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Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Book II Chapter 1 · II.1.27
Ancient Greek
p. 26Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Τιμαίου
Τὴν δὴ πρὸ τῆς οὐρανοῦ γενέσεως, πυρός ὕδατός τε καὶ ἀέρος καὶ γῆς φύσιν, θεατέον αὐτὴν καὶ τὰ πρὸ τούτου πάθη. Νῦν γὰρ οὐδείς πω γένεσιν αὐτῶν μεμήνυκεν, ἀλλ’ ὡς εἰδόσι πῦρ ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι, καὶ ἕκαστον αὐτῶν λέγομεν ἀρχὰς αὐτὰ τιθέμενοι, στοιχεῖα τοῦ παντός, προσῆκον αὐτοῖς, οὐδ’ ⟨ἂν⟩ ὡς ἐν συλλαβῆς εἴδει μόνον εἰκότως ὑπὸ τοῦ καὶ βραχὺ φρονοῦντος ἀπεικασθῆναι. Νῦν δ’ οὖν τό γε παρ’ ἡμῶν ὧδε ἐχέτω· τὴν μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων εἴτε ἀρχὴν εἴτε ἀρχὰς εἴτε ὅπῃ δοκεῖ, τούτων πέρι τὸ νῦν οὐ ῥητέον· δι’ ἄλλο μὲν οὐδέν, διὰ δὲ τὸ χαλεπὸν εἶναι κατὰ τὸν παρόντα τρόπον τῆς διεξόδου δηλῶσαι τὰ δοκοῦντα. Μήτε οὖν ὑμεῖς οἴεσθε δεῖν ἐμὲ λέγειν, οὔτε αὐτὸς αὖ πείθειν ἐμαυτὸν ἂν εἴην δυνατός, ὡς ὀρθῶς ἐγχειροῖμ’ ἂν τοσοῦτον ἐπιβαλλόμενος ἔργον. Τὸ δὲ κατ’ ἀρχὰς ῥηθὲν διαφυλάττων, τὴν τῶν εἰκότων λόγων δύναμιν, πειράσομαι μηδενὸς ἧττον εἰκότα, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἔμπροσθεν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς περὶ ἑκάστου καὶ ξυμπάντων λέγειν.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 1
p. 27Plato from the Timaeus
We must examine the nature of fire, water, air, and earth before the coming into being of the heavens: their nature itself and their states before that time. For no one has yet disclosed how they came into being. We speak of fire and each of the others as though our hearers knew what they are, setting them up as principles, elements of the universe, although anyone with even a little understanding could not reasonably liken them even to the form of a syllable.35 For the present, then, let our account stand as follows. Whether there is one principle of everything, or several, or whatever view one takes, we must not speak of these matters now. The sole reason is the difficulty of explaining our views within the present manner of exposition. You must not suppose that I ought to speak of them; nor could I persuade myself that I would be proceeding rightly in undertaking so great a task. Keeping to what was said at the outset—the scope of likely accounts—I shall try to speak no less plausibly than anyone else, indeed more so, starting again from an earlier beginning, about each thing and about them all together.36
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 1 · II.1.27
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.
Historical Text and Translation
Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
Rights
Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.