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.49.69.24–I.49.69.26

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English Page · Branch 783 of 879

Book I Chapter 49 · I.49.69.24–I.49.69.26

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Ancient Greek

p. 1562

69.24

I.49.69.24

Πάντων γὰρ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς, ὦ τέκνον, διὰ λόγου καὶ ἔργου πραγμάτων ἄνω εἰσὶν αἱ πηγαί, μέτρῳ καὶ σταθμῷ ἐπιχύνουσαι ἡμῖν τὰς οὐσίας, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὃ μὴ ἄνωθεν καταβέβηκε καὶ πάλιν ἀνέρχεται ἵνα καταβῇ.

69.25

I.49.69.25

“Πῶς πάλιν λέγεις τοῦτο, ὦ τεκοῦσα, παράδειξον.”

Καὶ ἀπεκρίθη Ἶσις πάλιν· “Τῆς παλινδρομίας ἐναργὲς τοῦτο σημεῖον τοῖς ζῴοις ἐνέθηκεν ἡ ἱερωτάτη φύσις· τοῦτο γὰρ ὃ σπῶμεν ἄνωθεν ἐξ ἀέρος πνεῦμα, τοῦτο πάλιν ἄνω πέμπομεν ἵνα λάβωμεν·”

69.26

I.49.69.26

καὶ εἰσίν, ὦ τέκνον, τούτου τοῦ ἐνεργήματος τεχνίτιδες ἐν ἡμῖν ῥῖναι, αἳ ἐπειδὰν μύσωσι τὰ δεκτικὰ ἑαυτῶν τοῦ πνεύματος στόματα, τότε ἡμεῖς οὐκέτι ὧδέ ἐσμεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀναβεβήκαμεν.

Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 49

p. 1563

69.24 · The sources above

I.49.69.24

“The sources of all things carried out on earth through speech and action, my child, are above. They pour their substances down upon us by measure and weight. There is nothing that has not descended from above and does not ascend again in order to descend.”¹⁸⁸⁵

69.25 · Breathing as an illustration

I.49.69.25

“How, again, do you mean this, mother? Give me an example.”

Isis answered again: “Most holy Nature has placed this clear sign of the returning movement in living beings: the breath we draw down from the air above is the very breath we send upward again, so that we may receive it.”¹⁸⁸⁶

69.26 · The closing of the nostrils

I.49.69.26

“The nostrils within us, my child, are the artisans of this activity. When they close their own openings that receive the breath, we are no longer here: we have ascended.”¹⁸⁸⁷

1885.Logos is rendered speech here because it is paired with ergon, action: the familiar combination of word and deed favors this sense. Ousiai is substances, the things or realities supplied by the sources. The repeated movement upward and downward is the point Horus asks Isis to illustrate next.

1886.Palindromia is movement back or return. The printed ho spōmen, which we draw, follows the editor’s correction. Pneuma here is breath in the example of inhalation and exhalation; later in this discourse the same word also denotes an airy element.

1887.Technitides personifies the nostrils as skilled workers. The passage takes the cessation of breath as a sign of departure from life and uses the same upward language as the preceding cosmological account. The Greek perfect anabebēkamen is have ascended.

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.