Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.10.1–II.7.10.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 142 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.10.1–II.7.10.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 280

Πάθος καὶ πτοία

II.7.10.1

Πάθος δ’ εἶναί φασιν ὁρμὴν πλεονάζουσαν καὶ ἀπειθῆ τῷ αἱροῦντι λόγῳ ἢ κίνησιν ψυχῆς ⟨ἄλογον⟩ παρὰ φύσιν (εἶναι δὲ πάθη πάντα τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς), διὸ καὶ πᾶσαν πτοίαν πάθος εἶναι, ⟨καὶ⟩ πάλιν ⟨πᾶν⟩ πάθος πτοίαν.

Τὰ τέσσαρα πρῶτα πάθη

II.7.10.2

Τοῦ δὲ πάθους τοιούτου ὄντος ὑποληπτέον, τὰ μὲν πρῶτα εἶναι καὶ ἀρχηγά, τὰ δ’ εἰς ταῦτα τὴν ἀναφορὰν ἔχειν. Πρῶτα δ’ εἶναι τῷ γένει ταῦτα τὰ τέσσαρα, ἐπιθυμίαν, φόβον, λύπην, ἡδονήν. Ἐπιθυμίαν μὲν οὖν καὶ φόβον προηγεῖσθαι, τὴν μὲν πρὸς τὸ φαινόμενον ἀγαθόν, τὸν δὲ πρὸς τὸ φαινόμενον κακόν. Ἐπιγίνεσθαι δὲ τούτοις ἡδονὴν καὶ λύπην, ἡδονὴν μὲν ὅταν τυγχάνωμεν ὧν ἐπεθυμοῦμεν ἢ ἐκφύγωμεν ἃ ἐφοβούμεθα· λύπην δέ, ὅταν ἀποτυγχάνωμεν ὧν ἐπεθυμοῦμεν ἢ περιπέσωμεν οἷς ἐφοβούμεθα.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 281

Passion and Agitation

II.7.10.1

They say that passion is an excessive impulse disobedient to reason which chooses, or an ⟨irrational⟩ movement of the soul contrary to nature. (All passions belong to the ruling part of the soul.) Hence every agitation is a passion, ⟨and⟩ conversely ⟨every⟩ passion is an agitation.³⁵⁷

The Four Primary Passions

II.7.10.2

Since passion is of this kind, we must understand that some passions are primary and fundamental, while the others are referred to these. The four primary genera are craving, fear, distress, and pleasure.³⁵⁸ Craving and fear come first: craving is directed toward an apparent good, fear toward an apparent evil. Pleasure and distress follow upon them: pleasure when we attain what we craved or escape what we feared; distress when we fail to attain what we craved or encounter what we feared.³⁵⁹

357.Πάθος is “passion” in the technical sense defined here. Πτοία, literally a fluttering or agitation, describes the soul’s disturbed movement, not every bodily tremor. The printed αἱροῦντι describes reason as choosing or deciding; II.7.10a explains disobedience to it. The supplied ἄλογον, καί, and πᾶν remain bracketed. Compare Diogenes Laertius VII.110–111 for the general definition and fourfold division.

358.Ἐπιθυμία is rendered “craving” in this classification, to distinguish the passion from ὄρεξις, “desire,” of which it is a disobedient form (II.7.10b). Earlier “appetite” likewise rendered ἐπιθυμία, for example at II.7.5b9. Here λύπη is the broad genus “distress,” which includes mourning and other specific forms of grief.

359.The source speaks of what appears good or evil, not what truly is so. It first orders craving and fear before pleasure and distress, then explains the latter through attainment, escape, failure, and encounter. Pleasure here is the passion; the earlier listing of pleasure among bodily indifferents at II.7.7b does not supply its present definition.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.