Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.1b.4–I.49.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 493 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.1b.4–I.49.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 982

1b.4

I.49.1b.4

Ἐπίκουρος κρᾶμα ἐκ τεττάρων, ἐκ ποιοῦ πυρώδους, ἐκ ποιοῦ ἀερώδους, ἐκ ποιοῦ πνευματικοῦ, ἐκ τετάρτου τινὸς ἀκατονομάστου, τοῦτο δ᾽ ἦν αὐτῷ τὸ αἰσθητικόν· ὧν τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα κίνησιν, τὸν δὲ ἀέρα ἠρεμίαν, τὸ δὲ θερμὸν τὴν φαινομένην θερμότητα τοῦ σώματος, τὸ δ᾽ ἀκατονόμαστον τὴν ἐν ἡμῖν ἐμποιεῖν αἴσθησιν, ἐν οὐδενὶ γὰρ τῶν ὀνομαζομένων στοιχείων εἶναι αἴσθησιν.

1c · Ἑρμοῦ

I.49.1c

Ἑρμοῦ.

Ψυχὴ τοίνυν ἐστὶν οὐσία ἀίδιος νοητική, νόημα ἔχουσα τὸν ἑαυτῆς λόγον.

2 · Πλάτωνος

I.49.2

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Φαίδρου.

Ἡ γὰρ ἀχρώματός τε καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος καὶ ἀναφὴς οὐσία ὄντως ⟨οὖσα⟩ ψυχῆς.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 983

1b.4 · Epicurus: a fourfold mixture

I.49.1b.4

Epicurus calls it a mixture of four constituents: something fiery, something airy, something breath-like, and a fourth, unnamed constituent. This last was, for him, the element responsible for perception. Of these constituents, breath produces motion; air, rest; the warm constituent, the manifest warmth of the body; and the unnamed constituent, perception within us. For perception is present in none of the elements that have names.¹²⁵⁵

1c · Hermes: soul as thinking substance

I.49.1c

From Hermes.

Soul, then, is an eternal substance capable of thought, having its own reason as its object of thought.¹²⁵⁶

2 · Plato: a shortened quotation

I.49.2

From Plato, from the Phaedrus.

For the colorless, shapeless, intangible substance of soul, truly ⟨existing⟩.¹²⁵⁷

1255.This fourfold mixture is not the familiar set of earth, water, air, and fire. The report distinguishes air from breath, and reserves the power of perception for a fourth constituent whose name it does not give. “Produces” carries the concluding empoiein back through the parallel clauses.

1256.The statement recurs at the beginning of excerpt 6 with a different word order. Wachsmuth retains both occurrences, although Heeren omitted this one. Logos is rendered “reason,” and noēma “object of thought”; the clause is compressed, and can also suggest that soul’s own reason constitutes its thought. The heading attributes the passage to Hermes.

1257.Phaedrus 247c. As printed here, the quotation is only a noun phrase. In Plato’s fuller sentence, psychēs, “of soul,” belongs with the following “pilot,” intellect, which sees true being; it does not define true being as the soul’s substance. This excerpt stops before those words. The English exposes the resulting compression rather than importing the omitted continuation. Wachsmuth supplies ousa from Plato. Compare the Greek text of Phaedrus 247c reproduced by Luke Dysinger at ldysinger.com/@texts/0-03_plato/04_phaedrus.htm.

About This Reading Edition

Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.

Historical Text and Translation

The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.