From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Poverty
πενία
peniaPenia is poverty or lack.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPenia is poverty or lack.
- In StobaeusPorphyry uses poverty for the soul’s depleted state when inclined toward matter, contrasting it with fullness in relation to intellect.
- In this edition“Poverty” preserves the image; “lack” can clarify its non-economic object.
- A place to beginPoverty names the soul’s depletion in its material inclination.
- English renderings
- poverty; lack
Meaning
Penia is poverty or lack. A philosophical extension may concern a soul’s powers rather than material possessions.
Use in the book
Porphyry uses poverty for the soul’s depleted state when inclined toward matter, contrasting it with fullness in relation to intellect. The economic image explains dependence and loss of proper power. It should not be read as an assertion that financially poor people necessarily lack intellectual life.
Places to read
- I.49.23.7Poverty names the soul’s depletion in its material inclination.
Translation in this edition
“Poverty” preserves the image; “lack” can clarify its non-economic object.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 347. The closing allusion leaves its earlier thinkers unnamed, even though the apparatus suggests an association.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Poverty
poverty; poor; lack of worldly goods
Poverty is lack of material means, but poor can also describe deficient knowledge or a constricted apprehension of one’s true riches.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPoverty is lack of material means, but poor can also describe deficient knowledge or a constricted apprehension of one’s true riches.
- In TraherneThe sharp claim in IV.36 is that the enjoyer of paradise remains rich even when goods provided by other people disappear.
- In this editionThe word changes register within IV.36 from material condition to deficient understanding.
- A place to beginThe Spirit’s comfort supplies an enduring inheritance amid poverty and other afflictions.
Meaning
Poverty is lack of material means, but poor can also describe deficient knowledge or a constricted apprehension of one’s true riches.
Use in the book
The sharp claim in IV.36 is that the enjoyer of paradise remains rich even when goods provided by other people disappear. Adam’s nakedness tests the standard: if bodily and spiritual endowments and the world are genuine riches, outward additions cannot be the sole basis of wealth. The person who calls Adam poor may be poor in knowledge.
I.98 makes spiritual comfort equally resistant to poverty, sickness, and death through communion with the Father and Son. These are devotional claims about an inheritance that cannot be confiscated, not evidence that bodily loss is unreal. Traherne’s language seeks a secure depth of well-being while naming the afflictions against which that security is tested.
Places to read
In this edition
The word changes register within IV.36 from material condition to deficient understanding. Keep the distinction rather than translating every poverty into an inner fault.