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.49.21.2–I.49.22

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.21.2–I.49.22

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Ancient Greek

p. 1082

21.2

I.49.21.2

Ὅταν γὰρ τὸ ζῷον αἰσθάνηται, ἔοικεν ἡ ψυχὴ μὲν ἁρμονίᾳ χωριστῇ, ἐξ ἑαυτῆς τὰς χορδὰς κινούσῃ ἡρμοσμένας· * * ἁρμονίᾳ ἀχωρίστῳ· τὸ δὲ αἴτιον τοῦ κινῆσαι τὸ ζῷον διὰ τὸ εἶναι ἔμψυχον ἀνάλογον τῷ μουσικῷ διὰ τὸ εἶναι ἐναρμόνιον· τὰ δὲ πληγέντα σώματα διὰ πάθος αἰσθητικὸν ταῖς ἡρμοσμέναις χορδαῖς.

21.3

I.49.21.3

καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖ οὐδ᾽ ἡ ἁρμονία πέπονθεν ἡ χωριστή, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ χορδή· καὶ κινεῖ μὲν ὁ μουσικὸς κατὰ τὴν ἐν αὑτῷ ἁρμονίαν, οὐ μὴν ἐκινήθη ἂν ἡ χορδὴ μουσικῶς, εἰ καὶ ὁ μουσικὸς ἐβούλετο, μὴ τῆς ἁρμονίας τοῦτο λεγούσης.

22 · Ἐν ταὐτῷ

I.49.22

Ἐν ταὐτῷ.

Ἧς οὐσίας ἐν ζωῇ τὸ εἶναι καὶ ἧς τὰ πάθη ζωή, ταύτης καὶ ὁ θάνατος ἐν ποιᾷ ζωῇ κεῖται, οὐκ ἐν ζωῆς καθάπαξ στερήσει, ὅτι μηδὲ τὸ παθεῖν ἦν ὁδὸς εἰς τὴν παντελῆ ἀζωίαν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1083

21.2 · A separate harmony

I.49.21.2

For when a living creature perceives, its soul resembles a separate harmony that moves the tuned strings from itself; . . . . . an inseparable harmony. The cause that moves the living creature because it is ensouled is analogous to the musician because he is attuned; the bodies struck through an affection of sense are analogous to the tuned strings.¹³⁵⁰

21.3 · The musician and the string

I.49.21.3

For there too it is not the separate harmony that has been affected, but the string. The musician moves it according to the harmony within himself; yet the string would not have moved musically, even if the musician wished it, unless the harmony prescribed this.¹³⁵¹

22 · Death as a certain kind of life

I.49.22

In the same work.

For a substance whose being is in life and whose affections are life, death too consists in a certain kind of life, not in the complete deprivation of life, since being affected was not, in its case, a path to utter lifelessness.¹³⁵²

1350.The asterisks mark a gap in the source, retained as dots in English. Most of the parallel member ending “an inseparable harmony” is missing; the apparatus suggests a reference to perception itself, but no reconstruction is inserted. The next clause’s compressed “because it is ensouled” qualifies the living creature, and the musician’s attunement supplies the analogy. This separate, active harmony differs from the bodily resultant challenged in Plato’s earlier excerpt.

1351.The separate harmony is the ordering principle according to which the musician acts; the string undergoes the bodily change. The printed legousēs literally means “saying,” here rendered “prescribed.” The apparatus proposes the alternative verbs “willing” and “commanding”; the English does not silently replace the printed personification with either.

1352.The assertion follows the distinction between bodily alteration and the soul’s activities. “A certain kind of life” translates poiai zōēi; the passage does not specify that kind here. Azōia is lifelessness, which is expressly distinguished from the death predicated of this living substance. The editor’s corrected infinitive to pathein, “being affected,” is followed.

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.