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 47 · I.47.8.2–I.47.8.3

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English Page · Branch 463 of 879

Book I Chapter 47 · I.47.8.2–I.47.8.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 922

8.2

I.47.8.2

Καὶ τοῦ μὲν θεοῦ καθάπερ [αἱ] ἀκτῖνες αἱ ἐνέργειαι· τοῦ δὲ κόσμου [αἱ ἀκτῖνες] αἱ φύσεις· τοῦ δὲ ἀνθρώπου αἱ τέχναι καὶ αἱ ἐπιστῆμαι. Καὶ αἱ μὲν ἐνέργειαι διὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἐνεργοῦσι καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον διὰ τῶν τοῦ κόσμου φυσικῶν αἰτίων, αἱ δὲ φύσεις διὰ τῶν στοιχείων, οἱ δὲ ἄνθρωποι διὰ τῶν τεχνῶν καὶ ἐπιστημῶν.

8.3

I.47.8.3

Καὶ αὕτη ἡ τοῦ παντὸς διοίκησις ἠρτημένη ἐκ τῆς ⟨τοῦ⟩ ἑνὸς φύσεως καὶ διήκουσα δι᾽ ἑνὸς τοῦ νοῦ, οὗ οὐδέν ἐστι θειότερον καὶ ἐνεργέστερον καὶ ἑνωτικώτερον ἀνθρώπων μὲν πρὸς θεούς, θεῶν δὲ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους. Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀγαθὸς δαίμων· ὅθεν μακαρία ψυχὴ ἡ τούτου πληρεστάτη, κακοδαίμων δὲ ψυχὴ ἡ τούτου κενωτάτη.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 47

p. 923

8.2 · Divine activities, natures, and arts

I.47.8.2

God’s activities are like [the] rays; the cosmos has its natures [as its rays]; the human being has arts and sciences.¹¹⁸⁸ The activities operate through the cosmos and reach the human being through the cosmos’s natural causes; the natures act through the elements, and human beings through arts and sciences.¹¹⁸⁹

8.3 · Intellect as the good daemon

I.47.8.3

This governance of the universe depends upon the nature of ⟨the⟩ One and extends through the one intellect. Nothing is more divine, more active, or more capable of uniting human beings with gods and gods with human beings. This is the good daemon. Hence the soul fullest of it is blessed, while the soul most empty of it is ill-fated.¹¹⁹⁰

1188.The comparison with rays extends through a compressed three-part sentence. The square brackets preserve the rejected article before “rays” and the repeated phrase “the rays” after “cosmos,” adapting the latter’s placement to English syntax.

1189.“Natural causes” follows aitiōn, Usener’s correction printed by Wachsmuth, rather than aktinōn, “rays,” in F and P. Energeiai are operative activities or powers; “natures” preserves physeis as the corresponding level within the cosmos.

1190.Nous, “intellect,” is here a divine unifying agency and is called the agathos daimōn, “good daemon.” Kakodaimōn, translated “ill-fated,” echoes the word daimōn and can suggest being attended by a bad daemon. The supplement is the article in “of the One”; its English position is adapted to the construction.

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.