Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.46.1
Ancient Greek
p. 134446.1
Περὶ τῆς τῶν ψυχῶν διαγωγῆς μετὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ἔξοδον· χρησμός.
Σῶμα λυθὲν ψυχήν τε λιπὸν καὶ ⟨γαῖ⟩α γενηθὲν οὐκέτι πως βιότοιο παλίνδρομον οἶδε κέλευθον, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν λυθέν ἐστι κενὴ ⟨κόνι⟩ς, ἡ δὲ πρὸς αἴθρην σκίδναται, ὁππόθεν ἦλθε, μετήορος εἰς αἰθέρ᾽ ἁπλοῦν. Ἄλλος δ᾽ ἐξ ἄλλου γεννώμενος ἠδ᾽ ἀναβλαστὼν ψυχοῦται γονίμου φύσεως ἀροτρεύμασι καινοῖς.Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 134546.1 · An oracle on the soul’s departure
On the souls’ manner of life after leaving the body: an oracle.
A body dissolved, having left the soul and become ⟨earth⟩, no longer knows any path that leads back to life. What has dissolved is empty ⟨dust⟩; the soul scatters toward the clear sky whence it came, aloft into simple aether. But one born from another and sprouting anew is given soul by fertile nature’s fresh tillings.1623
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.46.1
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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.
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.