From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Oath
ὅρκος
horkosHorkos is an oath, a solemn pledge.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordHorkos is an oath, a solemn pledge.
- In StobaeusThe Ajax verses say that even a formidable oath and a stubborn mind can be overcome by time.
- In this edition“Oath” is direct; capitalization marks explicit personification where present.
- A place to beginTime’s power is said to extend even to an oath.
- English renderings
- oath
Meaning
Horkos is an oath, a solemn pledge. It can also be personified as a divine guarantor of trust.
Use in the book
The Ajax verses say that even a formidable oath and a stubborn mind can be overcome by time. The Hermetic account instead introduces Oath as a god alongside pledges and trust. These distinct contexts examine the oath’s vulnerability and its normative authority without resolving them into one doctrine.
Places to read
- I.8.23Time’s power is said to extend even to an oath.
- I.49.44.77Oath is personified among the foundations of orderly life.
Translation in this edition
“Oath” is direct; capitalization marks explicit personification where present.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 97, 406. The tragic statement is a character’s reflection on change. It should not become the anthology’s general rejection of oath-keeping.
From the book
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Oath
ὅρκοις (horkois); ὅρκου (horkou)
Horkos is an oath, the binding pledge invoked to guarantee an arrangement.
Orientation
At a Glance
Meaning
Horkos is an oath, the binding pledge invoked to guarantee an arrangement. Both surviving contexts qualify it with an adjective translated “broad.” The image stresses the force and reach of a commitment; the verses do not specify a ritual object or an oath-taking ceremony.
Use in the book
In B1152 broad oaths seal Necessity's ancient ordinance. The seal makes the rule durably authoritative before the poem describes the offence and punishment. Oath thus operates at two levels in the same passage: divine oaths guarantee the law, while a transgressor's false oath violates the truthfulness such a guarantee presupposes.
B30 places a broad oath within the physical account. As the prescribed time is fulfilled, Strife rises to its honours, and the period has been driven or assigned for the powers in turn by that oath. The connection of temporal alternation with sworn obligation gives cosmic regularity a juridical and divine expression. It is tempting to treat this as a fully specified constitution of the cycle, but the fragment breaks off and supplies neither the original speakers of the oath nor its entire terms. Its comparison with B1152 is evidentially strong at the level of language, less decisive at the level of a reconstructed narrative.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
B1152 has plural oaths, B30 a singular oath. The translation preserves both. A lexicon should not silently merge them into a single quoted treaty with recoverable clauses.