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.54.4.3–I.54.4.5

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Book I Chapter 54 · I.54.4.3–I.54.4.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 1666

4.3

I.54.4.3

μεταβάλλοντος γὰρ ὕδατος εἰς ἀέρα ἀέρος τε εἰς ὕδωρ ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ τούτων γεγόνασιν, εἰσί τε ὀσμαὶ ξύμπασαι καπνὸς ἢ ὀμίχλη. Τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν ἐξ ἀέρος εἰς ὕδωρ ἰὸν ὀμίχλη, τὸ δ᾽ ἐξ ὕδατος εἰς ἀέρα καπνός. Ὅθεν λεπτότεραι μὲν ὕδατος, παχύτεραι δὲ ὀσμαὶ ξύμπασαι γεγόνασιν ἀέρος.

4.4

I.54.4.4

Δηλοῦται δέ, ὁπόταν τινὸς ἀντιφραχθέντος περὶ τὴν ἀναπνοὴν ἄγῃ τις βίᾳ τὸ πνεῦμα εἰς αὑτόν· τότε γὰρ ὀσμὴ μὲν οὐδεμία ξυνδιηθεῖται, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τῶν ὀσμῶν ἐρημωθὲν αὐτὸ μόνον ἕπεται.

4.5

I.54.4.5

Δι᾽ οὖν ταῦτα ἀνώνυμα τούτων ποικίλματα γέγονεν, οὐκ ἐκ πολλῶν οὐδὲ ἁπλῶν εἰδῶν ὄντα, ἀλλὰ διχῇ τό τε ἡδὺ καὶ τὸ λυπηρὸν αὐτόθι μόνω διαφανῆ λέγεσθον,

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 54

p. 1667

4.3 · Smoke and mist

I.54.4.3

“For when water changes into air and air into water, odors arise between the two, and all odors are smoke or mist. Of these, what passes from air into water is mist, and what passes from water into air is smoke. Thus all odors are finer than water but coarser than air.”²⁰³⁰

4.4 · Air passing through a barrier

I.54.4.4

“This becomes evident when something has been placed as a barrier to breathing and someone forcibly draws air into himself: then no odor is filtered through with it, but the air alone follows, stripped of odors.”²⁰³¹

4.5 · Two clear distinctions

I.54.4.5

“For these reasons their varieties have remained unnamed, since they are not made up of many forms or of simple ones; instead, let only the pleasant and the painful be clearly distinguished here as a pair:”²⁰³²

2030.The distinctions between smoke and mist, and the opposite directions of change, follow the printed text. Finer and coarser render comparative thickness or fineness in this physical model. Smoke is the passage’s term for the transition from water toward air, not a modern chemical classification.

2031.The passage appeals to a filtering comparison. It does not specify the material placed across the breathing passage. The statement is translated as part of the ancient argument; no particular modern filter or experimental procedure is introduced.

2032.The difficult phrase ouk ek pollōn oude haplōn eidōn is retained: not made up of many forms or of simple ones. The precise force of this denial is uncertain and the Greek is not rewritten to remove the difficulty. The dual forms monō and legesthon identify the two broad effects, pleasant and painful, rather than a list of individually named odors.

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.