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 50 · I.50.36.2–I.50.37.1

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Book I Chapter 50 · I.50.36.2–I.50.37.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 1606

36.2

I.50.36.2

κἀμοὶ δοκεῖ, ἔφη, εἰ ἐνενόησεν αὐτὰ Αἴσωπος, μῦθον ἂν συνθεῖναι, ὡς ὁ θεὸς βουλόμενος αὐτὰ διαλλάξαι πολεμοῦντα, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἐδύνατο, συνῆψεν εἰς ταὐτὸν αὐτῶν τὰς κορυφάς, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ᾧ ἂν τὸ ἕτερον παραγένηται, ἐπακολουθεῖ ὕστερον καὶ τὸ ἕτερον.

36.3

I.50.36.3

Ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ αὐτῷ μοι ἔοικεν, ἐπειδὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ δεσμοῦ ἦν ἐν τῷ σκέλει τὸ ἀλγεῖν, ἥκειν δὴ φαίνεται ἐπακολουθοῦν τὸ ἡδύ.

37.1

I.50.37.1

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Θεαιτήτου.

Φαντασία ἄρα καὶ αἴσθησις ταὐτὸν ἔν τε θερμοῖς καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τοιούτοις· οἷα γὰρ αἰσθάνεται ἕκαστος, τοιαῦτα ἑκάστῳ καὶ κινδυνεύει εἶναι. . . . .

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 50

p. 1607

36.2 · An imagined fable of Aesop

I.50.36.2

“And I think,” he said, “that if Aesop had thought of them, he would have composed a fable: the god wanted to reconcile them in their quarrel, but, unable to do so, fastened their heads together; and for this reason, whenever one visits someone, the other follows afterward.”¹⁹⁵⁰

36.3 · Relief after the fetter

I.50.36.3

“That seems to be what has happened to me too: because the fetter caused pain in my leg, pleasure now seems to have arrived in its wake.”¹⁹⁵¹

37.1 · Appearance and perception

I.50.37.1

From Plato’s Theaetetus.

“Appearance and perception, then, are the same in the case of hot things and all such things; for as each person perceives them, so they seem likely to be for that person. . . . .”¹⁹⁵²

1950.This is an imagined fable that Aesop might have composed, not an assertion that he actually wrote one. The conditional form is preserved. The joining of heads supplies a playful explanation for the succession of pleasure and pain described in the preceding paragraph.

1951.The personal example explains the preceding reflection: release from the painful fetter brings a pleasant bodily sensation. The source prints to algein, the experiencing of pain, rather than the alternative adjective recorded in the apparatus. The English retains the sequence rather than treating pleasure and pain as simultaneous.

1952.The edition gives Theaetetus 152c and 153d-154b: the five printed points mark the omission between the two selections. Phantasia is rendered appearance here because the argument concerns how things appear to each perceiver. The passage explores a position in dialogue; it should not simply be labeled Plato’s final conclusion.

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.