From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Mountain
ὄρος
orosOros, mountain, must be distinguished from horos, boundary or definition, by its breathing and context.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordOros, mountain, must be distinguished from horos, boundary or definition, by its breathing and context.
- In StobaeusPorphyry quotes Bardisanes’s report of a natural cave in a very high mountain near the earth’s center.
- In this edition“Mountain” is direct; transliteration should preserve the difference between oros and horos.
- A place to beginA high mountain provides the setting for the cave and statue.
- English renderings
- mountain
Meaning
Oros, mountain, must be distinguished from horos, boundary or definition, by its breathing and context.
Use in the book
Porphyry quotes Bardisanes’s report of a natural cave in a very high mountain near the earth’s center. The mountain locates a remarkable statue and a ritual test within the reported landscape. Its height and central position belong to that testimony rather than to a geographical measurement supplied by the compiler.
Places to read
- I.3.56cA high mountain provides the setting for the cave and statue.
Translation in this edition
“Mountain” is direct; transliteration should preserve the difference between oros and horos.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 67–68. The first-person introduction belongs to Porphyry, who introduces Bardisanes’s words; it is not Stobaeus claiming personal observation.
From the book
The Green Notebook
Maurice de Guérin · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Mountains and hills
montagne; colline; coteau; hauteur; cime; ravin; vallée
The vocabulary distinguishes large mountains, rounded hills, slopes, heights, summits, ravines, and valleys.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe vocabulary distinguishes large mountains, rounded hills, slopes, heights, summits, ravines, and valleys.
- In GuérinThe first return to childhood places includes sitting on the rounded backs of hills.
- In this editionCroupe des collines becomes rounded backs of the hills, retaining the bodily modelling of the terrain.
- A reading distinctionThe passage recalling mountains does not name them in its own paragraph.
Meaning
The vocabulary distinguishes large mountains, rounded hills, slopes, heights, summits, ravines, and valleys. Elevation changes exposure and the extent of a view, while hollows shelter or resonate. These physical differences underlie the notebook’s frequent figurative movements of ascent and descent.
Use in the book
The first return to childhood places includes sitting on the rounded backs of hills. Later, a height at Saint-Hélen opens the ocean to distant sight, and the cliff-watchers encounter wind at a bodily scale they cannot ignore. Descent into a gorge then discovers protected water and an acoustic hollow. High and low are consequently complementary positions, not an uncomplicated ranking of superior above inferior.
The remembered mountains unveiled by rising mist can suggest a newly revealed creation. Their grandeur belongs to a recollected landscape, while the present scene is smaller. Guérin’s writing lets one scale call up another without erasing that distinction.
The final desire for philosophical refuge on the loftiest heights transfers topography into a difficult aspiration. The height must be attained, and the essay immediately turns toward rooted trees as another image of steadiness. In this vocabulary ascent gives breadth, exposure, and apparent security, but also makes the observer’s weakness or distance from attainment visible.
Places to read
- 10 July 1832 · ¶1Rounded hills belong to the intimate terrain of repeated childhood steps
- 29 March 1833 · ¶1The height makes a newly extended prospect possible
- 1 October 1833 · ¶1Rising fog uncovers remembered mountains in a scene of apparent first creation
- 8 December 1833 · ¶4Descent from the cliff finds a protected and resonant gorge
- 14 May 1835 · ¶1Philosophical heights are desired as an exacting form of refuge
Translation in this edition
Croupe des collines becomes rounded backs of the hills, retaining the bodily modelling of the terrain. Hauteur is often height rather than mountain, appropriately avoiding an enlargement of modest elevations into alpine scenery.
Source note
The passage recalling mountains does not name them in its own paragraph. This article does not identify a range merely from surrounding biographical associations.