Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 510 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.9.2–I.49.9.3
Ancient Greek
p. 10169.2
Θῶμεν οὖν βούλει, ἔφη, δύο εἴδη τῶν ὄντων, τὸ μὲν ὁρατόν, τὸ δὲ ἀειδές; - Θῶμεν, ἔφη. - Καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀειδὲς κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἔχον, τὸ δὲ ὁρατὸν μηδέποτε κατὰ ταὐτά; - Καὶ τοῦτο, ἔφη, θῶμεν. - Φέρε δή, ἦ δ᾽ ὅς, ἄλλο τι ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, ἢ τὸ μὲν σῶμά ἐστι, τὸ δὲ ψυχή; - Οὐδὲν ἄλλο, ἔφη.
9.3
Ποτέρῳ οὖν ὁμοιότερον τῷ εἴδει φαμὲν ἂν εἶναι καὶ ξυγγενέστερον τὸ σῶμα; - Παντί, ἔφη, τοῦτό γε δῆλον ὅτι τῷ ὁρατῷ. - Τί δὲ ἡ ψυχή; ὁρατὸν ἢ ἀειδές; - Οὐχ ὑπ᾽ ἀνθρώπων γε, ἔφη, ὦ Σώκρατες. - Ἀλλὰ μὴν ἡμεῖς γε τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ μὴ τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσει ἐλέγομεν· ἢ ἄλλῃ τινὶ οἴῃ; - Τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 10179.2 · Visible and unseen kinds of being
“Shall we then posit,” he said, “two kinds of things that are, one visible and the other unseen?”
“Let us do so,” he said.
“And that the unseen remains the same, while the visible never remains the same?”
“Let us posit that too,” he said.
“Come then,” he said, “are we ourselves anything other than body on the one hand and soul on the other?”
“Nothing else,” he said.1294
9.3 · The body belongs with the visible
“To which kind, then, would we say the body is more similar and more closely akin?”
“It is clear to everyone,” he said, “that it is the visible.”
“And the soul: visible or unseen?”
“Not visible to human beings, at any rate, Socrates,” he said.
“But we were speaking of what is visible or not to human nature. Or do you think we meant some other nature?”
“Human nature.”1295
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.9.2–I.49.9.3
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.
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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.