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.8.43.1–II.8.43.2

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Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.43.1–II.8.43.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 638

Ἐκ τῆς Ἰαμβλίχου ἐπιστολῆς πρὸς Μακεδόνιον περὶ εἱμαρμένης

II.8.43.1

Οὐσία ἐστὶν ἄϋλος ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς καθ’ ἑαυτήν, ἀσώματος, ἀγένητος πάντῃ καὶ ἀνώλεθρος, παρ’ ἑαυτῆς ἔχουσα τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὸ ζῆν, αὐτοκίνητος παντελῶς καὶ ἀρχὴ τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῶν ὅλων κινήσεων. Αὕτη δὴ οὖν καθ’ ὅσον ἐστὶ τοιαύτη, καὶ τὴν αὐτεξούσιον καὶ τὴν ἀπόλυτον περιείληφεν ἐν ἑαυτῇ ζωήν.

Ἰαμβλίχου — συνέχεια

II.8.43.2

⟨Καὶ⟩ καθ’ ὅσον μὲν δίδωσιν ἑαυτὴν εἰς τὰ γιγνόμενα καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς φορὰν ἑαυτὴν ὑποτάττει, κατὰ τοσοῦτον καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν εἱμαρμένην ἄγεται καὶ δουλεύει ταῖς τῆς φύσεως ἀνάγκαις· καθ’ ὅσον δὲ αὖ τὴν νοερὰν ἑαυτῆς καὶ τῷ ὄντι ἄφετον ἀπὸ πάντων καὶ αὐθαίρετον ἐνέργειαν ἐνεργεῖ, κατὰ τοσοῦτον τὰ ἑαυτῆς ἑκουσίως πράττει καὶ τοῦ θείου καὶ ἀγαθοῦ καὶ νοητοῦ μετ’ ἀληθείας ἐφάπτεται.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 639

From Iamblichus’s letter to Macedonius on fate

II.8.43.1

The soul’s substance, considered in itself, is immaterial, incorporeal, wholly ungenerated and indestructible, possessing being and life from itself, entirely self-moving, and a principle of nature and of all movements. Insofar as it is such, therefore, it contains within itself a life that is both self-governing and independent.⁸⁹⁴

Iamblichus continued

II.8.43.2

⟨And⟩ insofar as it gives itself to things that come to be and subjects itself to the movement of the universe, to that extent it is also led under fate and serves the necessities of nature.⁸⁹⁵ But insofar as it exercises its own intellectual activity, which is in truth free from all things and self-chosen, to that extent it acts voluntarily in what belongs to it and truly lays hold of the divine, the good, and the intelligible.⁸⁹⁶

894.The attribution introduces Iamblichus’s letter to Macedonius on fate. Οὐσία denotes the soul’s own being or nature; immaterial and incorporeal retain the distinct descriptions ἄϋλος and ἀσώματος. Ἀρχή is a principle or source, not necessarily a beginning in time. The qualification considered in itself and the subsequent insofar as are essential to the distinction developed in the following sentences.

895.Supplied ⟨Καί⟩ is shown as ⟨And⟩. The repeated insofar as and to that extent relate the soul’s subjection to fate to its engagement with things that come to be. The passage does not erase that qualification by declaring every activity of an embodied soul either wholly compelled or wholly independent.

896.Νοερά is intellectual, describing an activity of intellect; νοητόν is intelligible, what intellect apprehends. Ἄφετος means free or released, while αὐθαίρετος means chosen by oneself. The contrast concerns the soul’s modes of activity and retains both its relation to nature and its voluntary apprehension of what is divine.

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.