From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordKouphotēs is lightness and kouphos means light, opposed to heavy.
- In StobaeusThe Hermetic account links a predominance of warmth with a light, ardent person, and cold with heaviness and sluggishness.
- In this edition“Light” must be read as a quality of weight or temperament, not illumination.
- A place to beginLightness characterizes the warm temperament.
- English renderings
- lightness; light; buoyant
Meaning
Kouphotēs is lightness and kouphos means light, opposed to heavy. Figurative use can concern temperament as well as physical weight.
Use in the book
The Hermetic account links a predominance of warmth with a light, ardent person, and cold with heaviness and sluggishness. The contrast concerns temperament in relation to bodily mixture. In the locomotion classification, lightness instead helps explain upward movement of bodies.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Light” must be read as a quality of weight or temperament, not illumination.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 163, 321. The text says intelligence does not reach everyone, not that it reaches no one; its differentiated constitutions explain the qualification.