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← ExitStobaeus, Volume I

Reading language

Book I Chapter 49

44.21 · The creator shapes humanlike forms

Having said this, the god, who is my lord as well, mixed the remaining kindred elements, water and earth, and pronounced further words, likewise secret: powerful, certainly, but unlike the first. He stirred the mixture well and breathed life-giving inspiration into it. He then took a film that likewise floated upon it, well imbued and firmly set, and from this fashioned the humanlike forms among living creatures. He gave the remainder of the mixture to the souls that had already advanced.¹⁵³²

44.22 · The souls receive a task

To these souls, summoned into the regions of gods, the places near the stars, and among sacred divine spirits, he said: “Shape things, my children, offspring of my nature. Receive the remnants of my art, and let each of you fashion something resembling her own nature. I shall also set these before you as models.”¹⁵³³

44.23 · The zodiac and generative powers

Taking the zodiacal order in hand, he arranged it well and beautifully in accordance with the movements of souls. Beside the humanlike zodiacal figures he completed the succeeding ones as figures of living creatures, and bestowed powers capable of every work, together with an all-skilled breath capable of generating absolutely everything that was ever to come into being.¹⁵³⁴

44.24 · A promise of continuing generation

He withdrew, promising to join invisible breath to their visible works, and to each a substance of common generation, so that it might beget others like itself [themselves], and they would no longer have any need to make anything other ⟨than⟩ what they had already produced.”¹⁵³⁵

44.25 · Horus asks what the souls did

“What, then, mother, did the souls do?”

Isis said: “My child Horus, when they had taken the blended material, they first examined it, worshipped their father’s mixture, and sought to discover from what it had been compounded. But it was not easy for them to learn this. Then, because they had even made the inquiry, they feared falling under their father’s wrath and turned to carrying out his commands.¹⁵³⁶

44.26 · Birds, quadrupeds, fish, and creeping creatures

From the upper material, whose surface film was exceedingly light, they formed the race of birds. Meanwhile, as the mixture became half congealed and had already acquired a solid consistency, they fashioned the race of quadrupeds; and from what was less light and required another moist medium for swimming, the race of fish. As the remainder was cold and already tended downward, the souls devised the nature of creeping creatures.¹⁵³⁷

44.27 · The souls leave their appointed places

These souls, my child, as though they had now accomplished something, armed themselves with meddlesome boldness and acted contrary to the commands. They began to leave their own divisions and chambers, no longer wished to remain in one place, and kept moving, regarding existence [still] in a single abode as death.¹⁵³⁸

44.28 · Human embodiment is devised as punishment

Concerning this, my child, Hermes says: “Just as what they were doing did not escape me [saying], neither did it escape the lord and god of all things. He sought a punishment for them, and a bond they would endure in misery. The ruler and master of all therefore resolved to devise the human constitution, so that within it the race of souls might continually undergo punishment.”¹⁵³⁹

44.29 · The gods assemble to prepare human life

“Then,” says Hermes, “he summoned me and said: ‘Soul of my soul, and mind of my sacred mind, how long is the nature of things below to be seen in gloom? How long will what has already come into being remain idle and unpraised? Come, bring me all the gods in heaven now.’” This is what the god said, my child, according to Hermes. ⟨When⟩ they came at his command, he said, “Look upon the earth and everything on the ground.” They quickly saw and understood what the sovereign wished. When he spoke of the creation of human beings, they shared his pleasure, because he could provide those about to come into being with something from each one of them.¹⁵⁴⁰

44.30 · Gifts of Sun, Moon, and Cronus

The Sun said, “I shall shine more brightly.” The Moon promised to illuminate the course after the Sun; she also said that she had already brought forth Fear, Silence, Sleep, and Memory, which would be of universal benefit to them. Cronus announced that he had already become the father of both Justice and Necessity.¹⁵⁴¹

44.31 · Gifts of Zeus, Ares, and Aphrodite

Zeus said, “So that the race to come may not be wholly at war, I have already brought forth Fortune, Hope, and Peace for them.” Ares said that he was already the father of Anguish, Anger, and Strife. Aphrodite did not delay, but said, “I shall join Longing, Pleasure, and Laughter to them, master, so that our kindred souls, enduring the harshest sentence, may not suffer still further punishment.”¹⁵⁴²

44.32 · Hermes promises intelligence and discovery

He took pleasure, my child, [still more] as Aphrodite said this. Hermes said: “I shall make the nature ⟨of⟩ human beings well endowed and bestow wisdom, self-control, persuasion, and truth upon them. I shall never cease to associate with Discovery. I shall also always benefit the mortal life of those born under my zodiacal signs, for the signs which the father and craftsman assigned to me are intelligent and endowed with mind. I shall do so still more when the movement of the stars above them brings the natural activity of each into accord.”¹⁵⁴³

1532.Isis continues her account. The Greek leaves the object of “life-giving” unstated; “inspiration” expresses the action of enthousiasas rather than inserting pneuma into the transcription. Epipagos is the congealed surface film already encountered in the making of souls. Eubaphēs, rendered “well imbued,” concerns its saturation or taking of a dye; it is not silently replaced with “well formed.” These humanlike forms precede the later construction of human bodies in the narrative.

1533.The construction places “sacred divine spirits” beside regions and places as a destination; “among” makes the sense possible in English without adopting the apparatus’s proposed genitive. The printed command plassete, “shape,” is retained even though Wachsmuth questions it and considers “take” or deletion. The feminine “her” follows the grammatical gender of each soul; it does not establish a biological sex.

1534.Kosmos here is the zodiacal arrangement or order. The difficult phrase about completing the succeeding figures is translated provisionally; the printed oion, “as” or “as it were,” remains represented. Panourgos can mean unscrupulous in other contexts, but here stands beside pantechnos and describes comprehensive productive ability. Pneuma is rendered “breath”; the recipients of the gifts are not explicitly restated in the clause.

1535.The visible works and invisible breath follow the printed correction; the transmitted alternative reverses the latter adjective. Homogonia suggests shared origin or like generation, here linked to reproduction. The singular “it” and subsequent plural “they” follow the shifting construction; the printed neuter auta most naturally points to the works, although the activity of making might suggest their makers. The English keeps the plural without settling that difficulty. The rejected plural pronoun and the supplied comparative conjunction remain marked. This closes Isis’ present speech before Horus asks a question.

1536.Tekousa literally addresses the one who gave birth to the speaker. The sequence distinguishes examining the mixture, reverencing it, and investigating its composition. Their fear attaches to the inquiry itself, not merely to a failure to obtain an answer. Isis’ answer continues into the subsequent account of the souls’ work and disobedience.

1537.The account associates kinds of animals with successive properties of the mixture. Its “half congealed” and “already ... solid” descriptions are both retained rather than reconciled into a modern physical process. The fish clause is elliptical: “from what” supplies its relation to the material, while the different moisture is the medium needed for swimming. Herpeta includes creeping or crawling creatures and is broader than the modern zoological category of reptiles.

1538.The printed sequence around ti ... kai periergon is awkward. The translation takes the accomplishment as the ground for their boldness and periergon with tolman; another attachment could make the accomplishment itself meddlesome. The rejected eti, “still,” remains bracketed. Their identification of staying in one abode with death belongs to the souls’ perspective, not to a definition asserted by the translator.

1539.The opening report is grammatically rough and shifts into Hermes’ first person, “me.” English separates the report into sentences; the rejected legōn, “saying,” is kept as a visible fragment. Systēma denotes the human composite or constitution, here the means of binding souls. Diapantos is rendered “continually”; the later promise of release should not be suppressed by turning this into an explicit claim that each individual is imprisoned forever.

1540.Isis repeatedly identifies Hermes as her source, while quoting the creator within his report. The supplied hōs, “when,” remains marked. The concluding construction has the sovereign as the understood subject of “could provide”; it does not explicitly say that each god can independently create the entire human being. The following speeches specify their several contributions.

1541.The heavenly bodies speak as divinities, and the named conditions or powers are personified offspring. The Moon’s course is described relationally as following the Sun; the passage does not specify a modern orbital model. Panōphelē, “of universal benefit,” follows the printed correction, against a transmitted reading meaning unprofitable. Necessity reappears with Love in the creator’s reply to the souls.

1542.Agōnia is rendered “Anguish,” while Eris remains the distinct power Strife. Aphrodite presents desire, pleasure, and laughter as relief for souls undergoing punishment. “Our” makes explicit the kinship implied by syngeneis in her speech; it is not an additional named group in the Greek. The sentence retains the severity of the sentence alongside her intention to alleviate suffering.

1543.The unnamed subject taking pleasure is understood as the god; the apparatus proposes making that subject explicit. The rejected repetition epi pleon remains bracketed. The supplied Greek article tōn is represented by the marked English “of.” Discovery is the personified Heuresis introduced earlier. The final astrological clause is compressed: “each” can concern the individual natural activities involved, and the translation avoids naming particular signs or supplying an astrological scheme absent from the text.