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Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.29b.5
Ancient Greek
p. 6829b ⟨Ἀετίου⟩ (εʹ)
Ξενοκράτης Ἀγαθήνορος Καλχηδόνιος τὴν μονάδα καὶ τὴν δυάδα θεούς, τὴν μὲν ὡς ἄρρενα πατρὸς ἔχουσαν τάξιν, ἐν οὐρανῷ βασιλεύουσαν, ἥντινα προσαγορεύει καὶ Ζῆνα καὶ περιττὸν καὶ νοῦν, ὅστις ἐστὶν αὐτῷ πρῶτος θεός· τὴν δὲ ὡς θήλειαν μητρὸς θεῶν δίκην, τῆς ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν λήξεως ἡγουμένην, ἥτις ἐστὶν αὐτῷ ψυχὴ τοῦ παντός. Θεὸν δ’ εἶναι καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας πυρώδεις Ὀλυμπίους θεούς, καὶ ἑτέρους ὑποσελήνους δαίμονας ἀοράτους.
Ἀρέσκει δὲ καὶ αὐτῷ … καὶ ἐνδιήκειν τοῖς ὑλικοῖς στοιχείοις. Τούτων δὲ τὴν μὲν ⟨διὰ τοῦ ἀέρος προσγείου⟩ Ἅιδην προσαγορεύει, τὴν δὲ διὰ τοῦ ὑγροῦ Ποσειδῶνα, τὴν δὲ διὰ τῆς γῆς φυτοσπόρον Δήμητραν. Ταῦτα δὲ χορηγήσας τοῖς Στωικοῖς τὰ πρότερα παρὰ τοῦ Πλάτωνος μεταπέφρακεν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 1
p. 6929b ⟨Aëtius⟩ (5)
Xenocrates of Chalcedon, son of Agathenor, identifies the monad and the dyad as gods. The monad is male, occupies the rank of father, and reigns in heaven; he also calls it Zeus, the odd, and mind, which for him is the first god. The dyad is female, like a mother of gods, and presides over the region beneath heaven; for him it is the soul of the universe. Heaven too is a god, the stars are fiery Olympian gods, and there are other invisible divine spirits beneath the moon.
He also holds that … and that they pervade the material elements. Of these powers, he calls the one ⟨through the air near the earth⟩ Hades; the one through moisture, Poseidon; and the seed-bearing one through earth, Demeter. Having furnished these notions to the Stoics, he has restated the earlier ones from Plato.71
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.29b.5
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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.