Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 49 of 879
Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.38b
Ancient Greek
p. 9438 Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Σοφιστοῦ (βʹ)
— ⟨Ἐγὼ μὲν ἴσως⟩ διὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν πολλάκις ἀμφότερα μεταδοξάζω· νῦν μὲν βλέπων εἰς σὲ καὶ ὑπολαμβάνων ⟨οἴεσθαί σε⟩ κατὰ θεὸν αὐτὰ γίγνεσθαι, ταύτῃ καὶ αὐτὸς νενόμικα.
— Καλῶς γε, ὦ Θεαίτητε, καὶ εἰ μέν σε ἡγούμεθα τῶν εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον ἄλλως πως δοξασόντων εἶναι, νῦν ἂν τῷ λόγῳ μετὰ πειθοῦς ἀναγκαίας ἐπεχειροῦμεν ποιεῖν ὁμολογεῖν· ἐπειδὴ δέ σου καταμανθάνω τὴν φύσιν, ὅτι καὶ ἄνευ τῶν παρ’ ἡμῶν λόγων αὐτὴ πρόσεισιν ἐφ’ ἃ νῦν ἕλκεσθαι φῄς, ἐάσω· χρόνος γὰρ ἐκ περιττοῦ γίγνοιτ’ ἄν· ἀλλὰ θήσω τὰ μὲν φύσει λεγόμενα ποιεῖσθαι θείᾳ τέχνῃ, τὰ δ’ ἐκ τούτων ὑπ’ ἀνθρώπων ξυνιστάμενα ἀνθρωπίνῃ, καὶ κατὰ τοῦτον δὴ τὸν λόγον δύο ποιητικῆς γένη, τὸ μὲν ἀνθρώπινον εἶναι, τὸ δὲ θεῖον. — Ὀρθῶς.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 1
p. 9538 Plato, from Sophist (2)
“⟨I myself, perhaps⟩ because of my age, often change my mind between the two. But now, looking to you and supposing ⟨that you think⟩ they come into being through a god, I too have come to hold that view.”
“Good, Theaetetus. If we thought you likely to adopt another opinion later, we would now try to bring you to agreement by an argument carrying compelling persuasion. But since I see that your nature will itself advance, even without our arguments, toward the position to which you now say you are drawn, I shall leave it: otherwise we should spend time unnecessarily. I shall posit that what is said to exist by nature is made by divine art, and what human beings construct from it by human art. On this account there are two kinds of production, human and divine.” “Correct.”93
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.38b
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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.