἐπινεμόμενοι, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, τὴν ἄνω ἀναφερομένην τροφὴν καὶ ταύτῃ ἐφομαρτοῦντες.
2 Ἀρριανοῦ · 5
Ἡ δὲ ἀρχὴ αὐτῶν ἀστεροειδής ἐστι, καθότι ἐς σφαῖραν ξυνάγεσθαι πέφυκε πᾶν, ὅσον πυροειδές· ἡ δὲ κόμη αὐγοειδής, τῶν μὲν ὥσπερ ἄφετος ἀνειμένη, τῶν δὲ ἐπ᾽ εὐθὺ ἰοῦσα καὶ ἐς τὸ ἄνω μᾶλλόν τι ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀστέρος τεινομένη.
2 Ἀρριανοῦ · 6
Οἱ δὲ πίθοι ὀλιγάκις πεφήνασι, καθότι πλείονος δέονται ξυναγωγῆς πυρός. Ἤδη δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀπλανῶν ἐστὶν οἳ ξὺν κόμῃ ἐφάνησαν, ἐπειδὰν περὶ αὐτοὺς ⟨ἡ τοῦ⟩ ἀέρος ἀναφορὰ πυκνωθεῖσα ξυναφὲς ἐργάσηται τῆς κόμης τὸ εἴδωλον, καθάπερ καὶ ἅλως ξυναφεῖς αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἄστροις φαίνονται.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 28
p. 6592 Arrian: Movement and nourishment
Most comets move irregularly, feeding, as it seems to me, on the nourishment carried upward and following its course.853
2 Arrian: The head and its hair
Their head is star-like, since everything of a fiery nature tends to gather into a sphere. Their hair is like a ray of light: in some it spreads loosely, as though unbound; in others it runs straight and stretches somewhat upward from the star.854
2 Arrian: Jars and fringed fixed stars
Jars have appeared only rarely, since they require a greater gathering of fire. Some of the fixed stars too have appeared with hair, when ⟨the⟩ rising air around them, becoming dense, produces an image of hair attached to them, just as halos appear attached to the stars themselves.855
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 28 · I.28.2.4–I.28.2.6
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.