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 51 · I.51.heading–I.51.1

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Book I Chapter 51 · I.51.heading–I.51.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 1618

Κεφάλαιον ΝΑʹ

I.51.heading

Πόσαι εἰσὶν αἱ αἰσθήσεις καὶ ποίας οὐσίας καὶ ἐνεργείας ἑκάστη.

1

I.51.1

Σιμύλου.

Πέντ᾽ εἰσιν ἃς ἄνθρωπος αἰσθήσεις ἔχει· [ἁφὴν ὅρασιν ἀκοὴν γεῦσιν ὄσφρησιν] τούτων ἁπασῶν κυριωτάτη μία ἀκοή· φαγὼν γὰρ οὐδὲ εἷς ἔφυ σοφός οὐδ᾽ ἁψ⟨άμενος οὐδ᾽ ὀσφρ⟩όμενος οὐδ᾽ εἰσιδὼν τὸ λυσιτελές . . . . . . . . . . ἐκ τοῦ δ᾽ ἀκούειν μανθάνειν τε τἀγαθὰ πολλοὶ φρόνιμοι γεγόνασι· ταύτην γὰρ μίαν ὁ νοῦς ἑαυτῷ κατέλιπεν διδάσκαλον· . . . . . . . . . . . . . ὥσπερ δικαστὴν ἢ κριτὴν ἢ κύριον.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 51

p. 1619

Chapter 51 · The senses

I.51.heading

How many senses there are, and the substance and activity of each.¹⁹⁶⁵

1 · Hearing as the teacher of the mind

I.51.1

Simylus.

Five are the senses that a human being has: [touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell]. Of all these one has the greatest authority, hearing: no one grew wise by eating, nor by ⟨touching, nor smelling⟩, nor by seeing what is beneficial . . . . . . . . . . But through hearing and learning good things many have become wise; for this alone the mind has kept as its own teacher: . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a judge, an arbiter, or a master.¹⁹⁶⁶

1965.The editor restores this heading from Photius p. 112b30 and the Laurentian table of contents; it is absent from the witnesses FPL. Ousia concerns what each sense is or consists in, energeia its activity. Decimal subdivisions in longer excerpts are modern comparison divisions.

1966.The poem privileges hearing as the means of instruction. The five-sense list is rejected by the editor and remains in square brackets. The angle brackets mark a restoration within the Greek words for touching and smelling, represented by the corresponding English phrase. Both printed gaps are retained, with ten and thirteen points. The last line has lost its governing construction: the apparatus explains that the senses should acknowledge the mind as judge, not the mind acknowledge hearing as judge. No missing verse is invented.

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.