Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 755 of 879
Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.65.1–I.49.65.2
Ancient Greek
p. 150665.1
⟨Ἰαμβλίχου ἐκ τοῦ περὶ ψυχῆς.⟩
Πλωτῖνος δὲ καὶ οἱ πλεῖστοι τῶν Πλατωνικῶν ἀπόθεσιν τῶν παθῶν καὶ τῶν μορφωτικῶν διαγνώσεων, δόξης τε πάσης ὑπεροψίαν [τε] καὶ τῶν ἐνύλων διανοήσεων ἀπόστασιν, πλήρωσίν τε ἀπὸ νοῦ καὶ τοῦ ὄντος, ἀφομοίωσίν τε τοῦ κατανοουμένου πρὸς τὸ κατανοοῦν τὴν τελεωτάτην κάθαρσιν ὑπολαμβάνουσιν.
65.2
Ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ τούτων πολλάκις ἀποφαίνονται περὶ τὴν ἄλογον ψυχὴν καὶ τὸν δοξαστικὸν λόγον ἐμφύεσθαι τὴν κάθαρσιν· τὸν δὲ λόγον αὐτὸν τὸν οὐσιώδη καὶ τὸν νοῦν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀεὶ ὑπερέχειν τοῦ κόσμου καὶ συνῆφθαι τοῖς νοητοῖς αὐτὸν καὶ οὐδέποτε δεῖσθαι τελειώσεως καὶ ἀπολύσεως τῶν περιττῶν.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49
p. 150765.1 · Iamblichus: accounts of purification
⟨Iamblichus, from On the Soul.⟩
Plotinus and most of the Platonists regard the most complete purification as the putting away of affections and form-producing discriminations, disregard for all opinion [and] and withdrawal from thoughts bound up with matter, fulfillment from intellect and being, and assimilation of what is contemplated to that which contemplates.1808
65.2 · A higher faculty that needs no purification
Some of these thinkers also frequently declare that purification arises in the irrational soul and in the reasoning faculty concerned with opinion. But the essential rational principle itself and the soul’s intellect always stand above the cosmos; that intellect is joined to intelligible realities and never needs perfecting or release from what is superfluous.1809
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.65.1–I.49.65.2
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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.
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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.