Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Page · Branch 841 of 879
Book I Chapter 55 · I.55.3
Ancient Greek
p. 16783
Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου.
Τὴν δὲ δὴ τοῦ στόματος ἡμῶν δύναμιν ὀδοῦσι καὶ γλώττῃ καὶ χείλεσιν ἕνεκα τῶν ἀναγκαίων καὶ τῶν ἀρίστων διεκόσμησαν οἱ διακοσμοῦντες, ᾗ νῦν διατέτακται, τὴν μὲν εἴσοδον τῶν ἀναγκαίων μηχανώμενοι χάριν, τὴν δ᾽ ἔξοδον τῶν ἀρίστων· ἀναγκαῖον μὲν γὰρ πᾶν ὅσον εἰσέρχεται τροφὴν διδὸν τῷ σώματι, τὸ δὲ λόγων νᾶμα ἔξω ῥέον καὶ ὑπηρετοῦν φρονήσει κάλλιστον καὶ ἄριστον πάντων ναμάτων.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 55
p. 16793 · Food entering and speech going out
Plato, from the Timaeus.
“Those who ordered us equipped the functioning of our mouth with teeth, tongue, and lips for the sake of what is necessary and what is best, arranging it as it is now: they devised its entrance for necessary things, its exit for the best. For everything that enters and gives nourishment to the body is necessary, while the stream of words flowing outward and serving understanding is the finest and best of all streams.”2045
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 55 · I.55.3
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.