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.7.13.18–II.7.13.19

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English Page · Branch 204 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.18–II.7.13.19

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Ancient Greek

p. 404

Σῶμα ψυχὴ καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος

II.7.13.18

Εἰ γὰρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος δι’ αὑτὸν αἱρετός, καὶ τὰ μέρη τοῦ ἀνθρώπου δι’ αὑτὰ ἂν εἴη αἱρετά. Μέρη δ’ ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπου ὁλοσχερέστατα σῶμα καὶ ψυχή. Ὥστε καὶ τὸ σῶμα δι’ αὑτὸ ἂν αἱρετὸν εἴη. Πῶς γὰρ τὸ μὲν τοῦ πλησίον σῶμα δι’ αὑτὸ αἱρετόν ἐστιν ἡμῖν, τὸ δ’ ἡμέτερον οὐκέτι; Ἢ πῶς ὁ μὲν πλησίον ἄνθρωπος δι’ αὑτὸν ἐστιν αἱρετός, οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ ἕκαστος ἡμῶν αὑτῷ δι’ αὑτὸν αἱρετός;

Αἱ τοῦ σώματος ἀρεταί

II.7.13.19

Ἢ πῶς τοῦτο μέν, οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ τὰ μέρη τὰ τοῦ σώματος καὶ αἱ τῶν μερῶν ἀρεταὶ καὶ αἱ τοῦ ὅλου σώματος ἂν εἶεν αἱρεταί; Ὥστε δι’ αὑτὰ αἱρετὰ ἡμῖν εἶναι τὴν ὑγίειαν, τὴν ἰσχύν, τὸ κάλλος, τὴν ποδώκειαν, τὴν εὐεξίαν, τὴν εὐαισθησίαν, καθόλου πάσας ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ⟨τὰς σωματικὰς ἀρετάς⟩.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 405

Body Soul and the Human Being

II.7.13.18

For if the human being is choiceworthy for his own sake, the parts of the human being would also be choiceworthy for their own sakes. In the broadest division, the parts of a human being are body and soul. Hence the body too would be choiceworthy for its own sake. For how could another person’s body be choiceworthy to us for its own sake, while our own was no longer so? Or how could another human being be choiceworthy for his own sake, while each of us was not also choiceworthy to himself for his own sake?⁵³⁹

The Excellences of the Body

II.7.13.19

Or how could this be so, while the parts of the body, the excellences of its parts, and the excellences of the whole body were not also choiceworthy? Hence health, strength, beauty, speed of foot, good bodily condition, and keenness of the senses are choiceworthy to us for their own sakes: in general, virtually all ⟨the bodily excellences⟩.⁵⁴⁰

539.The questions extend the value acknowledged in another person to oneself and to body and soul. “In the broadest division” renders ὁλοσχερέστατα: the passage has not yet begun an anatomical enumeration. The repeated “for his own sake” or “for its own sake” preserves the argument’s claim of intrinsic worth, rather than substituting usefulness or pleasure.

540.Ἀρεταί here names the excellences of the body and its parts, while the subsequent discussion uses the same word for virtues of the soul. The list retains speed of foot, ποδώκεια, and distinguishes good condition, εὐεξία, from keenness of sensation, εὐαισθησία. The qualifying ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν is rendered “virtually.” Wachsmuth supplies the concluding τὰς σωματικὰς ἀρετάς; the English equivalent remains bracketed.

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.