Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 519 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.12
Ancient Greek
p. 103412 · Ἡροδότου ἱστορία βʹ
Ἡροδότου ἱστορία βʹ.
Πρῶτοι δὲ καὶ τόνδε τὸν λόγον Αἰγύπτιοί εἰσι οἱ εἰπόντες, ὡς ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴ ἀθάνατόν ἐστι· τοῦ δὲ σώματος καταφθίνοντος ἐς ἄλλο ζῷον αἰεὶ γινόμενον ἐσδύεται· ἐπὰν δὲ πάντα περιέλθῃ τὰ χερσαῖα καὶ τὰ θαλάσσια καὶ τὰ πετεινά, αὖτις ἐς ἀνθρώπου σῶμα γενόμενον ἐσδύνειν· τὴν περιήλυσιν δὲ αὐτῇ γίνεσθαι ἐν τρισχιλίοισι ἔτεσι. Τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ εἰσὶ οἳ Ἑλλήνων ἐχρήσαντο οἳ μὲν πρότερον, οἳ δὲ ὕστερον.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 103512 · Herodotus: the soul’s circuit
Herodotus, Histories, Book II.
The Egyptians were also the first to state this account: that the human soul is immortal, and when the body perishes it enters another living creature as each comes into being; and when it has passed through all the creatures of land, sea, and air, it enters again a human body that has come into being. The soul completes this circuit in three thousand years. Certain Greeks adopted this account, some earlier and others later.1310
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.12
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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.
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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.