Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
Ancient Greek Page · Branch 52 of 879
Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.39d–I.1.39e
Ancient Greek
p. 10039 Ὀνάτου· περὶ θεοῦ καὶ θείου (δʹ)
Τοιαύτα δὲ φύσις οὐδενὸς ποτιδεῖται, οὔτε συγγενέος οὔτε ἔξωθεν· διόπερ οὔτε ἐκ δύο συνάρμοσται, ψυχᾶς καὶ σώματος (καὶ γὰρ διόλω ἐστὶ ψυχά), οὔτε ἐναντίων τινῶν (τὰ γὰρ ἐναντία καὶ κρατὲν καὶ κρατεῖσθαι πέφυκεν). Ἁ δέ γε τῶ σώματος κρᾶσις μιαίνει τὸ καθαρὸν τᾶς ψυχᾶς, ἁ μὲν γὰρ ἀκήρατος καὶ θεῖόν ἐστι, τὸ δὲ θνατὸν καὶ θολομιγές· οὕτω δὲ μιαίνει καὶ μόλιβδος χρυσὸν καὶ τὰν τὸ τᾷ φύσι γνήσιον τὸ νόθον. Ὅλως δὲ τὸ σῶμα τοῖς θνατοῖς δέδωκεν ὁ θεὸς ζῴοις δι’ ἀΐδιον ἀνάγκαν καὶ ἄφυκτον. Φύσι γὰρ ἄπορον καὶ πτωχὸν πᾶν τὸ γενέσιος κεκοινωνηκός.
39 Ὀνάτου· περὶ θεοῦ καὶ θείου (εʹ)
Θεὸς μὲν ὦν ἔστι, καθάπερ ἐν ἀρχᾷ τῶ λόγου εἶπον, αὐτὸς γὰρ ἀρχὰ καὶ πρᾶτον· θεῖος δὲ ὁ κόσμος καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ δινεύμενα πανταχῶς. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ δαίμων ἐστὶν ἁ ψυχὰ (αὕτα γὰρ ἄρχει καὶ κινεῖ τὸ διόλω ζῷον)· δαιμόνιον δὲ τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὰ τούτω γε πάντα. δεῖ ὦν οὕτω διαιρεῖν, θεὸν καὶ θεῖον καὶ δαίμονα καὶ δαιμόνιον.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 1
p. 10139 Onatas, On God and the Divine (4)
Such a nature needs nothing, whether kindred or external. It is therefore composed neither of the two, soul and body—for it is soul throughout—nor of any opposing things, since opposites are by nature capable of both mastering and being mastered.
Mixture with body stains the purity of soul: soul is undefiled and divine, whereas body is mortal and mingled with impurity. So too lead stains gold, and what is spurious stains what is genuine by nature. In general, God has given body to mortal living beings through eternal and inescapable necessity. For everything that shares in coming-to-be is by nature needy and poor.97
39 Onatas, On God and the Divine (5)
God, then, exists, as I said at the beginning of the discourse, for he himself is the beginning and the first. The cosmos and the things revolving within it in every direction are divine. Likewise the soul is a divine spirit, since it rules and moves the whole living being; the body and everything belonging to it are of a divine spirit. We must therefore distinguish in this way: God and the divine, a divine spirit and what belongs to a divine spirit.98
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 1 · I.1.39d–I.1.39e
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.