Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.25a.2–I.49.25a.3
Ancient Greek
p. 110025a.2
Παρὰ δὲ Πλάτωνι καὶ Ἀριστοτέλει ἐν τοῖς Ἠθικοῖς τριμερὴς ἡ ψυχὴ λέγεται εἶναι, καὶ κεκρατήκε τοῦτο παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀγνοοῦσιν ὡς ἡ διαίρεσις τῆς συστάσεως ἕνεκα τῶν ἀρετῶν παρείληπται· οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς εἰς σύλληψιν πάντων τῶν μερῶν. Τὸ γὰρ φανταστικὸν καὶ αἰσθητικὸν καὶ τὸ νοερὸν καὶ ⟨τὸ⟩ φυτικὸν οὐ δήπου ἐν τῇ διαιρέσει ταύτῃ περιληφθήσεται.
25a.3
Ἄλλοι δέ, ὧν καὶ Νουμήνιος, οὐ τρία μέρη ψυχῆς μιᾶς, ἢ δύο γε, τὸ λογικὸν καὶ ἄλογον, ἀλλὰ δύο ψυχὰς ἔχειν ἡμᾶς οἴονται, ὥσπερ καὶ ἄλλα, τὴν μὲν λογικήν, τὴν δὲ ἄλογον· ὧν πάλιν οἱ μὲν ἄμφω ἀθανάτους, οἱ δὲ τὴν λογικὴν ἀθάνατον, τὴν δὲ ἄλογον οὐ κατὰ τὰς ἐνεργείας μόνον ἀφίστασθαι τῆς ποιᾶς κινήσεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν διαλύεσθαι. Τοῖς δὲ ἐδόκει δύο ψυχῶν εἰς ταὐτὸ συμπλακεισῶν ἀλλήλαις διπλασίας εἶναι τὰς κινήσεις, ὁμοιουμένων ἀλλήλαις ἐκ τοῦ ἀπολαύειν ἑκατέραν τῶν τῆς ἑτέρας παθημάτων κατὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 110125a.2 · The purpose of a threefold division
In Plato and in Aristotle’s ethical writings, the soul is said to have three parts. This view has prevailed among the many, who do not recognize that the division has been adopted for the purpose of establishing the virtues, rather than simply to encompass all the parts. For surely the imaginative, the perceptive, the intellective, and ⟨the⟩ nutritive powers will not be included in this division.1370
25a.3 · Two souls and their interaction
Others, including Numenius, think that we possess not three parts of one soul, or even two, the rational and the irrational, but two souls, as we do other things: one rational and the other irrational. Among them, some consider both immortal; others consider the rational soul immortal, while the irrational not only ceases its characteristic motion in its activities, but is also dissolved in its substance. Others held that, when two souls are interwoven with each other in the same place, their movements are twofold: the souls become like one another because, in their union, each shares in what the other undergoes.1371
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.25a.2–I.49.25a.3
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.
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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.
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