Stobaeus, Volume I

Name: Stobaeus, Volume I
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek with an independent English translation.

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Stobaeus, Volume IBook I Chapter 49 · I.49.67.10–I.49.67.12

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 765 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.67.10–I.49.67.12

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Ancient Greek

p. 1526

67.10

I.49.67.10

Οἱ δὲ περὶ Πορφύριον ἄχρι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων βίων * *· τὸ δ᾽ ἀπὸ τούτου ψυχῶν ἄλλο εἶδος τὸ ἀλόγιστον ὑποτίθενται.

67.11

I.49.67.11

Ἔτι τοίνυν Πορφύριος μὲν ἀφομοιοῖ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῖς πᾶσι, μένουσαν καθ᾽ ἑαυτὴν ἥτις ἐστίν. Κατὰ δὲ τοὺς Πλατωνικοὺς ἐπιμελοῦνται τῶν ἀψύχων.

67.12

I.49.67.12

Ἀπολυθεῖσαι δὲ τῆς γενέσεως κατὰ μὲν τοὺς παλαιοὺς συνδιοικοῦσι τοῖς θεοῖς τὰ ὅλα, κατὰ δὲ τοὺς Πλατωνικοὺς θεωροῦσιν αὐτῶν τὴν τάξιν· καὶ ἀγγέλοις ὡσαύτως κατ᾽ ἐκείνους μὲν συνδημιουργοῦσι τὰ ὅλα, κατὰ δὲ τούτους συμπεριπολοῦσιν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1527

67.10 · The boundary of human lives

I.49.67.10

Those around Porphyry, as far as human lives * *; beyond this they posit another kind of soul, the non-rational.¹⁸³⁴

67.11 · Assimilation while remaining itself

I.49.67.11

Further, Porphyry assimilates the soul to all things while it remains, in itself, what it is. According to the Platonists, souls care for things without soul.¹⁸³⁵

67.12 · Participation and contemplation

I.49.67.12

Once released from coming-to-be, souls, according to the ancients, govern the whole together with the gods; according to the Platonists, they contemplate the gods’ order. Similarly, according to the former, they join angels in fashioning the whole; according to the latter, they accompany them in their circuits.¹⁸³⁶

1834.The printed gap after human lives removes the first clause’s completion; no verb has been supplied. Beyond this is a provisional interpretation of to apo toutou. The surviving second clause distinguishes another kind of soul rather than explicitly explaining the missing transition.

1835.The Greek shifts from the singular soul to an unexpressed plural subject; souls is made explicit in English. Apsycha are things without soul, not souls deprived of life. The apparatus’s proposed additional kai is not inserted into the text.

1836.Autōn, their, is taken to refer to the gods. Souls either share in the gods’ governance or contemplate their order; the parallel clause contrasts working with angels and accompanying them. The printed theōrousin, contemplate, is retained rather than the apparatus’s alternative tērousin. Excerpt 67 ends at printed p. 458 line 21.

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.