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 48 · I.48.5.5–I.48.5.6

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Facing Pages · Branch 482 of 879

Book I Chapter 48 · I.48.5.5–I.48.5.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 960

5.5

I.48.5.5

ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ νοῦ οὐ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἡ κατάληψις, ἀλλὰ συννεύοντος εἰς ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἑαυτὸν θεωροῦντος. Παρεξελθὼν γὰρ τοῦ θεάσασθαι τὰς ἑαυτοῦ ἐνεργείας καὶ ὄμμα εἶναι τῶν αὑτοῦ ἐνεργειῶν ⟨ἐνεργ⟩ουσῶν τὸ ὅραμα, οὐδὲν ἂν νοήσειεν. Ὡς μὲν οὖν ἦν [ἡ] αἴσθησίς τε καὶ τὸ αἰσθητόν, οὕτως ἐστὶ νοῦς τε καὶ τὸ νοητόν.

5.6

I.48.5.6

Θεωρεῖ δὲ ἡ μὲν ἐκτεινομένη εἰς τὸ ἔξω, εὑρίσκουσα τὸ αἰσθητὸν ⟨ἐν⟩ τῇ ὕλῃ κείμενον· ὁ δὲ νοῦς εἰς αὑτὸν συναγόμενος, οὐδαμῇ ἔξω ἐκτεινόμενος, ὅπερ καὶ ἐδόκει τισὶν ⟨οὐδ᾽⟩ ὀνόματος διαφορᾶς προστεθείσης τῇ τοῦ νοῦ ὑποστάσει καὶ ⟨τῇ⟩ τῆς φαντασίας. Ἡ γὰρ ἐν λογικῷ ζῴῳ φαντασία ἐδέδοκτο αὐτοῖς νόησις· ἀλλ᾽ [εἰ] ἐκείνοις μὲν πάντα ἀπαρτήσασιν ἀπὸ τῆς ὕλης καὶ τῆς σωματικῆς φύσεως ἀκόλουθον ἦν καὶ τὸν νοῦν τούτων ἀπαρτᾶν·

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 48

p. 961

5.5 · Intellect turns toward itself

I.48.5.5

With intellect, however, apprehension does not occur in this way, but through its turning into itself and contemplating itself. For if it ceased to behold its own activities and to be the eye of its own activities ⟨producing⟩ the sight, it would think nothing. As there were perception and the perceptible, then, so there are intellect and the intelligible.¹²³⁰

5.6 · Intellect and imagination distinguished

I.48.5.6

Perception contemplates by extending outward and finding the perceptible situated ⟨in⟩ matter; intellect does so by gathering into itself, without extending outward at all. Some also took it in this way, ⟨not even⟩ making a distinction of name between the subsistence of intellect and ⟨that⟩ of imagination.¹²³¹ For they had judged imagination in a rational living creature to be thinking. But [if], for those who made everything depend on matter and corporeal nature, it was consistent to make intellect depend on these too.¹²³²

1230.Intellect’s activities themselves produce what it sees. Wachsmuth’s intraword restoration energ- changes ousōn, “being,” into energousōn, “producing” or “enacting”; the English marks the whole participle because its word structure cannot reproduce the Greek supplement. The rejected article [hē] has no separate English equivalent. The analogy pairs each power with its object without erasing the different relations just described.

1231.The transition beginning “Some also took it in this way” is strained: what “it” refers to is not secure. The next sentence clearly describes thinkers who identify imagination in a rational creature with thinking. The English retains this uncertain connection instead of silently reversing the preceding denial of outward extension. The marked “not even” follows Wachsmuth’s supplement oud’.

1232.“If” is bracketed for deletion in the Greek; the remaining sentence explains the consistency of a materialist account on its own assumptions. Apartan means to make dependent or suspend from, continuing the vocabulary of causal dependence in excerpt 4.

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.