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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.60.5–I.49.60.7
Ancient Greek
p. 147260.5
Ὅμηρος δὲ τὴν ἐν κύκλῳ περίοδον καὶ περιφορὰν παλιγγενεσίας Κίρκην προσηγόρευκεν, Ἡλίου παῖδα τοῦ πᾶσαν φθορὰν γενέσει καὶ γένεσιν αὖ πάλιν φθορᾷ συνάπτοντος ἀεὶ καὶ συνείροντος.
60.6
Αἰαίη δὲ νῆσος ἡ δεχομένη τὸν ἀποθνῄσκοντα μοῖρα καὶ χώρα τοῦ περιέχοντος, εἰς ἣν ἐμπεσοῦσαι πρῶτον αἱ ψυχαὶ πλανῶνται καὶ ξενοπαθοῦσι καὶ ὀλοφύρονται καὶ οὐκ ἴσασιν,
ὅπῃ ζόφος, οὐδ᾽ ὅπῃ ἠέλιος φαεσίμβροτος εἶσ᾽ ὑπὸ γαῖαν.60.7
Ποθοῦσαι δὲ καθ᾽ ἡδονὰς τὴν συνήθη καὶ σύντροφον ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ μετὰ σαρκὸς δίαιταν ἐμπίπτουσιν αὖθις εἰς τὸν κυκεῶνα τῆς γενέσεως μιγνύσης εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ κυκώσης ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀίδια καὶ θνητὰ καὶ φρόνιμα καὶ παθητὰ καὶ ὀλύμπια καὶ γηγενῆ, θελγόμεναι καὶ μαλασσόμεναι ταῖς ἀγούσαις αὖθις ἐπὶ τὴν γένεσιν ἡδοναῖς,
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 147360.5 · Circe as the circuit of rebirth
Homer has called the circular course and revolution of rebirth Circe, the daughter of the Sun, who continually joins and links every destruction to birth, and birth in turn to destruction.1764
60.6 · Aeaea and the bewildered souls
The island Aeaea is the portion and region of the surrounding expanse that receives the dying person. When souls first fall into it, they wander, experience unfamiliar things, lament, and do not know
where the darkness lies, nor where the sun that shines for mortals goes beneath the earth.1765
60.7 · The mixture of embodied existence
Longing, through their pleasures, for the familiar way of life in and with flesh in which they were reared, they fall once more into the mixed draught of coming-to-be. It mixes together and truly stirs into one things eternal and mortal, intelligent and subject to affections, Olympian and earthborn. The souls are enchanted and softened by the pleasures that lead them back into birth.1766
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.60.5–I.49.60.7
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.