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.7.22.2–II.7.22.3

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English Page · Branch 251 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.22.2–II.7.22.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 498

Ἀρχαὶ καὶ τέλη φιλίας

II.7.22.2

Ἀρχὴν δὲ τῆς μὲν ἑταιρικῆς εἶναι τὴν συνήθειαν, τῆς δὲ συγγενικῆς τὴν φύσιν, τῆς δὲ ξενικῆς τὴν χρείαν, τῆς δὲ ἐρωτικῆς τὸ πάθος, τῆς δ’ εὐεργετικῆς τὴν χάριν, τῆς δὲ θαυμαστικῆς τὴν δύναμιν. Πασῶν δὲ συλλήβδην εἶναι τέλη τρία, τὸ καλόν, τὸ συμφέρον, τὸ ἡδύ. Πάντα γὰρ τὸν ὁπωσοῦν πρὸς φιλίαν ἰόντα δι’ ἕν τι τούτων ἢ διὰ πάντα τὴν φιλίαν αἱρεῖσθαι.

Φιλία πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους

II.7.22.3

Πρώτην μὲν οὖν, ὡς προέφην, εἶναι τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν φιλίαν, δευτέραν δὲ τὴν πρὸς τοὺς γενναμένους· ἑξῆς δὲ τὰς πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους οἰκείους καὶ ὀθνείους· διὸ καὶ ἐν μὲν τῇ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν εὐλαβεῖσθαι δεῖν τὴν ὑπερβολήν, ἐν δὲ ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους τὴν ἔλλειψιν· Τὸ μὲν γὰρ φιλαυτίας, τὸ δὲ φειδωλίας ἔχει διαβολήν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 499

Beginnings and Ends of Friendship

II.7.22.2

The beginning of friendship between companions is familiarity; of friendship between relatives, nature; of guest-friendship, need; of erotic friendship, passion; of friendship based on benefaction, gratitude; and of friendship based on admiration, power.⁶⁷² Taken together, they have three ends: the noble, the advantageous, and the pleasant. For anyone who enters into friendship in any way chooses it for one of these or for them all.⁶⁷³

Friendship toward Oneself and Others

II.7.22.3

First, then, as I said before, comes friendship toward oneself; second, toward one’s children; next, toward others close to us and toward strangers.⁶⁷⁴ Hence, in friendship toward oneself we must guard against excess, and in friendships toward others against deficiency. For the former incurs the charge of selfishness, the latter of stinginess.⁶⁷⁵

672.All six beginnings remain in their printed order. Ἀρχή is a beginning or source, distinguished from the ends named next. Χρεία is need, συνήθεια familiarity, and χάρις gratitude in the relation involving benefaction. Δύναμις is power or capacity; the source does not restrict admiration to political authority.

673.Συλλήβδην considers the friendships collectively. The three ends are τὸ καλόν, the noble; τὸ συμφέρον, the advantageous; and τὸ ἡδύ, the pleasant. The final alternatives, one of these or all, qualify the collective formulation: the text does not say that every particular friendship must simultaneously pursue all three.

674.The first-person reference, as I said before, belongs to the epitomist’s account and is retained. Wachsmuth inserts a modern locator, p. 118, line 11 onward, in the printed prose; it is relocated here rather than treated as ancient text. Compare the account of natural affinity with oneself at II.7.13.6. Τοὺς γενναμένους, those born, is understood as one’s children. Οἰκεῖοι are those close or belonging to one’s own circle, contrasted with ὀθνεῖοι, strangers.

675.The cautions differ in direction: excess toward oneself and deficiency toward others. Φιλαυτία is love of self, here pejoratively selfishness because it is a charge against excess; the preceding recognition of friendship toward oneself remains. Φειδωλία is stinginess or niggardliness, here in what one extends to others, without an express restriction to money.

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.