Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 8 · II.8.42.7

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Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.42.7

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Ancient Greek

p. 624

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.7

Ἀναγκάζειν μὲν τὴν ποιὰν διάθεσιν τῶν σχηματισμῶν ποιοὺς εἶναι τοὺς βίους ταῖς διὰ τῆς ὡροσκοπούσης μοίρας ἰούσαις ψυχαῖς εἰς τὴν γένεσιν, πῶς ἐχόντων τότε τῶν σχηματισμῶν, μὴ συντίθεσθαι αὐτὸν τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις· τῶν δὲ ψυχῶν κατὰ τὰς ἐνούσας διαθέσεις ἐπὶ τοὺς ὡροσκόπους φερομένων καὶ βίους, ⟨οὓς⟩ σημαίνουσιν οἱ σχηματισμοί, βλεπουσῶν ὥσπερ ἐν πίνακι [γεγραμμένα] ἐν τῇ οὐρανίᾳ γῇ γεγραμμένους, τὰς ἑλομένας διὰ μὲν τὸ αὐτεξούσιον δύνασθαι καὶ μὴ βιῶναι οὕτως, ἑλομένας δὲ τὰ ἐν τῇ στροφῇ κατὰ στιγμὴν τοῦ χρόνου τῆς ἀναφορᾶς τοῦ ὡροσκόπου ἐναλλαττόμενα ἀνάγκῃ ἐκτελεῖν τὰ γεγραμμένα.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 625

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.7

He does not, however, agree with the Egyptians that a particular arrangement of configurations compels a particular kind of life for souls entering birth through the ascending degree, with the configurations disposed as they are at that time.⁸⁷² Rather, souls are carried toward ascendants according to the dispositions within them and see lives—⟨which⟩ the configurations signify—inscribed as if on a tablet in the heavenly earth.⁸⁷³ Through self-government the souls that choose can also refrain from living in this way; but, having chosen the things that change in the revolution at each moment of the ascendant’s rising, they must necessarily carry out what is inscribed.⁸⁷⁴

872.He is Plato as interpreted by Porphyry. The contrast is between configurations compelling the initial kind of life and configurations indicating lives toward which souls move according to their own dispositions. The Greek construction is compressed, and the statement continues the conjecture begun in II.8.42.6.

873.Heavenly earth follows the printed οὐρανίᾳ γῇ; it is not silently replaced by heaven or sphere. The lives are pictured as writing displayed on a tablet. Supplied ⟨οὓς⟩ is ⟨which⟩. Rejected [γεγραμμένα], written, remains visible in Greek but is omitted in English; the surviving γεγραμμένους already describes the inscribed lives.

874.The wording uses ἑλομένας, having chosen, twice, while distinguishing the ability not to live in a proposed way from the binding sequence once a life is selected. The English keeps this difficult contrast. The changing things are the patterns presented during the celestial revolution, not an added claim that the soul can change its primary kind of life after embodiment.

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.