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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.53.8–I.49.53.9
Ancient Greek
p. 138053.8
Τιμωρεῖσθαι δὲ ἐκτὸς ὄντα καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα τοὺς ἀδίκους, φαντασίας φοβερὰς ἐμποιοῦντα τοῦ βάλλοντος καὶ τοξεύοντος, ὥσπερ ζῶν ἠμύνετο, ἀμυνομένου καὶ ἐν Ἅιδου τοὺς ἀξίους κολάσεως· οὐ γὰρ δὴ καὶ οὗτος τῶν κολαζομένων ἐστίν, ὡς Ἀριστάρχῳ ἐδόκει, ἀλλὰ τῶν κολαζόντων.
53.9
Τῶν δ᾽ ἐντὸς τοῦ ποταμοῦ καὶ ἀφῃρημένων τὸν λογισμὸν τὸν ἀνθρώπινον μόνος ὁ Τειρεσίας καὶ τοῦτον ἔχει παρόντα· οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι ἀλλήλους μὲν γιγνώσκουσι κατ᾽ ἰδιότητα φρονήσεως ἣν ἐν Ἅιδου κέκτηνται, τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπους οὐκέτι· οὐδ᾽ ἂν φθέγξαιντο περὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων τοῖς ζῶσιν ἔτι ἀνθρώποις, εἰ μὴ ἀτμοῦ μεταλάβοιεν αἵματος καὶ τούτῳ φρενωθεῖεν τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, ἃ δὴ οἱ ἔξω καὶ μὴ πιόντες τοῦ αἵματος φρονοῦσι, κατάστασιν ἔχοντες τῆς ἐξ αἱμοποσίας τῶν θνητῶν ταῖς ψυχαῖς γιγνομένης γνωρίσεως.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 138153.8 · Heracles as a punisher
Heracles too, dwelling outside, punishes the unjust by producing fearful images of himself striking and shooting arrows. Just as he defended himself while alive, so in Hades he resists those deserving punishment. For he too belongs among those who punish, not among those punished, as Aristarchus thought.1660
53.9 · Tiresias and the other souls
Among those inside the river, deprived of human reasoning, Tiresias alone retains this too. The others recognize one another through a distinctive understanding they possess in Hades, but no longer recognize human beings. Nor would they speak about human affairs to people still alive unless they partook of the vapor of blood and thereby recovered understanding of human matters. Those outside understand these things even without drinking blood, possessing the condition of recognition of mortal things that drinking blood produces in souls.1661
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.53.8–I.49.53.9
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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.
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.
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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.