From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordSystēma is a whole whose constituents are brought together.
- In StobaeusThe Hermetic narrative calls the human constitution a device for binding souls.
- In this edition“Constitution” suits the human composite; “system” or “organized whole” suits the cosmic definitions.
- A place to beginHuman constitution serves as the soul’s binding composite in a narrative.
- English renderings
- organized whole; composite; system
Meaning
Systēma is a whole whose constituents are brought together. The English “system” is useful when the relation of parts is explicit, but can sound overly abstract in an account of embodied life.
Use in the book
The Hermetic narrative calls the human constitution a device for binding souls. Chrysippus’s reported definitions use the noun of the cosmos as a whole of heaven and earth, or gods and humans with their surroundings. The scale changes; the idea of constituents belonging together remains.
Places to read
- I.49.44.28Human constitution serves as the soul’s binding composite in a narrative.
- I.21.5.1The world is defined as an organized whole of its constituents.
Translation in this edition
“Constitution” suits the human composite; “system” or “organized whole” suits the cosmic definitions.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 184, 392–393. The Hermetic narrative’s “continually” should not erase its later possibility of release for individual souls.