Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.48.3–I.49.49.1
Ancient Greek
p. 135648.3
Κακία δὲ ψυχῆς ἀγνωσία. Ψυχὴ γὰρ μηδὲν ἐπιγνοῦσα τῶν ὄντων μηδὲ τὴν τούτων φύσιν μηδὲ τὸ ἀγαθόν, τυφλώττουσα δὲ ἐντινάσσεται τοῖς σωματικοῖς πάθεσι καὶ ἡ κακοδαίμων ἀγνοήσασα ἑαυτὴν δουλεύει σώμασιν ἀλλοκότοις καὶ μοχθηροῖς ὥσπερ φορτίον βαστάζουσα τὸ σῶμα καὶ οὐκέτ᾽ ἄρχουσα ἀλλ᾽ ἀρχομένη. Αὕτη κακία ψυχῆς.
49.1
Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ψυχὴ δὲ ἀνθρωπίνη ⟨οὐ⟩ πᾶσα μέν, ἡ δ᾽ εὐσεβὴς δαιμονία τίς ἐστι καὶ θεία. Καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἀπαλλαγῆναι τοῦ σώματος τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀγῶνα ἀγωνισαμένη (ἀγὼν δὲ εὐσεβείας τὸ γνῶναι τὸ θεῖον καὶ μηδένα ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῆσαι), ὅλη νοῦς γίγνεται.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 135748.3 · Ignorance as the soul’s evil
The soul’s evil is ignorance. For a soul that has come to know none of the things that exist, neither their nature nor the good, is blind and is tossed about amid bodily affections. Unhappy in its ignorance of itself, it is enslaved to strange and wretched bodies, carrying the body like a burden and no longer ruling but being ruled. This is the soul’s evil.1634
49.1 · The pious soul becomes wholly mind
By the same author. A human soul, ⟨not⟩ every one, but the pious soul, is something daimonic and divine. Such a soul, after it has been released from the body and has fought the contest of piety (the contest of piety is to know the divine and to wrong no human being), becomes wholly mind.1635
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.48.3–I.49.49.1
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.
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.