Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 41 · I.41.10.2–I.41.11.2

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 442 of 879

Book I Chapter 41 · I.41.10.2–I.41.11.2

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 880

10.2

I.41.10.2

Τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ τῆς ψυχῆς δεσμὸς μὲν ἦν καὶ δέμας κρατουμένης, σῶμα δὲ ἀπολείπεται, τουτέστι σῆμα καὶ ἴχνος, ἀπελθούσης.

11.1

I.41.11.1

Ἑρμοῦ.

Ἔστι τοίνυν τὸ προὸν ἐπὶ πάντων τῶν ὄντων καὶ τῶν ὄντως ὄντων. Προὸν [ὂν] γάρ ἐστι, δι᾽ οὗ ἡ οὐσιότης ἡ καθόλου λεγομένη κοινὴ νοεῖται τῶν ὄντως ὄντων καὶ τῶν ὄντων τῶν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὰ νοουμένων. Τὰ δὲ ἐναντία τούτοις κατά τι ἕτερον πάλιν αὐτὰ καθ᾽ ἑαυτά ἐστι φύσις, οὐσία αἰσθητή, ἔχουσα ἐν ἑαυτῇ αἰσθητὰ πάντα.

11.2

I.41.11.2

Μεταξὺ δὲ τούτων νοηματικοὶ καὶ αἰσθητοὶ θεοί· … τὰ μὲν μετέχοντα τῶν νοητῶν, τὰ δὲ δοξαστά, τὰ κοινωνοῦντα τῶν νοηματικῶν θεῶν. Αὗται δὲ εἰκόνες εἰσὶ νοημάτων, οἷον ἥλιος εἰκών ἐστι τοῦ ἐπουρανίου δημιουργοῦ θεοῦ. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τὸ ὅλον ἐδημιούργησε, καὶ ὁ ἥλιος δημιουργεῖ τὰ ζῷα καὶ γεννᾷ ⟨τὰ⟩ φυτὰ καὶ τῶν πνευμάτων πρυτανεύει.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 41

p. 881

10.2 · Bond, body, and trace

I.41.10.2

For the same thing was the soul’s bond and bodily frame while it was held fast; when it has departed, a body remains - that is, a sign and trace.¹¹³²

11.1 · Hermes: prior being and sensible nature

I.41.11.1

From Hermes.

Prior being, then, stands over all existing things and all things that truly are. For it is prior being [being] through which what is called essential being in general is understood as common to things that truly are and to existing things conceived in themselves. What is opposed to these in another respect, again taken in itself, is nature: sensible substance, containing in itself all sensible things.¹¹³³

11.2 · The sun as an image

I.41.11.2

Between these are gods of thought and perceptible gods: ... some things sharing in the intelligibles, others objects of opinion, those sharing in the gods of thought. These are images of objects of thought; for example, the sun is an image of the heavenly creator God. Just as he fashioned the whole, so the sun fashions living creatures, brings forth ⟨the⟩ plants, and governs the breaths.¹¹³⁴

1132.The wordplay joins desmos, “bond,” with demas, “frame,” and sōma, “body,” with sēma, “sign.” It describes the corpse as the trace left by the departed soul.

1133.This fragment is difficult and textually damaged. Proon, “prior being,” and ousiotēs, “essential being,” are kept distinct. Wachsmuth prints the correction “is understood” and rejects the redundant on, “being.” The awkward distinction between “existing things” and “things that truly are” is preserved rather than resolved into an unstated system.

1134.The ellipsis represents the gap marked in the edition. No lost connective or missing subject has been reconstructed. “Gods of thought” renders noēmatikoi theoi; the feminine “these” has no secure antecedent in the surviving wording. Pneumata, “breaths,” can also carry the senses winds or spirits. Wachsmuth notes that the manuscripts insert material from chapter 45 after this excerpt; his printed arrangement is followed.

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.