From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhlox is flame.
- In StobaeusThe report about Plato defines color as flame from bodies whose particles are commensurate with sight.
- In this edition“Flame” retains the physical language of the theory; explain its special role rather than replacing it with modern light terminology.
- A place to beginColor is explained as flame with particles proportioned to sight.
- English renderings
- flame
Meaning
Phlox is flame. In accounts of color and vision, it can designate a luminous process issuing from bodies.
Use in the book
The report about Plato defines color as flame from bodies whose particles are commensurate with sight. The relation to the visual faculty is essential: it is not an assertion that all colored objects visibly burn. The fuller quotation differentiates particles by their sizes relative to the visual stream.
Places to read
- I.16.1.4Color is explained as flame with particles proportioned to sight.
Translation in this edition
“Flame” retains the physical language of the theory; explain its special role rather than replacing it with modern light terminology.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 149. Commensurate here means suitably related in size, not that every particle has exactly the same size.