Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.1.3–I.21.2
Ancient Greek
p. 4941 Πλάτωνος · 3
Λογισάμενος οὖν εὕρισκεν ἐκ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν ὁρατῶν οὐδὲν ἀνόητον τοῦ νοῦν ἔχοντος ὅλον ὅλου κάλλιον ἔσεσθαί ποτε ἔργον, νοῦν δὲ αὖ χωρὶς ψυχῆς ἀδύνατον παραγενέσθαι τῳ. Διὰ δὴ τὸν λογισμὸν τόνδε νοῦν μὲν ἐν ψυχῇ, ψυχὴν δὲ ἐν σώματι συνιστὰς τὸ πᾶν συνετεκταίνετο, ὅπως ὅ τι κάλλιστον εἴη κατὰ φύσιν ἄριστόν τε ἔργον ἀπειργασμένος. Οὕτως οὖν δὴ κατὰ λόγον τὸν εἰκότα δεῖ λέγειν τόνδε τὸν κόσμον ζῷον ἔμψυχον ἔννουν τε τῇ ἀληθείᾳ διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ γενέσθαι πρόνοιαν.
2 Ἐν ταὐτῷ
Ἀπῄει τε γὰρ οὐδὲν οὐδὲ προσῄει αὐτῷ ποθέν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν· αὐτὸ γὰρ ἑαυτῷ τροφὴν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φθίσιν παρέχον καὶ πάντ᾽ ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ πάσχον καὶ δρῶν ἐκ τέχνης γέγονεν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 21
p. 4951 Plato: Intelligence, soul, and body
On reflection, then, he found that among things naturally visible, no work without intelligence could ever be more beautiful than one possessing intelligence, when whole is compared with whole; and that intelligence, in turn, cannot come to anything without soul. Through this reasoning he fashioned the universe, putting intelligence in soul and soul in body, so that the work he had accomplished might be as beautiful and as excellent as its nature allowed. Thus, according to the likely account, we must say that this world truly came to be a living being endowed with soul and intelligence through God’s providence.620
2 In the same work: Self-nourishment
For nothing went out of it, nor did anything come into it from anywhere, since there was nothing outside it. It was fashioned by art to provide itself with its own wasting away as nourishment, and to undergo and perform all its processes within itself and by itself.621
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 21 · I.21.1.3–I.21.2
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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.