Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 464 of 879
Book I Chapter 47 · I.47.8.4–I.47.8.5
Ancient Greek
p. 9248.4
⟨ΤΑΤ⟩ Πῶς τοῦτο πάλιν λέγεις, ὦ πάτερ;
⟨ἙΡΜ.⟩ Οἴει οὖν, ὦ τέκνον, ὅτι πᾶσα ψυχὴ νοῦν ἔχει τὸν ἀγαθόν; περὶ γὰρ τούτου ὁ νῦν λόγος, οὐ τοῦ ὑπηρετικοῦ, περὶ οὗ ἔμπροσθεν εἰρήκαμεν, τοῦ καταπεμπομένου ὑπὸ τῆς δίκης. Ψυχὴ γὰρ χωρὶς ⟨τοῦ⟩ νοῦ “οὔτε τι εἰπεῖν οὔτ᾽ ἔρξαι δύναται”. Πολλάκις γὰρ ἐξίσταται ὁ νοῦς τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ οὔτε βλέπει ἡ ψυχὴ οὔτε ἀκούει, ἀλλ᾽ ἀλόγῳ ζῴῳ ἔοικε.
8.5
Τηλικαύτη δύναμίς ἐστι τοῦ νοῦ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ νωθρᾶς ψυχῆς ἀνέχεται, ἀλλὰ καταλείπει τὴν [ἐν] τῷ σώματι προσκειμένην καὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἀγχομένην κάτω· ἡ τοιαύτη δὲ ψυχή, ὦ τέκνον, νοῦν οὐκ ἔχει. Ὅθεν οὐδ᾽ ἄνθρωπον ἡγεῖσθαι δεῖ τὸν τοιοῦτον· ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος θεῖον ζῷόν ἐστι καὶ οὐδὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις συγκρινόμενον τῶν ἐπιγείων τισίν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἄνω ἐν οὐρανῷ λεγομένοις θεοῖς.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 47
p. 9258.4 · The good intellect and the soul
⟨TAT⟩ What do you mean by that, father?
⟨HERMES⟩ Do you suppose, child, that every soul possesses the good intellect? It is this that we are discussing now, not the ministering intellect of which we spoke earlier, which is sent down by Justice.1191 For without ⟨the⟩ intellect the soul “can neither say anything nor do anything.”1192 Intellect often withdraws from the soul, and at that time the soul neither sees nor hears, but resembles an irrational animal.
8.5 · Attachment to the body
Such is the power of intellect. It does not even tolerate a sluggish soul, but abandons the soul attached to the body and stifled below by it. Such a soul, child, has no intellect.1193 Hence one should not even regard such a person as human. For the human being is a divine creature, to be compared with none of the other earthly creatures, but with those above in heaven who are called gods.1194
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 47 · I.47.8.4–I.47.8.5
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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.