Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Facing Pages · Branch 221 of 879
Book I Chapter 19 · I.19.2.5–I.19.2.6
Ancient Greek
p. 4382 Ἑρμοῦ · 5
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Πᾶσα οὖν κίνησις ἐν στάσει καὶ ὑπὸ στάσεως κινεῖται. Ἡ οὖν κίνησις τοῦ κόσμου καὶ παντὸς ζῴου ὑλικοῦ οὐχ ὑπὸ τῶν κατεκτὸς [τοῦ κόσμου] συμβαίνει γίνεσθαι, ἀλλ’ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐντὸς [εἰς τὸ κατεκτός], τῶν νοητῶν, ψυχῆς ἢ πνεύματος ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς ἀσωμάτου. Σῶμα γὰρ ⟨σῶμα⟩ ἔμψυχον οὐ κινεῖ, ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ τὸ σύνολον σῶμα κἂν ᾖ ἄψυχον.
2 Ἑρμοῦ · 6
⟨ἈΣΚ.⟩ Πῶς τοῦτο λέγεις, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε; Τὰ οὖν ξύλα καὶ τοὺς λίθους καὶ τὰ ⟨ἄλλα⟩ πάντα ἄψυχα οὐ σώματά ἐστι ⟨τὰ κινοῦντα⟩;
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Οὐδαμῶς, ⟨ὦ⟩ Ἀσκληπιέ. Τὸ γὰρ ἔνδον τοῦ σώματος, τοῦ κινοῦντος, τὸ ἔμψυχον, οὐ σῶμα ἐκεῖνό ἐστι τὸ ἀμφότερα κινοῦν καὶ τὸ τοῦ βαστάζοντος καὶ τὸ τοῦ βασταζομένου. διόπερ ἄψυχον οὐκ ἄψυχον κινήσει. ὁρᾷς γοῦν καταβαρυνομένην τὴν ψυχήν, ὅταν ⟨μόνη⟩ δύο σώματα φέρῃ.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 19
p. 4392 Hermes: Motion from within
⟨Hermes⟩ All motion, then, takes place in stillness and through stillness. Accordingly, the motion of the world and of every material living creature is brought about not by things outside [the world], but by things within [toward the outside], intelligible things: soul or breath or some other incorporeal thing.538 For a body does not move an ensouled ⟨body⟩, nor indeed any body at all, even if it is without soul.539
2 Hermes: The carrier and the burden
⟨Asclepius⟩ What do you mean, Trismegistus? In the case of wood, stones, and all ⟨other⟩ things without soul, are not bodies ⟨what moves them⟩?
⟨Hermes⟩ By no means, ⟨O⟩ Asclepius. For what is within the moving body, the ensouled principle, is no body: it is what moves both bodies, that of the carrier and that of the thing carried.540 Hence a thing without soul will not move a thing without soul. You see, then, how the soul is weighed down when it ⟨alone⟩ carries two bodies.
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 19 · I.19.2.5–I.19.2.6
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.