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.49.44.43–I.49.44.44

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.44.43–I.49.44.44

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Ancient Greek

p. 1280

44.43

I.49.44.43

“Ἔρως ὑμῶν, ψυχαί, δεσπόσει καὶ Ἀνάγκη, οἵδε γὰρ μετ᾽ ἐμὲ πάντων δεσπόται τε καὶ ταξίαρχοι. Ψυχαὶ δέ, ὅσαι τὴν ἀγήρατόν μου σκηπτουχίαν θεραπεύετε, ἴστε ὡς ἕως μὲν ἀναμάρτητοί ἐστε, τὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οἰκήσετε χωρία· εἰ δ᾽ ἄρα τις ὑμῶν τινος ἐγγίσει μέμψις, θνητοῖς καὶ αὐταὶ προσμεμοιρασμένον χῶρον σπλάγχνοις καταδικασθεῖσαι ἐνοικήσετε. κἂν μὲν ᾖ ὑμῶν μέτρια τὰ αἰτιάματα, τὸν ἐπίκαιρον τῶν σαρκῶν σύνδεσμον καταλιποῦσαι, πάλιν ἀστένακτοι τὸν ἑαυτῶν οὐρανὸν ἀσπάσεσθε·

44.44

I.49.44.44

εἰ δ᾽ ἄρα τινῶν μειζόνων ἁμαρτημάτων ἔσεσθε ποιητικαί, οὐ μετὰ τέλους καθήκοντος τῶν πλασμάτων ἀπελθοῦσαι, οὐρανὸν μὲν οὐκέτι οἰκήσετε, οὐδ᾽ αὖ σώματα ἀνθρώπων, ζῷα δ᾽ ἄλογα μεταπλανώμεναι λοιπὸν διατελέσετε.”

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1281

44.43 · Love, Necessity, and the prospect of return

I.49.44.43

“Love and Necessity will rule you, souls, for after me these are the masters and commanders of all. Souls who serve my ageless sovereignty, know that so long as you are without fault, you will inhabit the regions of heaven. But if blame should come upon any one of you, you too will be condemned to dwell in a place assigned within mortal entrails. If the charges against you are moderate, you will leave behind the temporary bond of flesh and once more embrace your own heaven without groaning.¹⁵⁵⁴

44.44 · Greater faults and animal embodiments

I.49.44.44

But if you commit greater transgressions, you will depart from the fashioned bodies without the fitting completion; you will no longer dwell in heaven, nor again in human bodies, but will thereafter continue wandering into irrational animals.”¹⁵⁵⁵

1554.The compressed expression about an allotted place in mortal splanchna is rendered as dwelling within bodily inward parts. The address shifts from the assembled souls’ punishment to a general statement about fault and embodiment; the translation retains that shift. Epikairos describes the fleshly bond as temporary. Release in the case of lesser faults is explicit, qualifying the earlier statement that the race of souls would continually undergo punishment.

1555.The departure clause is difficult. The translation retains the negative “without a fitting completion” and the printed apelthousai, “having departed,” rather than silently replacing them with a claim about a normal or appointed death. Plasmata are the fashioned bodies in context. The subsequent exclusion from both heaven and human bodies is explicit. The speech closes here; the creator speaks again immediately afterward in the continuing excerpt.

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.