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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.49.54.3–I.49.54.4

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 700 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.54.3–I.49.54.4

Ancient Greek

p. 1396

54.3

I.49.54.3

Τούτων δὲ ἐκλελοιπότων καὶ ἡ κόλασις τῆς ψυχῆς πέπαυται, νοερᾶς μόνον οὔσης περὶ αὐτὴν καταστάσεως καὶ παρὰ τῷ φρονίμῳ θεῷ διατριβούσης.

54.4

I.49.54.4

Πρὸς δὲ τὰ εἰρημένα ἴσως ἄν τις ἀπορήσειε, πῶς, εἰ μὴ ἀλλήλας ἀγνοοῦσιν, ἔφη·

ταὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσι.

Πρὸς ὃ ῥητέον, ὅτι σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσι πρὸς τούτους [πρὸς] ὧν καὶ τὴν μνήμην ἀφῄρηνται. Πρὸς οὖν τὰ θνητά εἰσι σκιαὶ διὰ τὴν ἀσωματίαν καὶ ἀμνημοσύνην αὐτῶν, ὥς που καὶ πρὸς τὴν παχύτητα τοῦ σώματος ἡ ψυχὴ παραβαλλομένη καπνῷ ὡμοίωται·

ψυχὴ δ᾽ ἠΰτε καπνὸς ᾤχετο τετριγυῖα.
1396

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1397

54.3 · The cessation of punishment

I.49.54.3

When these have disappeared, the soul’s punishment too has ceased. Only an intellectual condition remains about it, and it dwells beside the wise god.1677

54.4 · Shadows in relation to the living

I.49.54.4

Someone might perhaps raise a difficulty about what has been said: if they are not ignorant of one another, why did he say:

The others flit as shadows?

The answer is that they flit as shadows in relation to those [toward] of whom they have also been deprived of memory. In relation to mortal things, then, they are shadows because of their incorporeality and their lack of memory of those things. In the same way, when compared with the body’s density, the soul is likened to smoke:

The soul, like smoke, went away with a shrill cry.1678

1397

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.