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 48 · I.48.3.1–I.48.3.2

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Book I Chapter 48 · I.48.3.1–I.48.3.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 950

3.1 · Ἑρμοῦ

I.48.3.1

Ἑρμοῦ.

⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Πῶς τοῦτο λέγεις, ὦ πάτερ; ὁ νοῦς τῆς ψυχῆς χωρίζεται καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ πνεύματος, σοῦ εἰπόντος ἔνδυμα εἶναι τοῦ μὲν νοῦ τὴν ψυχήν, τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς τὸ πνεῦμα;

⟨ΕΡΜ.⟩ Συννοεῖν δεῖ, ⟨ὦ⟩ τέκνον, τὸν ἀκούοντα τῷ λέγοντι καὶ συμπνεῖν καὶ ὀξυτέραν ἔχειν τὴν ἀκοὴν τῆς τοῦ λέγοντος φωνῆς.

3.2

I.48.3.2

Ἡ σύνθεσις τῶν ἐνδυμάτων τούτων ἐν σώματι γηΐνῳ γίνεται· ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν νοῦν ἐν γηΐνῳ σώματι γυμνὸν αὐτὸν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν ἑδράσαι. Οὔτε γὰρ τὸ γήϊνον σῶμα δυνατὸν ἐστι τὴν τηλικαύτην ἀθανασίαν ἐνεγκεῖν οὔτε τὴν τοσαύτην ἀρετὴν ἀνασχέσθαι συγχρωτιζόμενον αὐτῇ παθητὸν σῶμα. Ἔλαβεν ⟨οὖν⟩ ὥσπερ περιβόλαιον τὴν ψυχήν· ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ καὶ αὐτή τις θεία οὖσα καθάπερ ὑπηρέτῃ τῷ πνεύματι χρῆται, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τὸ ζῷον διοικεῖ.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 48

p. 951

3.1 · Hermes: the question about separation

I.48.3.1

From Hermes.

⟨TAT⟩ What do you mean by this, father? Intellect separates from soul, and soul from spirit, although you said that soul is the garment of intellect, and spirit the garment of soul?

⟨HERMES⟩ The hearer must think together with the speaker, ⟨my⟩ child, breathe in accord with him, and have a hearing keener than the speaker’s voice.¹²¹⁹

3.2 · The garments of embodied intellect

I.48.3.2

These garments are combined in an earthen body; for intellect cannot establish itself naked and alone in an earthen body. The earthen body cannot bear so great an immortality, nor can so great an excellence endure a body subject to suffering coming into close contact with it. Intellect ⟨therefore⟩ took soul as a kind of covering. Soul, itself something divine, uses spirit as a servant, and spirit governs the living creature.¹²²⁰

1219.The passage corresponds to Corpus Hermeticum X.16-18. Wachsmuth supplies the speaker labels from the parallel Hermetic text, which also supports endyma, “garment,” against dynamis, “power,” in F and P. Pneuma, “spirit,” retains its association with breath, made audible in sympnein, “breathe in accord.” The added Greek vocative particle ō is represented by the marked address in English.

1220.The garments mediate between immortal intellect and a body liable to affection and suffering (pathēton). Aretē here denotes intellect’s excellence, not simply moral virtue. The imagery continues in the fiery tunic below; it distinguishes soul, spirit, and body without making the coverings interchangeable. Wachsmuth restores oun and corrects the pronoun to autēi, referring to the excellence just mentioned.

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.