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 54 · I.54.3–I.54.4.2

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Book I Chapter 54 · I.54.3–I.54.4.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 1664

3

I.54.3

⟨Διδύμου.⟩

Ἀριστοτέλους. Ὀσφραίνεσθαι τοῦ μεταξὺ σώματος ἀναπιμπλαμένου τῶν ὀσφραντῶν.

4.1

I.54.4.1

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου.

Περὶ δὲ τὴν τῶν μυκτήρων δύναμιν ⟨εἴδη μὲν⟩ οὐκ ἔνι. Τὸ γὰρ τῶν ὀσμῶν πᾶν ἡμιγενές, εἴδει δὲ οὐδενὶ συμβέβηκε συμμετρία πρὸς τὸ τινα ἔχειν ὀσμήν.

4.2

I.54.4.2

Ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῶν αἱ περὶ ταῦτα φλέβες πρὸς μὲν τὰ γῆς ὕδατός τε γένη στενώτεραι ξυνέστησαν, πρὸς δὲ τὰ πυρὸς ἀέρος τε εὐρύτεραι. Διὸ τούτων οὐδεὶς οὐδενὸς ὀσμῆς πώποτε ᾔσθετό τινος, ἀλλ᾽ ἢ βρεχομένων ἢ σηπομένων ἢ τηκομένων ἢ θυμιωμένων γίγνονταί τινων·

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 54

p. 1665

3 · The intervening medium

I.54.3

⟨Didymus.⟩

Aristotle. We smell when the intervening body is filled with odorous matter.²⁰²⁷

4.1 · Why odors lack fixed kinds

I.54.4.1

Plato, from the Timaeus.

“As for the power of the nostrils, there are no ⟨distinct kinds⟩. For the whole realm of odors is half-formed, and no form has the appropriate proportion for possessing any odor.”²⁰²⁸

4.2 · The size of the nasal passages

I.54.4.2

“Rather, our passages concerned with these things are too narrow for the kinds of earth and water, but too wide for those of fire and air. Hence no one has ever perceived any odor from any of these; odors arise only when certain things are soaked, decay, melt, or give off fumes.”²⁰²⁹

2027.The Latin editorial attribution identifies Didymus, Physics fragment 17, Diels p. 456; the Greek heading names Aristotle. The intervening body is the medium between the object and the perceiver. Osphranta means things perceptible to smell, rendered odorous matter in this compressed account.

2028.The edition identifies Timaeus 66d-67a and supplies eidē men from the Platonic text. The English marks distinct kinds for the supplied phrase; men is a connective particle without a separate equivalent. Half-formed renders hēmigenes: the following account places odors between water and air, rather than assigning a characteristic odor to each fully constituted elemental form.

2029.Phlebes is translated passages because the argument concerns channels admitting material to the organ of smell, not specifically blood vessels. The account relates passage size to elemental bodies. The four processes in the final clause are retained in their printed order; the basic elements themselves are said to lack perceptible odor.

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.