Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 515 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.9.10–I.49.9.11
Ancient Greek
p. 10269.10
Ἐννοεῖς οὖν, ἔφη, ὅτι ἐπειδὰν ἀποθάνῃ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τὸ μὲν ὁρατὸν αὐτοῦ σῶμα καὶ ἐν ὁρατῷ κείμενον, ὃ δὴ νεκρὸν καλοῦμεν, ὃ προσήκει διαλύεσθαι καὶ διαπίπτειν καὶ διαπνεῖσθαι, οὐκ εὐθὺς τούτων οὐδὲν πέπονθεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιεικῶς συχνὸν ἐπιμένει χρόνον· ἐὰν μέν τις καὶ χαριέντως ἔχων τὸ σῶμα τελευτήσῃ καὶ ἐν τοιαύτῃ ὥρᾳ, καὶ πάνυ μάλα. Συμπεσὸν γὰρ τὸ σῶμα καὶ ταριχευθέν, ὥσπερ οἱ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ταριχευθέντες, ὀλίγου ὅλον μένει ἀμήχανον ὅσον χρόνον· ἔνια δὲ μέρη τοῦ σώματος, καὶ ἐὰν σαπῇ, ὀστᾶ τε καὶ νεῦρα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πάντα ὁμοίως, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, ἀθάνατά ἐστιν· ἢ οὔ; - Ναί.
9.11
Ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἄρα, τὸ ἀειδές, τὸ εἰς [τὸ] τοιοῦτον τόπον ἕτερον οἰχόμενον γενναῖον καὶ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀειδῆ, εἰς Ἅιδου ὡς ἀληθῶς, παρὰ τὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ φρόνιμον θεόν, οἷ, ἂν θεὸς ἐθέλῃ, αὐτίκα καὶ τῇ ἐμῇ ψυχῇ ἰτέον, αὕτη δὲ ἡμῖν ἡ τοιαύτη καὶ οὕτω πεφυκυῖα ἀπαλλαττομένη τοῦ σώματος εὐθὺς διαπεφύσηται καὶ ἀπόλωλεν, ὥς φασιν οἱ πολλοὶ ἄνθρωποι; Πολλοῦ γε δεῖ, ὦ φίλε Κέβης καὶ Σιμμία.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 10279.10 · The persistence of the body
“Do you observe, then,” he said, “that when a person dies, the visible body, lying in the visible world, which we call a corpse and which is liable to dissolve, fall apart, and disperse into the air, undergoes none of these things immediately? It remains for a fairly long time, and for a very long time indeed if the person dies with the body in good condition and at a suitable season. For when the body shrivels and is embalmed, like those embalmed in Egypt, it remains almost whole for an extraordinarily long time. And even if it decays, some parts of the body, bones and sinews and all such things alike, are, so to speak, immortal. Are they not?”
“Yes.”1302
9.11 · The soul’s departure to the unseen
“And soul, then, the unseen, which departs to another place of the same kind, noble and pure and unseen, to Hades in the truest sense, to the good and wise god, where, if the god wills, my own soul must soon go: will a soul of this kind and with this nature, on being released from the body, immediately have been blown away and destroyed, as most people say? Far from it, dear Cebes and Simmias.”1303
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.9.10–I.49.9.11
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.
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.