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.49.40.6–I.49.41.1

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.40.6–I.49.41.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 1218

40.6

I.49.40.6

Δεῖ δέ που καὶ τοὺς βίους τῶν ψυχῶν κατανοεῖν πρὶν ἐλθεῖν εἰς σῶμα, ὡς ἄρα καὶ οὗτοι πολλὴν ἔχουσιν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς διάστασιν· ἀπὸ δὲ διαφόρων τρόπων ζωῆς διάφορον ποιοῦνται ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὴν πρώτην σύνοδον. Οἵ τε γὰρ νεοτελεῖς καὶ πολυθεάμονες τῶν ὄντων, οἵ τε συνοπαδοὶ καὶ συγγενεῖς τῶν θεῶν, οἵ τε παντελεῖς καὶ ὁλόκληρα τὰ εἴδη τῆς ψυχῆς περιέχοντες, πάντες ἀπαθεῖς καὶ ἀκήρατοι ἐμφύονται πρώτως εἰς τὰ σώματα· οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἄδην ἀναπεπλησμένοι καὶ ἄλλων παθῶν μεστοὶ μετὰ παθῶν συνέρχονται πρώτως τοῖς σώμασι.

41.1 · Ἐν ταὐτῷ

I.49.41.1

Ἐν ταὐτῷ.

Κατὰ δ᾽ Ἱπποκράτην, τὸν τῶν Ἀσκληπιαδῶν, ὅταν πλασθῇ τὸ σπέρμα (τότε γὰρ ἐπιτηδείως ἔχειν αὐτὸ μεταλαμβάνειν ζωῆς), κατὰ δὲ Πορφύριον ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ ἀπογεννήσει τοῦ τικτομένου πρώτως ἡ κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν ζωοποιία καὶ παρουσία τῆς ψυχῆς φύεται.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1219

40.6 · Lives before embodiment

I.49.40.6

We must also consider the lives of souls before they enter a body, since these lives too differ greatly among themselves. Their different modes of life make their first conjunction different as well. Those newly initiated and rich in contemplation of beings, those who accompany the gods and are akin to them, and those wholly perfected and containing the forms of soul in their entirety all first become implanted in bodies free from affections and undefiled. But those filled to satiety with desires and full of other passions first unite with bodies already attended by passions.¹⁴⁹²

41.1 · When soul becomes present

I.49.41.1

In the same work.

According to Hippocrates, the member of the Asclepiads, the actual imparting of life and presence of soul first arise when the seed is formed, for it is then suitably disposed to share in life; according to Porphyry, they arise at the newborn’s first emergence in birth.¹⁴⁹³

1492.The author explains differences at the first bodily conjunction by differences in prior lives. Neoteleis carries the language of initiation; polytheamones emphasizes extensive contemplation. The Greek shifts to masculine descriptions of those who enter bodies, which the English preserves with “those.” Its last contrast explicitly allows passions before this conjunction, rather than deriving every passion solely from the present body.

1493.The final predicate serves both accounts in the compressed Greek. The contrast is between the formation of the seed and the newborn’s emergence, with actual life-giving presence at issue. The passage reports these ancient positions; it does not supply a modern account of embryonic development. The identifying phrase about Hippocrates is retained as printed, without expanding it into a genealogy.

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.