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.7.13.11–II.7.13.12

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 200 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.11–II.7.13.12

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Ancient Greek

p. 396

Συγγενεῖς καὶ οἰκεῖοι

II.7.13.11

Τῶν δὲ τέκνων οὕτως ἀγαπωμένων κατὰ τὸ ⟨δι’⟩ αὑθ’ αἱρετόν, ἀναγκαῖον καὶ τοὺς γονεῖς καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τὴν τοῦ λέχους κοινωνίαν καὶ τοὺς συγγενεῖς καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους οἰκείους καὶ πολίτας ὡς δι’ αὑτοὺς φιλίας τυγχάνειν· ἔχειν γὰρ ἐκ φύσεως ἡμᾶς καὶ πρὸς τούτους τινὰς οἰκειότητας· φιλάλληλον γὰρ εἶναι καὶ κοινωνικὸν ζῷον τὸν ἄνθρωπον.

Φιλία πρὸς πάντας ἀνθρώπους

II.7.13.12

Εἰ δὲ τῶν φιλιῶν τὰς μὲν εἶναι πόρρω συμβέβηκε, τὰς δὲ προσεχεῖς ἡμῖν, οὐδὲν πρὸς ἔπος· πᾶσαν γὰρ δι’ αὑτὴν αἱρετὴν ὑπάρχειν καὶ μὴ μόνον διὰ ⟨τὰς⟩ χρείας. Εἰ δ’ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας φιλία δι’ αὑτὴν αἱρετή, ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι καὶ τὴν πρὸς ὁμοεθνεῖς καὶ ὁμοφύλους, ὥστε καὶ τὴν πρὸς πάντας ἀνθρώπους.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 397

Kinship and Affection

II.7.13.11

Since children are thus loved as choiceworthy ⟨for⟩ their own sakes, parents, brothers, the partnership of the marriage bed, relatives, other members of one’s circle, and fellow citizens must also receive affection for their own sakes. For by nature we have certain affinities with them too: the human being is a creature that loves others and lives in community.⁵³⁰

Affection toward All Human Beings

II.7.13.12

If some affections are more distant and others closer to us, that makes no difference to the argument: every affection is choiceworthy for its own sake, and not only for its usefulness. If affection toward fellow citizens is choiceworthy for its own sake, affection toward those of the same nation and the same stock must be so too, and consequently affection toward all human beings.⁵³¹

530.The sequence extends beyond children without reducing the other relationships to their usefulness. “Partnership of the marriage bed” retains τοῦ λέχους κοινωνίαν, the shared marital relation; “members of one’s circle” renders οἰκείους, those belonging or close to one. Φιλάλληλον means disposed to love one another, and κοινωνικόν disposed to community. Wachsmuth supplies δι’ in the opening formula, expressed by the bracketed “for.”

531.Φιλία ranges here over affectionate relationships, not only intimate friendship. The difference in closeness is admitted while the intrinsic worth of each relation is asserted. The argument proceeds from fellow citizens through shared nation and stock to all human beings; the final extension remains explicit. The supplied article τὰς has no independent English equivalent here; the phrase about usefulness is rendered idiomatically. Wachsmuth’s apparatus records substantial corrections in the preceding conditional sentence; the English follows the printed text.

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.