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 49 · I.49.19.1–I.49.19.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 541 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.19.1–I.49.19.2

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p. 1078

19.1 · Ἐν ταὐτῷ

I.49.19.1

Ἐν ταὐτῷ.

Ἡ ψυχὴ ἔχει μὲν πάντων τοὺς λόγους, ἐνεργεῖ δὲ κατ᾽ αὐτοὺς ἢ ὑπ᾽ ἄλλου εἰς τὴν προχείρισιν ἐκκαλουμένη ἢ ἑαυτὴν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐπιστρέφουσα εἰς τὸ εἴσω. Καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἄλλου μὲν ἐκκαλουμένη ὡς πρὸς τὰ ἔξω τὰς αἰσθήσεις ⟨εἴσω⟩ ἀποδίδωσιν· εἰς δὲ ἑαυτὴν εἰσιοῦσα πρὸς τὸν νοῦν ἐν ταῖς νοήσεσι γίγνεται· καὶ οὔτε αἴσθησις ἔξωθεν οὔτε νόησις ⟨εἴσω⟩ ἄλλῃ ποτέ.

19.2

I.49.19.2

Ὡς δὲ τῷ ζῴῳ οὐκ ἄνευ πάθους τῶν αἰσθητικῶν ὀργάνων αἱ αἰσθήσεις, οὕτω καὶ αἱ νοήσεις οὐκ ἄνευ φαντασίας· ἵν᾽ ᾖ τὸ ἀνάλογον, ὡς ὁ τύπος παρακολούθημα ζῴου αἰσθητικοῦ, οὕτως τὸ φάντασμα ψυχῆς ζῴου ἑπόμενον νοήσει.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1079

19.1 · Turning outward and inward

I.49.19.1

In the same work.

Soul possesses the rational principles of all things, but acts in accordance with them either when summoned by something else to bring them into use, or when it turns itself inward toward them. When summoned by something else in relation to things outside, it delivers perceptions ⟨inward⟩. When it enters into itself toward intellect, it comes to be engaged in acts of intellection. And neither perception from outside nor intellection ⟨within⟩ ever occurs in any other way.¹³⁴⁶

19.2 · Perception, image, and intellection

I.49.19.2

Just as a living creature’s perceptions do not occur without its sense organs being affected, so acts of intellection do not occur without imagination. The analogy is this: as the impression is an accompaniment of a perceiving living creature, so the image is an accompaniment of the living creature’s soul, following intellection.¹³⁴⁷

1346.Logoi here are rendered “rational principles,” the contents by which soul operates, rather than the proposed “accounts” of Plato’s preceding argument. Procheirisis is their bringing into use. The two inward-direction words are supplied by Usener in Wachsmuth’s text. The compressed last clause uses the editor’s adverb allēi, “in another way”; the English understands its omitted verb from the preceding sentence.

1347.Phantasia is the image-presenting activity, here “imagination,” and phantasma the image. The final analogy is textually difficult: Wachsmuth questions psychēs, “of soul,” and suggests changing the closing reference to intellection. Both printed words are retained. The English supplies the repeated “accompaniment” from the first half of the comparison; it does not claim that the difficult wording is settled.

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.