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.48.3.3–I.48.3.4

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English Page · Branch 478 of 879

Book I Chapter 48 · I.48.3.3–I.48.3.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 952

3.3

I.48.3.3

Ὅταν ⟨οὖν⟩ ὁ νοῦς ἀπαλλαγῇ τοῦ γηΐνου σώματος, τὸν ἴδιον εὐθὺς ἐνεδύσατο χιτῶνα τὸν πύρινον, ὃν οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἔχων εἰς τὸ γήϊνον σῶμα κατοικῆσαι. Γῆ γὰρ πῦρ οὐ βαστάζει· πᾶσα γὰρ γῆ φλέγεται καὶ ὑπὸ ὀλίγου σπινθῆρος. Διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ περιέχυνται τῇ γῇ, ὥσπερ ἔρυμα καὶ τεῖχος ἀντέχον πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς φλόγα·

3.4

I.48.3.4

νοῦς δὲ ὀξύτατος ⟨ὢν⟩ πάντων τῶν θείων νοημάτων καὶ τὸ ὀξύτατον πάντων τῶν στοιχείων ἔχει τὸ πῦρ σῶμα. Δημιουργὸς γὰρ ὢν ὁ νοῦς τῶν πάντων ὀργάνῳ τῷ πυρὶ πρὸς τὴν δημιουργίαν χρῆται. Καὶ ὁ μὲν τοῦ παντὸς τῶν πάντων, ὁ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς μόνον. Γυμνὸς γὰρ ὢν τοῦ πυρὸς ὁ ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ νοῦς ἀδυνατεῖ τὰ θεῖα δημιουργεῖν, ἀνθρώπινος ὢν τῇ οἰκήσει.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 48

p. 953

3.3 · The tunic of fire

I.48.3.3

When, ⟨then⟩, intellect is released from the earthen body, it immediately puts on its own tunic of fire, which it could not wear while dwelling in the earthen body. For earth cannot sustain fire: all earth burns even from a small spark. For this reason water too has been poured around the earth, resisting the flame of fire like a defensive barrier and a wall.¹²²¹

3.4 · Cosmic and human craftsmanship

I.48.3.4

Intellect, ⟨being⟩ the keenest of all divine thoughts, also has as its body fire, the keenest of all the elements. For intellect, being the craftsman of all things, uses fire as an instrument of its craftsmanship. The intellect of the universe fashions all things, but human intellect only things upon the earth. For the intellect in a human being, stripped of fire, cannot fashion divine things, since it is human by virtue of its dwelling.¹²²²

1221.The tunic is intellect’s own garment after release, unlike the soul and spirit that clothe it during embodiment. The English uses a present tense for the general occurrence; the printed Greek has enedysato, an aorist, after hotan. The claim about earth, fire, and surrounding water belongs to this ancient elemental account. For discussion of the garment imagery, see M. David Litwa, “Corpus Hermeticum 10 cont’d” (2024), on X.16-18.

1222.Oxytatos, “keenest,” links intellect’s penetrative quality with fire’s. The final sentence limits embodied human craftsmanship; it does not deny the preceding distinction between intellect and its earthly dwelling. The translation follows the printed oikēsei, “dwelling,” rather than the parallel Hermetic dioikēsei, “administration,” recorded in the apparatus.

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.