Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 366 of 879
Book I Chapter 31 · I.31.8.7–I.31.8.9
Ancient Greek
p. 7288 Ἀρριανοῦ · 7
Ὅση δὲ λεπτὴ ἀτμὶς μὴ ἐπὶ μέγα ἀρθεῖσα ἐσκεδάσθη, ἀλλὰ ψυχθεῖσα κατηνέχθη ἐπὶ γῆν, δρόσος γίγνεται· πρὸς ἡλίου δὲ ἐπικαυθεῖσα ἐρυθαίνεται ἢ μελαίνεται· καὶ τοῦτο μίλτον ⟨ἢ⟩ φοινιάδα μὲν τὸ ἐρυθρὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐρυσίβην δὲ ὅ τι περ καὶ μέλαν καλοῦσι·
8 Ἀρριανοῦ · 8
παγεῖσα δὲ καὶ πεσοῦσα ἐπὶ γῆν, πάχνη γίνεται. Καὶ ἔτι ὅ τι περ πάχνη πρὸς δρόσον, τοῦτο χιὼν πρὸς ὑετόν. Ὅτι καὶ τὸ νέφος ξυνελθὸν μὲν ἄνευ πήξεως εἰς ὑετὸν διακρίνεται, παγὲν δὲ εἰς νιφετὸν ξυνάγεται.
8 Ἀρριανοῦ · 9
Ὅτι πρὶν παντελῶς ἐς ὕδωρ ξυστῆναι τὴν νεφέλην φθάνει παγῆναι ἐς χιόνα, καὶ ἡ χρόα τῆς χιόνος τεκμηριῶσαι παρέχει, λευκή τε γὰρ καὶ αὐγοειδής ἐστιν· ὅτι πρὶν τραπῆναι ἐς ὕδωρ παγεῖσα θρύπτεται, οἷα δὴ οὐ σμικρὰν μοῖραν [οὐ] πνεύματος φωτοειδοῦς ὄντος ξυνεπιλαμβάνουσα· ἔνθεν τε ἀφρῷ ἐς τὰ μάλιστα τὴν χρόαν ἔοικεν, ὅτι καὶ ἐν ἀφρῷ πολύ τι ἔνι πνεύματος· δηλοῦσι δὲ πομφόλυγες αἱ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀφρῶν οἷα δὴ ἐπιζέουσαι.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 31
p. 7298 Arrian: Dew and its colors
Any fine vapor that, instead of rising far and dispersing, cools and descends to earth becomes dew. Scorched by the sun, it turns red or black. They call its red form miltos ⟨or⟩ phoinias, and whatever is black erysibē.931
8 Arrian: Frost and snow
When it freezes and falls to earth, it becomes frost. And further, snow stands to rain just as frost does to dew. That cloud too, when it gathers without freezing, separates into rain, but when frozen gathers into snowfall.932
8 Arrian: Why snow is white
That the cloud freezes into snow before it has fully gathered into water can also be inferred from snow’s color, for it is white and luminous. This is because it freezes and breaks up before turning into water, enclosing with it no small share of airy matter, which is luminous. Hence its color very closely resembles foam, since foam too contains a great deal of airy matter, as the bubbles seething upon it show.933
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 31 · I.31.8.7–I.31.8.9
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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.