From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordMetakosmēsis is rearrangement or reordering.
- In StobaeusPorphyry interprets myth as expressing a soul that persists but changes, moving into bodies suited to its pleasures and accustomed life.
- In this edition“Rearrangement into other bodies” makes the local application explicit.
- A place to beginAn enduring soul undergoes rearrangement into other forms of body.
- English renderings
- rearrangement; passage into another bodily form
Meaning
Metakosmēsis is rearrangement or reordering. In the selected account it concerns the soul’s relation to successive bodily forms.
Use in the book
Porphyry interprets myth as expressing a soul that persists but changes, moving into bodies suited to its pleasures and accustomed life. Rearrangement is therefore compatible with continued existence. The term does not establish that soul becomes a wholly new substance whenever its embodiment changes.
Places to read
- I.49.60.2An enduring soul undergoes rearrangement into other forms of body.
Translation in this edition
“Rearrangement into other bodies” makes the local application explicit.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 445. The author presents an interpretation of teachings associated with Pythagoras and Plato; it is not a direct quotation from either.