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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 3 · I.3.51–I.3.52

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Book I Chapter 3 · I.3.51–I.3.52

Ancient Greek

p. 132

51 ⟨Ἡροδότου⟩

I.3.51

Ἐν τῇ προτέρῃ νυκτὶ τῶν Παναθηναίων ἐδόκεε ὁ Ἵππαρχος ἄνδρα οἱ ἐπιστάντα μέγαν καὶ εὐειδέα αἰνίσσεσθαι τάδε τὰ ἔπεα·

Τλῆθι λέων ἄτλητα παθὼν τετληότι θυμῷ· οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῶν τίσιν οὐκ ἀποτίσει.

52 Ἑρμῆς

I.3.52

Δαίμων γάρ τις μεγίστη τέτακται, ὦ τέκνον, ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ παντὸς εἰλουμένη, πάντα περιορώσα τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς γινόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. καθάπερ ⟨γὰρ⟩ ἐπὶ τῆς θείας τάξεως πρόνοια καὶ ἀνάγκη τέτακται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τέτακται ἡ δίκη, ταὐτὰ ἐκείνοις ἐνεργοῦσα. ἐκείνη μὲν γὰρ κρατεῖ τὴν τάξιν τῶν ὄντων ὡς θείων καὶ ἁμαρτεῖν μὴ θελόντων μηδὲ δυναμένων· ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸ θεῖον πλανηθῆναι, ἐξ οὗ καὶ τὸ ἀναμαρτεῖν συμβαίνει. ἡ δὲ δίκη τέτακται τιμωρὸς τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ἁμαρτανόντων.

ἀνθρώπων γὰρ γένος ⟨ἁμαρτωλόν⟩, ἅτε θνητὸν ὂν καὶ ἐκ κακῆς ὕλης συνεστώς· καὶ μάλιστα ἐκείνοις συμβαίνει τὸ ὀλισθαίνειν, οἷς θεοπτικὴ δύναμις οὐ πρόσεστι· τούτων δὲ καὶ μάλιστα ἐπικρατεῖ δίκη· καὶ τῇ εἱμαρμένῃ ὑπόκεινται διὰ τὰς τῆς γενέσεως ἐνεργείας, τῇ δὲ δίκῃ διὰ τὰς ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἁμαρτίας.

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Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 3

p. 133

51 ⟨Herodotus⟩

I.3.51

On the night before the Panathenaea, Hipparchus dreamed that a tall and handsome man stood beside him and spoke these enigmatic verses:

“Endure, lion, unbearable suffering with an enduring heart; no human being who does wrong will fail to pay retribution.”142

52 Hermes

I.3.52

For a very great divine spirit has been appointed, my child, revolving at the center of the universe and surveying everything human beings do on earth. ⟨For⟩ just as providence and necessity have been appointed over the divine order, so Justice has been appointed over human beings, carrying out the same functions as they do. The former maintains the order of beings as divine, neither willing nor able to err: for the divine cannot go astray, and so it remains without error. Justice, however, has been appointed to punish those who do wrong on earth.143

For the human race is ⟨liable to error⟩, being mortal and constituted of bad matter. It is especially those without a capacity to behold God who stumble, and over them Justice chiefly holds sway. They are subject to fate through the operations of coming-to-be, and to Justice through their wrongdoings in life.144

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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.