Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 346 of 879
Book I Chapter 29 · I.29.3
Ancient Greek
p. 6883 Μίλωνος Φυσικῶν
Ἀστραπαί εἰσι διτταί, ἡ μὲν ἡμερινή, ἡ δὲ νυκτερινή. Γίγνεται δὲ ἡ μὲν ἡμερινὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου, ὅταν ῥαγῇ τὸ ὕδωρ ὑποφαινομένου αὐτοῦ· λαμπρὰ δὲ οὐ φαίνεται, ὥσπερ ἡ νυκτερινή, ὅτι ἐν φάει γίγνεται· ἡ δὲ νυκτερινὴ ὑπὸ τῶν ἄστρων γίγνεται, ὅταν ῥαγῇ τὸ ὕδωρ ὑποφαινομένων αὐτῶν· λαμπρὰ δὲ φαίνεται, ὅτι ἐν ζόφῳ γίγνεται.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 29
p. 6893 From Milon’s Physics
There are two kinds of lightning, one by day and the other by night.884 Daytime lightning is produced by the sun when the water breaks open and the sun shows through. It does not appear bright as nighttime lightning does, because it occurs in the light. Nighttime lightning is produced by the stars when the water breaks open and they show through; it appears bright because it occurs in darkness.885
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 29 · I.29.3
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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.
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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.