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.49.58.26–I.49.58.28

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.58.26–I.49.58.28

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Ancient Greek

p. 1444

58.26

I.49.58.26

Ζῷα δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς εἶναι ἄλλα τε πολλὰ καὶ ἀνθρώπους, τοὺς μὲν ἐν μεσογαίᾳ οἰκοῦντας, τοὺς δὲ περὶ τὸν ἀέρα, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς περὶ τὴν θάλατταν, τοὺς δὲ ἐν νήσοις ἃς περιρρεῖν [πρὸς] τὸν ἀέρα πρὸς τῇ ἠπείρῳ οὔσας, καὶ ἑνὶ λόγῳ, ὅπερ ἡμῖν τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ ἡ θάλαττά ἐστι πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν χρείαν, τοῦτο ἐκεῖ τὸν ἀέρα, ὃ δὲ ἡμῖν ἀήρ, ἐκείνοις τὸν αἰθέρα.

58.27

I.49.58.27

Τὰς δὲ ὥρας αὐτοῖς κρᾶσιν ἔχειν τοιαύτην, ὥστε ἐκείνους ἀνόσους εἶναι καὶ χρόνον τε ζῆν πολὺ πλείω τῶν ἐνθάδε, καὶ ὄψει καὶ ἀκοῇ καὶ φρονήσει καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τοιούτοις ἡμῶν ἀφεστάναι τῇ αὐτῇ ἀποστάσει, ᾗπερ ἀήρ τε ὕδατος ἀφέστηκε καὶ αἰθὴρ ἀέρος πρὸς καθαρότητα.

58.28

I.49.58.28

Καὶ δὴ καὶ θεῶν ἄλση τε καὶ ἱερὰ αὐτοῖς εἶναι, ἐν οἷς τῷ ὄντι οἰκητὰς θεοὺς εἶναι, καὶ φήμας καὶ μαντείας καὶ αἰσθήσεις τῶν θεῶν καὶ τοιαύτας συνουσίας γίγνεσθαι αὐτοῖς πρὸς αὐτούς· καὶ τόν γε ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἄστρα ὁρᾶσθαι ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν οἷα τυγχάνει ὄντα, καὶ τὴν ἄλλην εὐδαιμονίαν τούτων ἀκόλουθον εἶναι.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1445

58.26 · The inhabitants of the true earth

I.49.58.26

“There are many other living creatures upon it, and human beings: some live inland, others beside the air as we live beside the sea, and others on islands near the mainland, around which [toward] the air flows. In a word, what water and the sea are to us for our use, air is there; and what air is to us, aether is to them.”¹⁷³⁰

58.27 · A purer climate and stronger faculties

I.49.58.27

“Their seasons have such a temperate mixture that they are free from disease and live much longer than people here. In sight, hearing, understanding, and all such faculties they stand as far beyond us as air surpasses water, and aether air, in purity.”¹⁷³¹

58.28 · The presence of the gods

I.49.58.28

“They also have groves and sanctuaries of gods, in which gods truly dwell. They receive divine utterances and oracles, perceive the gods, and have such communion with them. They see the sun, moon, and stars as they really are, and their happiness in other respects is in keeping with these things.”¹⁷³²

1730.This continues Socrates’ description in Plato’s Phaedo, source excerpt 58. The inhabited world above repeats familiar geographical relationships with a different surrounding medium. The rejected pros remains as the bracketed “toward”; removing it leaves the English sentence grammatical. Aether remains distinct from the air beneath it. The decimal suffixes are modern comparison divisions.

1731.Krāsis is a mixture or tempering, here the condition of the seasons. The comparison extends the account’s successive levels of purity to the inhabitants’ health, longevity, and faculties. Phronēsis is rendered “understanding.” These qualities describe the people of the upper earth within the story.

1732.The passage distinguishes sacred places from the gods’ actual habitation in them. Phēmai is rendered “divine utterances” in this setting, while manteiai denotes oracles. Aisthēseis adds perception of the gods themselves. Their unobstructed view of the heavenly bodies completes the earlier analogy of emerging above our ordinary air.

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.