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 60 · I.60.heading–I.60.1.2

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Book I Chapter 60 · I.60.heading–I.60.1.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 1700

Κεφάλαιον Ξʹ

I.60.heading

Περὶ ἀναπνοῆς καὶ παθῶν.

1.1

I.60.1.1

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου.

Πάλιν δὲ τὸ τῆς ἀναπνοῆς ἴδωμεν πάθος, αἷς χρώμενον αἰτίαις τοιοῦτον γέγονεν οἷόνπερ τὰ νῦν ἐστιν. Ὧδ᾽ οὖν. Ἐπειδὴ κενὸν οὐδέν ἐστιν, εἰς ὃ τῶν φερομένων δύναιτ᾽ ἂν εἰσελθεῖν τι, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα φέρεται παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἔξω, τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ἤδη παντὶ δῆλον ὡς οὐκ εἰς κενόν, ἀλλὰ τὸ πλησίον ἐκ τῆς ἕδρας ὠθεῖ·

1.2

I.60.1.2

τὸ δ᾽ ὠθούμενον ἐξελαύνει τὸ πλησίον ἀεί, καὶ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν τὴν ἀνάγκην πᾶν περιελαυνόμενον εἰς τὴν ἕδραν, ὅθεν ἐξῆλθε τὸ πνεῦμα, εἰσιὸν ἐκεῖσε καὶ ἀναπληροῦν αὐτὴν ξυνέπεται τῷ πνεύματι, καὶ τοῦτο ἅμα πᾶν οἷον τροχοῦ περιαγομένου γίγνεται διὰ τὸ κενὸν μηδὲν εἶναι.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 60

p. 1701

Chapter 60 · Breathing and bodily processes

I.60.heading

On breathing and bodily processes.²⁰⁶⁶

1.1 · Breathing in a world without a void

I.60.1.1

Plato, from the Timaeus.

“Let us return to the process of breathing and consider the causes through which it has come to be as it now is. The account is this. Since there is no void into which any moving thing could enter, yet breath moves outward from us, what follows is already clear to everyone: it does not pass into a void, but pushes what is next to it out of its place.”²⁰⁶⁷

1.2 · A circuit of displacement

I.60.1.2

“What is pushed always drives out its neighbor in turn. Under this very necessity, the whole mass is driven around into the place from which the breath departed; entering there and filling it again, it follows the breath. All this happens together, as though a wheel were turning, because there is no void.”²⁰⁶⁸

2066.Heeren restored the heading from Photius p. 112b36; it is absent from FP. Pathē means affections or things undergone, here rendered bodily processes to suit the excerpt’s subject. The chapter ends Book I with a continuous Timaeus passage on breathing, related physical motions, and nourishment.

2067.The edition identifies Timaeus 79a-81a. The explanation begins from the denial of a void and describes reciprocal displacement. Pneuma is breath or moving air in this context. The argument belongs to the ancient physical model, whose assumptions are retained in the translation.

2068.The whole mass is the displaced air understood from the context. The wheel compares a continuous circuit in which departure from one place entails replacement from another. The claim that the events occur together is retained, as is the repetition of the no-void premise.

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.