Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 726 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.58.32–I.49.58.33
Ancient Greek
p. 144858.32
Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα κινεῖν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὥσπερ αἰώραν τινὰ ἐνοῦσαν ἐν τῇ γῇ· ἔστι δὲ αὕτη ἡ αἰώρα διὰ φύσιν τοιάνδε τινά. Ἕν τι τῶν χασμάτων τῆς γῆς ἄλλως τε μέγιστον τυγχάνει ὂν καὶ διαμπερὲς τετρημένον δι᾽ ὅλης τῆς γῆς, τοῦτο ὅπερ Ὅμηρος εἶπε, λέγων αὐτό·
τῆλε μάλ᾽ ἧχι βάθιστον ὑπὸ χθονός ἐστι βέρεθρον·ὃ καὶ ἄλλοθι καὶ ἐκεῖνος καὶ ἄλλοι πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν Τάρταρον κεκλήκασιν.
58.33
Εἰς γὰρ τοῦτο τὸ χάσμα συρρέουσί τε πάντες οἱ ποταμοὶ καὶ ἐκ τούτου πάλιν πάντες ἐκρέουσι· γίγνονται δ᾽ ἕκαστοι τοιοῦτοι δι᾽ οἵας ἂν καὶ τῆς γῆς ῥέωσιν. Ἡ δὲ αἰτία ἐστὶ τοῦ ἐκρεῖν τε ἐντεῦθεν καὶ εἰσρεῖν πάντα τὰ ῥεύματα, ὅτι πυθμένα οὐκ ἔχει οὐδὲ βάσιν τὸ ὑγρὸν τοῦτο.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 144958.32 · Tartarus and the earth’s oscillation
“Something like a swing within the earth moves all these things up and down. This oscillation arises from a natural arrangement of the following kind. One of the earth’s chasms is both the greatest and bored straight through the entire earth. Homer spoke of it when he said:
Far away, where the deepest gulf lies beneath the earth.
Elsewhere both he and many other poets have called it Tartarus.”1736
58.33 · All rivers enter and leave the chasm
“For all the rivers flow together into this chasm, and all flow out of it again. Each takes on the character of the earth through which it flows. The reason all the streams flow out from here and back into it is that this fluid has neither a bottom nor a supporting base.”1737
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.58.32–I.49.58.33
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.