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English Page · Branch 722 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.58.22–I.49.58.24
Ancient Greek
p. 144058.22
Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὰ ταῦτα τὰ κοῖλα αὐτῆς ὕδατός τε καὶ ἀέρος ἔκπλεα ὄντα, χρώματός τι εἶδος παρὰ τὸ εἶδος παρέχεται στίλβοντα ἐν τῇ τῶν ἄλλων χρωμάτων ποικιλίᾳ, ὥστε ἕν τι αὐτῆς εἶδος ξυνεχὲς ποικίλον φαντάζεσθαι.
58.23
Ἐν δὲ τοιαύτῃ οὔσῃ τοιαῦτα ἀνάλογον τὰ φυόμενα φύεσθαι, δένδρα τε καὶ ἄνθη καὶ τοὺς καρπούς· καὶ αὖ τὰ ὄρη ὡσαύτως καὶ τοὺς λίθους ἔχειν ἀνὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον τὴν τελειότητα καὶ τὴν διαφάνειαν καὶ τὰ χρώματα καλλίω· ὧν καὶ τὰ ἐνθάδε λιθίδια εἶναι ταῦτα ⟨τὰ⟩ ἀγαπώμενα μόρια, σάρδιά τε καὶ ἰάσπιδας καὶ σμαράγδους καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα· ἐκεῖ δὲ οὐδὲν ὃ μὴ τοιοῦτον εἶναι καὶ ἔτι τούτων καλλίω.
58.24
Τὸ δ᾽ αἴτιον τούτου εἶναι, ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι οἱ λίθοι καθαροί εἰσι καὶ οὐ κατεδηδομένοι οὔτε διεφθαρμένοι ὥσπερ οἱ ἐνθάδε ὑπὸ σηπεδόνος καὶ ἅλμης ὑπὸ τῶν δεῦρο ξυνερρυηκότων, ⟨ἃ⟩ καὶ λίθοις καὶ γῇ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις τε καὶ φυτοῖς αἴσχη τε καὶ νόσους παρέχει.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 144158.22 · The hollows contribute to the whole
“For these very hollows of the earth, filled with water and air, contribute a certain appearance of color alongside the form, glittering amid the variety of the other colors. Thus a single continuous, variegated appearance of the earth presents itself.”1726
58.23 · Plants, mountains, and precious stones
“On an earth of this kind the growing things grow correspondingly: trees, flowers, and fruits. Likewise its mountains and stones have a correspondingly finer perfection, translucence, and color. The small stones here, ⟨the⟩ ones we prize, are fragments of those: carnelians, jaspers, emeralds, and all such stones. There, nothing is unlike these, and everything is more beautiful still.”1727
58.24 · Purity and the causes of decay
“The reason is that those stones are pure, neither eaten away nor spoiled like those here by decay and brine, by the things that have flowed together into this region, ⟨which⟩ bring ugliness and disease upon stones, earth, and the other things, both animals and plants.”1728
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.58.22–I.49.58.24
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.