From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTrimerēs means three-part or threefold.
- In StobaeusPorphyry explains the familiar threefold division through its ethical purpose of establishing virtues.
- In this edition“Threefold soul” is convenient, provided the kind and purpose of the division are stated.
- A place to beginThe threefold division is explained as serving an ethical purpose.
- English renderings
- threefold; having three parts
Meaning
Trimerēs means three-part or threefold. Applied to soul, it need not be a claim that every possible psychic function falls into exactly three categories.
Use in the book
Porphyry explains the familiar threefold division through its ethical purpose of establishing virtues. He notes that imaginative, perceptive, intellective, and nutritive powers are not comprehensively captured by it. Elsewhere he distinguishes division of bodily activity from quantitative division of soul itself.
Places to read
- I.49.25a.2The threefold division is explained as serving an ethical purpose.
- I.49.25a.9Bodily distribution is distinguished from soul’s own unity.
Translation in this edition
“Threefold soul” is convenient, provided the kind and purpose of the division are stated.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 350, 353. This is Porphyry’s report about Plato and Aristotle; it is not a claim that all their psychological accounts use one identical division.