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← ExitStobaeus, Volume I

Reading language

Book I Chapter 49

44.45 · The creator oversees the souls’ changes

Having said this, my child Horus, he bestowed breaths upon them all and spoke again: “I have not legislated your changes idly or at random. Just as they will be for the worse if you do something shameful, so they will be for the better if you resolve upon something worthy of your own origin. For I myself, and no other, shall be the observer and overseer.¹⁵⁵⁶

44.46 · Rebirth, release, and distorted judgment

Recognize, then, that you endure this punishment, embodiment, because of your earlier deeds. The difference in your rebirth will therefore be the difference of bodies, as I said; but release is a benefit and ⟨the⟩ former happiness * * . Your understanding will be blinded if you decide to do anything unworthy of me, so that you judge things contrariwise: you will undergo punishment as though it were a benefit, and regard a change for the better as dishonor and outrage.¹⁵⁵⁷

44.47 · Human lives allotted to more just souls

Those among you who are more just and await the change into the divine will, among human beings, be just kings, genuine philosophers, * * founders and lawgivers, [the] truthful diviners, genuine gatherers of medicinal roots, excellent prophets of gods, experienced musicians, intelligent astronomers, clear-sighted observers of birds, exact practitioners of sacrifice, and all of you who are worthy of noble and good things;¹⁵⁵⁸

44.48 · Eagles and the protection of weaker creatures

among winged creatures, eagles, because they will neither drive away nor feast upon any of their own kind. Nor will another animal near them be allowed to wrong anything weaker than itself, for the more just nature of eagles will pursue the offender;¹⁵⁵⁹

44.49 · Lions and serpents

among quadrupeds, lions, for the creature is strong and has received a nature that is in a way sleepless, exercising its immortal nature in a perishable body, since lions neither grow weary nor sleep; among creeping creatures, serpents, because the creature is powerful, long-lived, harmless, and in some fashion friendly to human beings. It will also be tamed and have no venom, and even after growing old it will become young again, like the nature of the gods;¹⁵⁶⁰

44.50 · Dolphins and the close of the divine speech

among swimming creatures, dolphins, for these will also show fellow-feeling toward those who fall into the sea. They will carry the living ashore and will never touch the dead at all, although the race of aquatic creatures will be the most voracious of all.” Having said this, the god becomes incorruptible mind.¹⁵⁶¹

44.51 · Momus rises from the earth

When these things had happened, my child Horus, an exceedingly powerful spirit rose from the earth, beyond the grasp of bodily containment, yet existing as a power of understanding. Although it knew the matters about which it asked, it wore a body shaped like a man, beautiful and majestic, yet exceedingly wild and full of terror. Seeing the souls at that moment entering the fashioned bodies, it said, “What are these called, Hermes, recorder of the gods?” He replied, “Human beings, ⟨Momus⟩.”¹⁵⁶²

44.52 · Momus questions unchecked human curiosity

“Hermes,” he said, “it is a bold undertaking to make the human being: inquisitive with the eyes, talkative with the tongue, ready to listen even to things that do not concern him, greedy in smell, and ready to use the grasping power of touch upon everything. Have you resolved, maker of living things, to leave this creature free from care, when he will boldly look into nature’s beautiful mysteries? Do you wish to leave him without grief, when he will send his designs to the very ends of the earth?¹⁵⁶³

44.53 · Plants, anatomy, navigation, and the heavens

Human beings will dig up the roots of plants and examine the properties of their juices; they will investigate the natures of stones and cut open not only irrational animals but also themselves, wishing to examine how they came into being. They will stretch their daring hands even to the sea and, cutting naturally grown timber, ferry one another across to the lands beyond in pursuit of discovery. And what nature lies within the sacred inner sanctuaries: they will pursue things even to the heights, wishing to observe what movement has been established in heaven.¹⁵⁶⁴

44.54 · The danger of a life without fear

These things are still moderate, for nothing remains but earth’s furthest place. Yet by sheer willing they will investigate even the uttermost night of these things. Do they then have no obstacle, but are to be initiated into the good of freedom from grief and, uncoerced by the harsh goads of fear, luxuriate in a life without care? Will they not then arm themselves with meddlesome boldness reaching even to heaven? Will they not stretch out their carefree souls even toward the elements?¹⁵⁶⁵

44.55 · Desire and disappointment as restraints

Teach them, then, to long to form some design [so that they may also have the hardship of failure to fear], so that, failing to obtain what they hope for, they may be subdued by the biting force of grief. Let the inquisitiveness of their souls be brought to bankruptcy by desires, fears, griefs, and deceptive hopes.¹⁵⁶⁶

44.56 · Success as a lure to further suffering

Let successive longings, hopes, and varied desires feed upon their souls, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing, so that even success may be a sweet lure drawing them into a contest with more fully developed evils. Let fever weigh upon them, so that, burned through, they may chastise desire.”¹⁵⁶⁷

44.57 · Isis asks Horus to consider the burden

Are you grieved, my child Horus, as your mother explains these things to you? Do you not marvel, are you not appalled, at how the wretched human being was burdened? Hear what is more terrible still.¹⁵⁶⁸

1556.Isis introduces the creator’s second reply. The printed plural pneumata is rendered “breaths,” retaining the plurality rather than the apparatus’s singular alternative. Metabolai, “changes,” concerns the successive conditions or embodiments of souls. English supplies the verbal sense in the balanced clauses about worse and better; both actions and resolutions remain distinct. The following speech continues.

1557.Palingenesia is rebirth or renewed coming-to-be. The gap after “former happiness” remains visible. Wachsmuth suspects that words about dishonor and unhappiness have fallen out, but these are not inserted. English brings the printed subject “release” forward to make the surviving clause readable; the damaged relation of release, benefit, and former happiness remains provisional. The supplied article is marked. The reversal of judgment in the next sentence is explicit.

1558.The Greek changes from feminine souls to masculine names of human roles and ends with a second-person feminine clause. These shifts remain evident in English. A gap before “founders” and the rejected article before “truthful” are preserved. Rhizotomoi are literally root-cutters, here practitioners who gather medicinal roots; oiōnoskopoi read bird signs. The printed este, “you are,” is retained instead of the apparatus’s conjectured future. The list of animal embodiments follows the semicolon.

1559.The animal behavior belongs to the creator’s promised order in this account. The reflexive hautou refers to the other animal, not to the eagle. The printed comparative endikōtera means “more just”; the apparatus notes an alternative connected with avenging. “The offender” supplies the unstated object of meteleusetai, which can express pursuit or the exaction of a penalty. The two acts against their own kind, driving away and eating, remain separate.

1560.Drakontes are large serpents in this catalogue. The claims that lions do not sleep and that these serpents lack venom are preserved as features of the passage’s exemplary animals. “In some fashion” renders the printed hopōsioun without removing its qualification. The promise of renewed youth follows the printed neasei, supported in the apparatus by comparison with Aristotle; no account of how the renewal occurs is supplied here.

1561.The dolphin example completes the catalogue with rescue of the living and abstention from the dead. Philobrōtatou follows the edition’s correction, “most voracious.” The final sentence says that the god “becomes incorruptible mind.” Its wording is retained without explaining it away as merely falling silent, becoming invisible, or returning to a prior state. Isis’ outer narrative continues.

1562.The printed ischyrotaton describes great power; the apparatus’s suggestion of an adjective meaning thin is not adopted. The construction moves awkwardly from a spirit beyond bodily containment to its wearing a body; both descriptions are retained. Eidos, “knowing,” and the participle for seeing follow printed corrections. The name Momus is supplied in Hermes’ reply and remains marked; the speaker is named explicitly later in the passage.

1563.Momus presents the senses as avenues of intrusive inquiry. The infinitive poiēsai is rendered as the undertaking of making a human; English does not silently change it into a past-tense accusation. The doubled language of touch, haphē and haptikon, is represented by “grasping power of touch.” Merimna and lypē remain distinct as care and grief. Epinoiai are designs, ideas, or inventions; the geographical reach is explicit.

1564.The list connects the examination of plants and stones, dissection, sea travel, and celestial observation. The phrase about the nature within sacred sanctuaries interrupts the construction; English preserves it as a suspended inquiry. Wachsmuth considers moving it earlier, after “wishing,” but no such transposition is made here. Hylai are rendered as timber in the shipbuilding context. The text says “themselves,” without specifying whether the human bodies dissected are living or dead.

1565.The sentence about “the uttermost night of these things” is difficult. The printed toutōn and tōi thelein are retained rather than replaced by the apparatus’s suggestions about a terminus or poles. The clause does not securely identify a particular region or journey. The following questions express Momus’s fear that painless human life would encourage encroachment. The grammatical shift between indicative and subjunctive is smoothed in English, with its warning preserved.

1566.The infinitival phrase “to long to form some design” is compressed; the translation keeps longing and planning together. Wachsmuth rejects the first purpose clause as a repetition of the next, and it remains bracketed in both languages. Chreōkopeisthō uses the metaphor of bankruptcy or exhaustion by debt. Planois, “deceptive” or “wandering,” follows the printed correction and qualifies hopes.

1567.Nemesthōsan can suggest feeding or ranging over something; “feed upon” keeps the destructive image. The contrast between success and failure follows the printed ateuktousai correction. Athlēsis is an ordeal or contest, and teleioterōn makes the evils more complete or developed. The final burning is connected with fever in the speech; no specific therapeutic procedure is named. This closes Momus’s proposal.

1568.Isis interrupts the reported dialogue to address Horus directly. The rhetorical questions register the weight of the restrictions just proposed. Her announcement of something more terrible introduces Hermes’ response and the institution of oversight; it does not begin a new Stobaean excerpt.