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Facing Pages · Branch 544 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.23.1–I.49.23.2
Ancient Greek
p. 108423.1 · Ἐν ταὐτῷ
Ἐν ταὐτῷ.
Οὐ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν σωμάτων δεῖ νομίζειν πλῆθος τῶν ψυχῶν γενέσθαι, πρὸ δὲ τῶν σωμάτων εἶναι καὶ πολλὰς καὶ μίαν, οὔτε τῆς μιᾶς ὅλης κωλυούσης τὰς πολλὰς ἐν ἑαυτῇ εἶναι οὔτε τῶν πολλῶν τὴν μίαν εἰς αὐτὰς μεριζουσῶν. Διέστησαν γὰρ οὐκ ἀποκοπεῖσαι οὐδ᾽ ἀποκερματίσασαι εἰς αὐτὰς τὴν ὅλην, καὶ πάρεισιν ἀλλήλαις οὐ συγκεχυμέναι οὐδὲ σωρὸν ποιοῦσαι τὴν ὅλην. Οὔτε γὰρ πέρασίν εἰσι διειλημμέναι οὔτε πάλιν ἀλλήλαις συγκεχυμέναι, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐπιστῆμαι συνεχύθησαν αἱ πολλαὶ ἐν ψυχῇ μιᾷ καὶ πάλιν οὐκ ἔγκεινται ὡς τὰ σώματα τῇ ψυχῇ ἑτεροουσίως, ἀλλὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ποιαὶ ἦσαν ἐνέργειαι.
23.2
Ἀπειροδύναμος ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς φύσις καὶ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον τὸ τυχὸν αὐτῆς * * ψυχή, καὶ πᾶσαι μία, καὶ πάλιν ἡ ὅλη ἄλλη παρὰ πάσας. Ὡς γὰρ τὰ σώματα ἐπ᾽ ἄπειρον τεμνόμενα οὐ καταλήγει εἰς ἀσώματα, κατ᾽ ὄγκον λαμβανόντων τῶν τμημάτων τὴν διαφοράν, οὕτως ψυχή, οὖσα ζωτικόν, ἐπ᾽ ἄπειρον κατὰ τὰ εἴδη διείληπται, παραλλαγὰς ἔχουσα εἰδικάς, καὶ ἡ ὅλη σὺν ταύταις οὖσα καὶ ἄνευ τούτων. Ἡ γὰρ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς οἷον τομὴ ἑτερότης ἐστὶ μενούσης τῆς ταυτότητος.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 108523.1 · Many souls and one soul
In the same work.
We must not suppose that the plurality of souls arose because of the plurality of bodies. Before bodies, souls are both many and one: the one whole soul does not prevent the many from existing within it, nor do the many divide the one among themselves. For they stand apart without having been cut off or having broken the whole into fragments among themselves. They are present to one another without being confused together or making the whole a heap. They are neither divided by boundaries nor confused with one another, just as the many kinds of knowledge in one soul have not been confused together. Nor, again, do they reside in soul as bodies would, as something different in substance; rather, they were activities of the soul of certain kinds.1353
23.2 · Unlimited power and distinction by form
The nature of soul has unlimited power, and in any given part of it . . . . . soul; all are one, and yet the whole is other than them all. For just as bodies, when divided without limit, do not end in incorporeal things, their portions acquiring their difference in respect of bulk, so soul, being something living, is distinguished without limit according to forms, with differences of form; the whole exists both with these and without them. For what is like division in its case is difference while identity remains.1354
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.23.1–I.49.23.2
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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.
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