Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.39.1
Ancient Greek
p. 594Πορφυρίου περὶ τοῦ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν
Ἐν ταῖς πρῴην ἡμῖν γεγονυίαις, Χρυσάοριε, πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαλέξεσι τὸν περὶ τῆς αἱρέσεως τῶν βίων ἀνακινήσαντες λόγον, ἣν ταῖς ἔξω ψυχαῖς ἀπονείμας ὁ Πλάτων κινδυνεύει τὸ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν καὶ ὅλως τὸ αὐτεξούσιον λεγόμενον ἀναιρεῖν, εἴγε ἐκ τῶν προβεβιωμένων κατὰ τὴν προτέραν περίοδον καὶ ὧν ἠγάπησαν ἢ ἐμίσησαν ἢ ἐφ’ οἷς ἥσθησαν ἢ ἐλυπήθησαν ἠθοπεποιημέναι ἐπὶ τὴν αἵρεσιν ἔρχονται, ταῦτα μὲν ἐδόκει ἐᾶν, ὡς εἰς ἀπολογίαν δυνάμενα παρασχεῖν τινας πιθανότητας· ἃ δὲ μετὰ τὸ ἑλέσθαι καὶ μέλλειν τοὺς κατὰ μέρος ἀνθρώπους ἀποφαίνειν, διὰ τῆς αὐτῶν εἰς τὰ σώματα εἰσκρίσεως παθεῖν αὐτὰς ἔφη, χαλεπὰ ἡμῖν ἐφαίνετο,
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8
p. 595Porphyry, On What Is Up to Us
In our former discussions with one another, Chrysaorius, we raised the question of the choice of lives. By assigning this choice to souls outside bodies, Plato seems in danger of abolishing what is up to us and what is generally called self-government, if indeed the souls come to choose with their characters already formed by what they have lived through in the previous cycle and by what they loved or hated, or what pleased or pained them.837 It seemed best to leave these matters aside, since they allowed some plausible lines of defense. But the things he said they undergo through their admission into bodies, once they have chosen and are about to produce particular human beings, seemed difficult to us.838
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.39.1
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.
Historical Text and Translation
Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
Rights
Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.