From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordProspatheia is attachment or an affective inclination toward something.
- In StobaeusPorphyry explains the image accompanying a departed soul through its attachment to the former body.
- In this edition“Attachment” is clear and should retain its directed object, the body.
- A place to beginBodily attachment explains the image impressed on accompanying breath.
- English renderings
- attachment; passionate inclination
Meaning
Prospatheia is attachment or an affective inclination toward something. It emphasizes a relation sustained by concern or desire.
Use in the book
Porphyry explains the image accompanying a departed soul through its attachment to the former body. An imaginative imprint is left in the pneuma gathered from the spheres, which travels with the soul. The attachment links past bodily life with a continuing image without making soul, pneuma, and solid body identical.
Places to read
- I.49.55.2Bodily attachment explains the image impressed on accompanying breath.
Translation in this edition
“Attachment” is clear and should retain its directed object, the body.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 429. The particular logos describing bodily relation is provisionally rendered formative principle; the compressed construction remains interpretively difficult.