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Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

Stobaeus, Volume I

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.49.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 681 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.49.2

Ancient Greek

p. 1358

49.2

I.49.49.2

Ἡ δὲ ἀσεβὴς ψυχὴ μένει ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας οὐσίας ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς κολαζομένη καὶ γήινον σῶμα ζητοῦσα εἰσελθεῖν, [εἰς] ἀνθρώπινον δέ· ἄλλο γὰρ σῶμα οὐ χωρεῖ ἀνθρωπίνην ψυχήν, οὐδὲ θέμις ἐστὶν εἰς ἀλόγου ζῴου σῶμα ψυχὴν ἀνθρωπίνην καταπεσεῖν· θεοῦ γὰρ νόμος οὗτος φυλάσσειν ψυχὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης ὕβρεως.

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Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1359

49.2 · Human souls and human bodies

I.49.49.2

But the impious soul remains in its own substance, punished by itself and seeking an earthly body to enter, [into] a human one, however. For no other body can contain a human soul, nor is it lawful for a human soul to fall into the body of an irrational animal. This is God’s law: to preserve a human soul from such an outrage.1636

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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.