From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAsebeia is impiety or failure of due reverence, especially in relations with gods and other objects of sacred obligation.
- In StobaeusEryximachus explains impiety through favoring disorderly love over orderly love in dealings with gods and with parents, living or dead.
- In this edition“Impiety” is appropriate; “irreverence” may clarify the relational failure without narrowing it to disbelief.
- A place to beginDisordered love explains failures of reverence toward gods and parents.
- English renderings
- impiety; irreverence
Meaning
Asebeia is impiety or failure of due reverence, especially in relations with gods and other objects of sacred obligation.
Use in the book
Eryximachus explains impiety through favoring disorderly love over orderly love in dealings with gods and with parents, living or dead. Divination is then assigned a healing role. Impiety is thus incorporated into his medical analogy for the ordering of relationships.
Places to read
- I.9.16.2Disordered love explains failures of reverence toward gods and parents.
Translation in this edition
“Impiety” is appropriate; “irreverence” may clarify the relational failure without narrowing it to disbelief.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 117. The final wording follows Stobaeus’s printed text, which differs from a reading in the separate Platonic tradition.