Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Facing Pages · Branch 785 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.69.30–I.49.69.32
Ancient Greek
p. 156669.30
εἰ δὲ πλεονάσειεν ὁ ἀήρ, τὸ τηνικαῦτα καὶ κοῦφον καὶ πηδητικὸν καὶ ἀνέδραστον γίνεται τὸ ζῷον καὶ ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι.
69.31
Εἰ δὲ τὸ ὕδωρ πλεονάσειε, τὸ τηνικαῦτα καὶ τὸ ζῷον τῇ μὲν ψυχῇ γίνεται εὔρουν τε καὶ εὐφυὲς καὶ εὐπερίχυτον ἱκανῶς τε τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιπεσεῖν καὶ κολληθῆναι δυνάμενον, διὰ τὸ πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα ἑνωτικὸν καὶ κοινωνικὸν τοῦ ὕδατος· ἐφιζάνει γὰρ πᾶσι, καὶ πολὺ μὲν ὂν εἰς ἑαυτὸ ἀναλύει καὶ περιλαμβάνει, ὀλίγον δ᾽ ὑπάρχον καὶ καταδῦσαν, ἐκεῖνο γίνεται ᾧ ἐμίγη.
69.32
τὰ μέντοι σώματα ὑπὸ πλαδαρότητος καὶ χαυνότητος εἰς περίσφιγξιν οὐκ ἄγεται, ἀλλὰ μικρᾷ τινι νόσου ἀφορμῇ λύεται, καὶ τοῦ ἰδίου συνδέσμου κατ᾽ ὀλίγον ἐκπίπτει.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 156769.30 · An excess of air
“If air predominates, the creature becomes light, prone to leap, and unsettled, in both soul and body.”1891
69.31 · An excess of water
“If water predominates, the creature becomes, in soul, fluid, adaptable, and readily diffused, well able to come upon other things and adhere to them, because water unites and associates with other things. It settles upon everything: in large quantity it dissolves and encompasses things within itself; in small quantity, sinking into them, it becomes that with which it was mixed.”1892
69.32 · The weakness of watery bodies
“The bodies, however, because of their flabbiness and looseness, do not achieve firm cohesion. At some slight onset of disease they come apart and gradually lose their own binding structure.”1893
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.69.30–I.49.69.32
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.