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 49 · I.49.32.12–I.49.32.13

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English Page · Branch 580 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.32.12–I.49.32.13

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Ancient Greek

p. 1156

32.12

I.49.32.12

Ἀλλὰ μὴν ἥ γε πρὸς ταύτην ἀνθισταμένη δόξα χωρίζει μὲν τὴν ψυχήν, ὡς ἀπὸ νοῦ γενομένην δευτέραν καθ᾽ ἑτέραν ὑπόστασιν, τὸ δὲ μετὰ νοῦ αὐτῆς ἐξηγεῖται ὡς ἐξηρτημένον ἀπὸ τοῦ νοῦ, μετὰ τοῦ κατ᾽ ἰδίαν ὑφεστηκέναι αὐτοτελῶς, χωρίζει δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν κρειττόνων γενῶν ὅλων,

32.13

I.49.32.13

ἴδιον δὲ αὐτῇ τῆς οὐσίας ὅρον ἀπονέμει ἤτοι τὸ μέσον τῶν μεριστῶν καὶ ἀμερίστων ⟨τῶν τε σωματικῶν καὶ ἀ⟩σωμάτων γενῶν, ἢ τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν καθόλου λόγων, ἢ τὴν μετὰ τὰς ἰδέας ὑπηρεσίαν τῆς δημιουργίας, ἢ ζωὴν παρ᾽ ἑαυτῆς ἔχουσαν τὸ ζῆν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ νοητοῦ προελθοῦσαν, ἢ τὴν αὖ τῶν γενῶν ὅλου τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος πρόοδον εἰς ὑποδεεστέραν οὐσίαν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1157

32.12 · Soul as a distinct subsistence

I.49.32.12

The opposing opinion, however, distinguishes soul as having come from intellect, secondary to it and possessing a different subsistence. It explains soul’s being with intellect as dependence upon intellect, together with a complete subsistence of its own. It also distinguishes soul from all the higher kinds;¹⁴²⁵

32.13 · Definitions of soul’s distinctive substance

I.49.32.13

and it assigns soul a distinctive definition of its substance: either the intermediate between the divisible and indivisible, ⟨between the bodily and the in⟩corporeal kinds; or the fullness of universal rational principles; or the service of creation that follows the forms; or life that has its living from itself and has proceeded from the intelligible; or, again, the procession of the kinds belonging to the whole of true being into a lower substance.¹⁴²⁶

1425.The contrast is between identity of substance and a distinct, dependent mode of being. “Being with intellect” follows meta nou in the edited text. Autotelōs means completely or with its own completeness; it does not cancel the stated dependence on intellect. The repeated chōrizei marks distinction or separation in this account, not a spatial distance.

1426.These alternatives elaborate the opposing account rather than five additional named schools. The supply on p. 366 ends inside asōmatōn: the printed sōmatōn becomes “incorporeal” by the supplied prefix. The English brackets likewise end within “incorporeal” to show its extent. Plērōma is fullness; proodos is procession or proceeding into a lower order. The reference to divisible and indivisible recalls the Timaeus selection in excerpt 28.

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.