Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.59.1–I.49.59.3

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 735 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.59.1–I.49.59.3

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 1466

59.1

I.49.59.1

Πορφυρίου. Ἡ δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς διαμονὴ καὶ ἀιδιότης ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τῶν Πυθαγόρου δογμάτων γνώριμόν ἐστι πᾶσι καὶ περιβόητον, ὅνγε πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα δόξαι κατὰ τοὺς ὕπνους ἰδεῖν τεθνεῶτα τὸν πατέρα, φασὶν εἰπεῖν, “οὐκ ἔδοξας, ἀλλ᾽ εἶδες”·

59.2

I.49.59.2

Τῶν δὲ παραγγελμάτων ἓν εἶναι “συνδεῖν ὁσημέραι τὸ στρωματόδεσμον”, ὡς ἀποδημίαν οὖσαν τὴν τελευτὴν καὶ δεῖν ἀεὶ συνεσκευασμένους ἡμᾶς τὸν καιρὸν περιμένειν τῆς ἐκεῖ⟨σε⟩ πορείας·

59.3

I.49.59.3

Τὸν δὲ ἀναιροῦντα δικαίως πρὸς τὸ ἀποθνῇσκον τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ἔχειν, ὃν ὁ γεννῶν ἔχει πρὸς τὸ γεννώμενον. Ἑκατέραν γὰρ εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς μεταβολήν, τὴν μὲν εἰς σῶμα γένεσιν, τὴν δὲ ἀπὸ σώματος θάνατον προσαγορευομένην.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1467

59.1 · Porphyry: the soul’s enduring existence

I.49.59.1

Porphyry. The soul’s continued existence and eternity are among the teachings of Pythagoras most familiar to everyone and most widely celebrated. They say that, when someone told him he thought he had seen his dead father in a dream, Pythagoras replied, “You did not merely think so: you saw him.”¹⁷⁵⁷

59.2 · Keep the bedding packed for departure

I.49.59.2

One of his precepts, they say, is “to tie up the bedding every day,” since death is a journey abroad, and we must always keep our belongings packed as we await the time for the journey ⟨there⟩.¹⁷⁵⁸

59.3 · Birth and death as changes of the soul

I.49.59.3

The person who justly puts someone to death bears to the one dying the same relation that a parent bears to the one being born. For each is a change of the soul: its passage into a body is called birth, and its passage out of a body death.¹⁷⁵⁹

1757.The heading names Porphyry without naming a work. The printed Pythagorou and doxai follow corrections recorded in the apparatus. The anecdote is presented as a report about Pythagoras, introduced by “they say.” His reply contrasts seeming with seeing; it is not converted here into independent evidence of the dream’s object.

1758.The bedding precept is interpreted as readiness for departure. Strōmatodesmon follows the edition’s correction and denotes the bundle of bedding. The supplement supplies the ending of ekeise, the directional word “there”; English marks the whole word. The reported teaching concerns preparedness for the appointed time of death.

1759.Dikaiōs, “justly,” is taken with putting to death; the qualification remains explicit. Logos here means a relation, not a spoken account. The comparison treats birth and death as opposite changes in the soul’s relation to a body. This completes excerpt 59 at printed p. 445 line 13; Porphyry’s interpretation of Circe follows in excerpt 60.

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.