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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 703 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.55.1–I.49.55.2
Ancient Greek
p. 140255.1
Πορφυρίου ἐκ τῶν πρὸς τὰ νοητὰ ἀφορμῶν. Ὥσπερ τὸ ἐπὶ γῆς εἶναι ψυχῇ ἐστι, οὐ τὸ γῆς ἐπιβαίνειν ὡς τὰ σώματα, τὸ δὲ προεστάναι σώματος ὃ γῆς ἐπιβαίνει, οὕτω καὶ ἐν Ἅιδου εἶναί ἐστι ψυχῇ, ὅταν προεστήκῃ εἰδώλου φύσιν μὲν ἔχοντος εἶναι ἐν τόπῳ, σκοτει⟨νὴν⟩ δὲ τὴν ὑπόστασιν κεκτημένου· ὥστ᾽ ἐπεὶ ὁ Ἅιδης ὑπόγειός ἐστι τόπος σκοτεινός, ἡ ψυχὴ καίπερ οὐκ ἀποσπωμένη τοῦ ὄντος ἐν Ἅιδου γίγνεται ἐφελκομένη τὸ εἴδωλον.
55.2
Ἐξελθούσῃ γὰρ αὐτῇ τοῦ στερεοῦ σώματος τὸ πνεῦμα συνομαρτεῖ, ὃ ἐκ τῶν σφαιρῶν συνελέξατο. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς πρὸς τὸ σῶμα προσπαθείας τὸν λόγον ἔχουσα τὸν μερικὸν προβεβλημένον, καθ᾽ ὃν σχέσιν ἔσχε πρὸς τὸ ποιὸν σῶμα ἐν τῷ βιοῦν, ἐκ τῆς προσπαθείας ἐναπομόργνυται τύπος τῆς φαντασίας εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ οὕτως ἐφέλκεται τὸ εἴδωλον. Ἐν Ἅιδου δὲ λέγεται, ὅτι τῆς ἀειδοῦς φύσεως ἐτύγχανε τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ σκοτεινῆς.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 140355.1 · Porphyry: the soul and its image
Porphyry, from Starting Points toward the Intelligible. Just as, for a soul, being on earth means not treading the earth as bodies do, but presiding over a body that treads the earth, so too a soul is in Hades when it presides over an image whose nature allows it to be in a place, but whose substance is ⟨dark⟩. Thus, since Hades is a dark place underground, the soul comes to be in Hades by drawing the image along with it, although it is not severed from being.1683
55.2 · The imprint upon the accompanying breath
For when the soul leaves the solid body, the breath accompanies it, which it gathered from the spheres. Through attachment to the body, it has projected the particular formative principle by which it was related during life to a body of a certain kind. Through this attachment an imprint of imagination is impressed upon the breath, and in this way the soul draws the image along with it. It is said to be in Hades because the breath was of an invisible and dark nature.1684
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.55.1–I.49.55.2
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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.