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.49.43.3–I.49.43.5

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 618 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.43.3–I.49.43.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 1232

43.3

I.49.43.3

Εἰ δὲ ὡς δύναμις ὑποκειμένου, ὥσπερ δὴ ἁρμονία λύρας ἢ τελειότης, προσαφίσταται τοῦ σώματος ἐν τῷ ἀποθνῄσκειν ἡ ψυχή, προφθείρεται μὲν οὐδαμῶς (οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ κινήσεως πρόεισιν εἰς τὸ μὴ εἶναι), ἀλλ᾽ ἐξαίφνης εἰς τὸ μὴ εἶναι μεθίσταται ἀχράντως καὶ ἄνευ φθορᾶς, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ ἔστιν ὅτε ἔστιν ἀθρόως οἷον ἀστραπῆς ἐκλαμπούσης.

43.4

I.49.43.4

Ἔσται δὴ οὖν τὸ μὲν ζῆν τὰ ζῷα ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔχειν τὸ τῆς ζωῆς εἶδος· τὸ δὲ καλούμενον ἀποθνῄσκειν ἀπὸ τοῦ μὴ παρεῖναι αὐτὸ ἢ μὴ ἔχεσθαι· ἧς παλαιοὶ Περιπατητικοὶ δόξης προεστήκασιν.

43.5

I.49.43.5

Εἰ δὲ παρέσπαρται μὲν καὶ ἔνεστιν ἡ ψυχὴ τῷ σώματι καθαπερεὶ ἀσκῷ πνεῦμα, περιεχομένη ἢ συμμιγνυμένη πρὸς αὐτὸ καὶ ἐγκινουμένη ὥσπερ τὰ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι ξύσματα διὰ τῶν θυρίδων φαινόμενα, δῆλόν που τοῦτο ὅτι ἔξεισιν μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἐκβαίνειν διαφορεῖται καὶ διασκεδάννυται, ὥσπερ Δημόκριτος καὶ Ἐπίκουρος ἀποφαίνονται.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1233

43.3 · Sudden cessation without gradual decay

I.49.43.3

But if soul departs from the body at death as a power of an underlying subject, like a lyre’s attunement or a perfection, it does not perish beforehand at all, for it does not advance into non-being through a process of change. Instead, it passes suddenly into non-being, unaffected and without corruption, just as it also sometimes comes to be all at once, like a flash of lightning.¹⁵⁰⁵

43.4 · Possessing or lacking the form of life

I.49.43.4

Living beings will therefore live because they possess the form of life; what is called dying will result from its not being present or not being possessed. This is the view championed by the early Peripatetics.¹⁵⁰⁶

43.5 · Departure and dispersal

I.49.43.5

But if soul is scattered through and present in the body like breath in a skin bag, enclosed in it or mingled with it and moving within it like the motes in the air visible through windows, then this much is surely clear: it leaves the body, but in leaving it is dispersed and scattered, as Democritus and Epicurus declare.¹⁵⁰⁷

1505.The comparison concerns a power dependent on a subject, not a separate object traveling elsewhere. The distinction is between gradual corruption and immediate cessation, not between mortality and immortality. “Unaffected” renders the printed achrantōs, literally unstained, Usener’s correction of a transmitted reading meaning timelessly. The lightning comparison follows the printed correction eklampousēs.

1506.Eidos is the form of life in the reported account. The two negative descriptions are retained separately: absence of the form and failure to possess it. The attribution is to early Peripatetics collectively; the sentence does not name a particular author.

1507.The skin bag and airborne motes illustrate containment, mixture, and movement within a body. “Motes” translates xysmata, literally small scrapings or particles. Departure here is followed by dispersal; the author does not equate it with continued existence as an intact individual soul.

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.