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 49 · I.49.44.11–I.49.44.12

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.44.11–I.49.44.12

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Ancient Greek

p. 1248

44.11

I.49.44.11

Ταῦτα εἰπόντων ἐμειδίασεν ὁ θεὸς καὶ εἶπε Φύσιν εἶναι καὶ θῆλυ πάγκαλον χρῆμα ἐκ τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ προῆλθεν, ὃ καὶ θεωρήσαντες οἱ θεοὶ κατεπλάγησαν. Καὶ ταύτην Φύσεως ὀνόματι ἐτίμησεν ὁ θεὸς ὁ προπάτωρ καὶ αὐτῇ προσέταξεν εἶναι γεννητικὴν καὶ ταῦτα ἔτι εἰς τὸ περιέχον ἀτενίσας ἐφώνησεν· ‘ἔστω πεπληρωμένος ὁ οὐρανὸς ἅπασιν ἀήρ τε καὶ αἰθήρ’. Εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἦν.

44.12

I.49.44.12

Ἡ δὲ Φύσις ἑαυτῇ λαλήσασα ἔγνω ὡς μὴ δέον αὐτήν ἐστι παρακοῦσαι τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐντολῆς καὶ καλὴν Πόνῳ συνελθοῦσα θυγατέρα ἐποίησεν, ἣν Εὕρεσιν ἐκάλεσε. Τῇ δὲ ὁ θεὸς ἐχαρίσατο ⟨τὸ⟩ εἶναι καὶ χαρισάμενος διέκρινε τὰ ἤδη γεγονότα καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν αὐτὰ μυστηρίων καὶ τῇ Εὑρέσει [τούτων] τὸ κατὰ τούτων ἐχαρίσατο ἡγεμονικόν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1249

44.11 · Nature comes forth from the divine voice

I.49.44.11

When they had said this, the god smiled and said that Nature should exist. A wholly beautiful female being came forth from his voice, and the gods were struck with wonder when they beheld her. The god, the forefather, honored her with the name Nature and commanded her to be generative. Then, gazing into the encompassing expanse, he also proclaimed: ‘Let heaven, air, and ether be filled with all things.’ The god spoke, and it was so.¹⁵²²

44.12 · Nature, Labor, and Discovery

I.49.44.12

Nature spoke to herself and understood that she must not disobey her father’s command. Uniting with Labor, she produced a beautiful daughter, whom she called Discovery. To her the god granted ⟨the gift of⟩ being; having granted it, he differentiated the things already created and filled them with mysteries. To Discovery [of these things] he granted authority over them.¹⁵²³

1522.The feminine personification is explicit, although chrēma, “being” or “thing,” is grammatically neuter. Physis is now her bestowed name. The text assigns her the capacity to generate and then commands the filling of heaven, air, and ether. The terse closing statement preserves the narrative’s correspondence between divine speech and actuality.

1523.Ponos and Heuresis are rendered as personified Labor and Discovery, preserving the relationship described in the story. The supplied Greek article before “being” is represented by the marked phrase “the gift of.” The rejected toutōn, “of these things,” remains bracketed; its rejection avoids a repetition before the following “over these things.” Authority translates hēgemonikon here, rather than importing a separate theory of a ruling faculty.

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.