Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 3 · I.3.20–I.3.22

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English Page · Branch 60 of 879

Book I Chapter 3 · I.3.20–I.3.22

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Ancient Greek

p. 116

20 Σοφοκλῆς Αἴαντι

I.3.20

Τὰ γὰρ περισσὰ κἀνόνητα σώματα πίπτειν βαρείαις πρὸς θεῶν δυσπραξίαις ἔφασχ’ ὁ μάντις, ὅστις ἀνθρώπου φύσει βλαστὼν ἔπειτα μὴ κατ’ ἄνθρωπον φρονῇ.

21 Εὐριπίδου

I.3.21

Οὔτοι προσελθοῦσ’ ἡ Δίκη σε πώποτε παίσει πρὸς ἧπαρ, οὐδὲ τῶν ἄλλων βροτῶν τὸν ἄδικον, ἀλλὰ σῖγα καὶ βραδεῖ ποδὶ στείχουσα μάρπτει τοὺς κακοὺς ἀεὶ βροτῶν.

22 Θεοδέκτου

I.3.22

Ὅστις δὲ θνητῶν μέμφεται τὰ θεῖ’, ὅτι οὐκ εὐθύς, ἀλλὰ τῷ χρόνῳ μετέρχεται τοὺς μὴ δικαίους, πρόφασιν εἰσακουσάτω· εἰ μὲν παραυτίκ’ ἦσαν αἱ τιμωρίαι, πολλοὶ διὰ φόβον κοὐ δι’ εὐσεβῆ τρόπον θεοὺς ἂν ηὖξον· νῦν δὲ τῆς τιμωρίας ἄπωθεν οὔσης, τῇ φύσει χρῶνται βροτοί. ὅταν δὲ φωραθῶσιν ὀφθέντες κακοί, τίνουσι ποινὰς ὑστέροισιν ἐν χρόνοις.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 3

p. 117

20 Sophocles, Ajax

I.3.20

For the seer said that excessive, profitless men fall beneath grievous misfortunes sent by the gods: whoever, born with a human nature, then thinks beyond the measure of a human being.¹¹⁹

21 Euripides

I.3.21

Justice will never come up and strike you in the liver, nor any other mortal who does wrong; but, walking silently and with slow foot, she always catches the wicked among mortals.¹²⁰

22 Theodectes

I.3.22

Any mortal who blames divine things because they pursue the unjust with time, instead of at once, should hear the reason: if punishments were immediate, many would exalt the gods through fear, not through a pious disposition. As it is, with punishment far off, mortals act according to their nature. But when they are found out and seen to be wicked, they pay the penalty in later days.¹²¹

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.