Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 354 of 879
Book I Chapter 30 · I.30.2.8–I.30.2.10
Ancient Greek
p. 7042 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 8
Παρηλίους δὲ καὶ ῥάβδους γίνεσθαι μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς αἰτίας, οὐδὲ μὴν ὁμοίως ἔχοντος τοῦ νέφους. Ὅταν γὰρ ἀχλυῶδες ᾖ καὶ ὁμαλές, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὑδατῶδες καὶ πυκνόν, ὡς ἀπὸ χαλκοῦ κατόπτρου λείου κλωμένην πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον τὴν ὄψιν λευκοῦ ποιεῖν φαντασίαν. παραπλήσιον γὰρ ἡλίῳ κατά τε τὴν χρόαν καὶ τὸ σχῆμα φαίνεσθαι τὸν παρήλιον.
2 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 9
τὴν μὲν γὰρ ὁμαλότητα τοῦ νέφους αἰτίαν εἶναι τοῦ χρώματος, τὴν δ᾽ ἀνάκλασιν τῆς ὄψεως τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου, διὰ τῆς ἀχλυώδους ἐμφάσεως προσπίπτουσαν ἀθρόως πρὸς πεπυκνωμένον, ὥσπερ ἔνοπτρον, οὐδέπω μὲν ὂν ὕδωρ, ἐγγὺς δ᾽ ὑπάρχον τῆς πρὸς ὕδωρ μεταβολῆς.
2 ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 10
διὸ καὶ σημεῖον ὕδατος εἶναι τὸν παρήλιον· καὶ μᾶλλον γε τὸν νότιον τοῦ βορείου παρὰ τὸ μᾶλλον μεταβάλλειν εἰς ὕδωρ τὸν νότιον ἀέρα τοῦ πρὸς ἄρκτον.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 30
p. 7052 Aristotle: The appearance of a mock sun
Mock suns and rods arise from the same cause, though the cloud is not in the same condition. When it is hazy and uniform, and also watery and dense, sight is bent back toward the sun as from a smooth bronze mirror and produces an appearance of white. For the mock sun appears similar to the sun in both color and shape.903
2 Aristotle: The cloud as a mirror
The uniformity of the cloud accounts for the color, and the reflection of sight for the sun’s appearance through the haze. This reflection falls all together upon something condensed, like a mirror, which is not yet water but is close to changing into water.904
2 Aristotle: A sign of rain
Hence a mock sun is also a sign of rain, and a southern one more so than a northern one, because southern air changes into water more readily than the air toward the north.905
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 30 · I.30.2.8–I.30.2.10
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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.