Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 42 · I.42.1.3–I.42.2.heading

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Facing Pages · Branch 444 of 879

Book I Chapter 42 · I.42.1.3–I.42.2.heading

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Ancient Greek

p. 884

1.3

I.42.1.3

Πᾶν γὰρ οὖν ὅ τι περ ἂν μετάσχῃ τοῦ ζῆν, ζῷον μὲν ἂν ἐν δίκῃ λέγοιτο ὀρθότατον· μετέχει γε μὴν τοῦτο, ὃ νῦν λέγομεν, τοῦ τρίτου ψυχῆς εἴδους, ὃ μεταξὺ φρενῶν ὀμφαλοῦ τε ἱδρῦσθαι λόγος, ᾧ δόξης μὲν λογισμοῦ τε καὶ νοῦ μέτεστι τὸ μηδέν, αἰσθήσεως δὲ ἡδείας καὶ ἀλγεινῆς μετὰ ἐπιθυμιῶν.

1.4

I.42.1.4

Πάσχον γὰρ διατελεῖ πάντα· στραφέντι δὲ αὐτῷ ἐν ἑαυτῷ περὶ ἑαυτό, τὴν μὲν ἔξωθεν ἀπωσαμένῳ κίνησιν, τῇ δὲ οἰκείᾳ χρησαμένῳ, τῶν αὑτοῦ τι λογίσασθαι κατιδόντι φύσιν οὐ παρέδωκεν ἡ γένεσις· διὸ δὴ ζῇ μὲν ἐστί τε οὐχ ἕτερον ζῴου, μόνιμον δὲ καὶ κατερριζωμένον πέπηγε διὰ τὸ τῆς ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ κινήσεως ἐστερῆσθαι.

2

I.42.2.heading

⟨Περὶ συλλήψεως.⟩

deest.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 42

p. 885

1.3 · The third kind of soul

I.42.1.3

For anything whatever that shares in life may justly and most properly be called a living creature. Yet this creature of which we are now speaking shares in the third kind of soul, which is said to be situated between the diaphragm and the navel. This kind has no part in opinion, reasoning, or intellect, but does share in pleasant and painful perception accompanied by desires.¹¹³⁸

1.4 · Rooted life and inward reflection

I.42.1.4

For it continually undergoes everything that happens to it. Its origin has not given it the capacity to turn within itself about itself, to push aside movement from outside and use its own, and thus to reason about any of its own conditions by discerning their nature. It therefore lives and is nothing other than a living creature; but it stands fixed and rooted, because it has been deprived of movement originating from itself.¹¹³⁹

2 · Restored topic heading

I.42.2.heading

⟨On conception.⟩

Text missing.¹¹⁴⁰

1138.The plant is assigned the kind of soul associated with the lower region of the human body. The argument grants it perception and desire while withholding opinion, reasoning, and intellect. The printed phrēn, in the plural phrenes, names the diaphragm here.

1139.The passage contrasts being affected with the inward movement of reflection. Its concluding denial of self-originating motion accompanies the image of a rooted plant. It does not retract the preceding assertion that plants live and perceive. Wachsmuth prints physin, “nature,” where manuscripts F and P have physei, “by nature.” “By discerning their nature” connects physin with “discerning” and the preceding “own conditions”; this construal is tentative.

1140.The angle brackets mark a restored heading. The Latin deest, “is missing,” is Wachsmuth’s notice of the missing text; it is not part of the ancient Greek. The same presentation is used for the lost topics that follow.

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.