Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 806 of 879
Book I Chapter 50 · I.50.37.2–I.50.37.3
Ancient Greek
p. 160837.2
Ὑπόλαβε τοίνυν, ὦ ἄριστε, οὑτωσὶ καὶ τὰ ὄμματα πρῶτον· ὃ δὴ καλεῖς χρῶμα λευκόν, μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸ ἕτερόν τι ἔξω τῶν σῶν ὀμμάτων μηδ᾽ ἐν τοῖς ὄμμασι· μηδέ τιν᾽ αὐτῷ χώραν ἀποτάξῃς· ἤδη γὰρ ἂν εἴη τέ ἄν που ἐν τάξει καὶ μένον καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἐν γενέσει γίγνοιτο.
Ἀλλὰ πῶς;
37.3
Ἐποίμεθα τῷ ἄρτι λόγῳ, μηδὲν αὐτὸ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ ἓν ὂν τιθέντες· καὶ ἡμῖν οὕτω μέλαν τε καὶ λευκὸν καὶ ὁτιοῦν ἄλλο χρῶμα ἐκ τῆς προσβολῆς τῶν ὀμμάτων πρὸς τὴν προσήκουσαν φορὰν φανεῖται γεγενημένον, καὶ ὃ δὴ ἕκαστον εἶναί φαμεν χρῶμα, οὔτε τὸ προσβάλλον οὔτε τὸ προσβαλλόμενον ἔσται, ἀλλὰ μεταξύ τι ἑκάστῳ ἴδιον γεγονός·
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 50
p. 160937.2 · Where is the color?
“Consider the eyes first in this way, my excellent friend: what you call the color white is not itself a separate thing outside your eyes, nor is it in the eyes. Do not assign it a place; for then it would occupy a position and remain there, and would not be coming into being.”
“But how, then?”1953
37.3 · Color arising in the encounter
“Let us follow the argument just given, assuming that nothing is one thing by itself. In this way black, white, and any other color will appear to us to have arisen from the eyes’ encounter with the corresponding motion. What we call each color will be neither what strikes nor what is struck, but something that has arisen between them, peculiar to each perceiver.”1954
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 50 · I.50.37.2–I.50.37.3
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.