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.49.44.64–I.49.44.65

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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.44.64–I.49.44.65

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Ancient Greek

p. 1300

44.64

I.49.44.64

Καὶ ἀγνωσία μὲν ἦν κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς παντάπασι. Νεωστὶ γὰρ αἱ ψυχαὶ καθειρχθεῖσαι καὶ τὴν ἀτιμίαν μὴ φέρουσαι τοῖς ἐν οὐρανῷ θεοῖς ἐφιλονείκουν τῆς ἑαυτῶν εὐγενείας περικρατοῦσαι καὶ ἀντιλαμβανόμεναι, ὡς καὶ αὐταὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτυχον δημιουργοῦ, ἐστασίαζον καὶ τοῖς λειπομένοις ἀνθρώποις ὀργάνοις χρώμεναι, ἐποίουν αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοῖς ἐπιτίθεσθαι καὶ ἀντιτάσσεσθαι καὶ πολεμεῖν ἀλλήλους.

44.65

I.49.44.65

Καὶ οὕτως ἡ μὲν ἰσχὺς κατὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας μέγα ἠδύνατο, ὥστε οἱ ἰσχυροὶ τοὺς ἀδυνάτους καὶ ἔκαιον καὶ ἐφόνευον καὶ [κατὰ τῶν ἱερῶν] τοῦτο μὲν ζῶντας τοῦτο δὲ καὶ νεκροὺς ἔρριπτον κατὰ τῶν ἀδύτων, ἕως ἀγανακτήσαντα τὰ στοιχεῖα τῷ μονάρχῳ θεῷ ἐντυχεῖν ἐδοκίμαζον ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀγρίου πολιτείας. Πολλοῦ δὲ ἤδη γενομένου τοῦ κακοῦ τὰ στοιχεῖα τῷ ποιήσαντι αὐτὰ τῷ θεῷ προσελθάντα τοιούτοις λόγοις ὑπὲρ μέμψεως ἐχρήσαντο. Καὶ δὴ καὶ εἶχε τὴν τοῦ λέγειν ἐξουσίαν τὸ πῦρ πρῶτον.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1301

44.64 · The embodied souls stir human conflict

I.49.44.64

At first there was complete ignorance. For the souls, newly confined and unable to bear the dishonor, contended with the gods in heaven, holding fast to their own noble origin and insisting that they too had the same craftsman. They rebelled and, using the remaining human beings as instruments, made them attack one another, oppose one another, and wage war upon one another.¹⁵⁷⁵

44.65 · Violence drives the elements to petition

I.49.44.65

Thus strength exercised great power against weakness: the strong burned and murdered the powerless and hurled them down, sometimes living and sometimes dead, [from the sacred places] from the inner sanctuaries. At last the outraged elements resolved to petition the sole-ruling god concerning humanity’s savage way of life. When the evil had grown great, the elements approached the god who had made them and voiced their complaint in these words. Fire was first given leave to speak.¹⁵⁷⁶

1575.The return to initial ignorance is part of the narrative as transmitted. The printed leipomenois, “remaining,” qualifies human beings, although the apparatus offers a form meaning “left.” The relation between souls as instigators and human beings as their instruments is left as stated. Their claim of a common craftsman motivates the rebellion in this passage; it is not an additional assertion made by the translator.

1576.The burning, killing, and casting down from sanctuaries explain the elements’ appeal. Kata with the genitive is rendered “down from”; the buildings’ arrangement is unspecified. The rejected phrase “from the sacred places” remains bracketed; the apparatus treats it as redundant beside “from the inner sanctuaries.” Politeia again denotes a way of life or social conduct. The elements now become speaking petitioners in turn, beginning with Fire.

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.