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 8 · II.8.25.1–II.8.25.2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 288 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.25.1–II.8.25.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 572

Ἐκ τοῦ Πλουτάρχου εἰ ἡ τῶν μελλόντων πρόγνωσις ὠφέλιμος · 1

II.8.25.1

Ὁ δὲ Νέστωρ οὐκ ἀβέλτερος; ὕπνου φθονῶν τοῖς τὰς ναῦς φυλάσσουσι καὶ διακελευόμενος,

οὕτω νῦν φίλα τέκνα φυλάσσετε, μηδέ τιν’ ὕπνος αἱρείτω, μὴ χάρμα γενώμεθα δυσμενέεσσιν·

Οὐ γενησόμεθα, φησί τις, οὐδ’ ἂν καθεύδωμεν, εἰ πεπρωμένον ἐστὶ μὴ ἁλῶναι τὸν ναύσταθμον.

Πλουτάρχου · συνέχεια

II.8.25.2

Τίς οὐκ ἂν εἴποι πρὸς τοὺς ταῦτα ληροῦντας, ὅτι καθείμαρται μὲν ἴσως ἅπαντα ταῦτα, συγκαθείμαρται δὲ ἑκάστῳ τὸ διὰ τούτων καὶ τὸ ἐν τούτοις καὶ ⟨τὸ⟩ οὕτω καὶ τὸ μὴ ἄλλως συντελεῖσθαι δίχα τούτων; Οὐ γὰρ ἔστι φυλακὴ καθευδόντων οὐδὲ νίκη φευγόντων οὐδὲ θερίσαι μὴ σπειράντων τὴν ἀγαθὴν γῆν καὶ καθαρὰν οὐδὲ γεννῆσαι μὴ συγγενόμενον γυναικὶ ἡλικίαν ἐχούσῃ καὶ σώματος φύσιν γόνιμον οὐδὲ ἄγρας τυχεῖν ἐν ἀθήροις χωρίοις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 573

From Plutarch, Whether Foreknowledge of Future Events Is Useful · 1

II.8.25.1

And was Nestor not foolish, begrudging sleep to the men guarding the ships and urging them:

So keep watch now, dear children, and let sleep take no one, lest we become a joy to our enemies?

We shall not become one, someone says, even if we sleep, if it is fated that the naval station will not be captured.⁸⁰⁸

Plutarch · Continuation

II.8.25.2

Who would not say to those who babble such things that perhaps all this has been fated, but co-fated with each thing is its being accomplished through these conditions, within them, in this way, and not otherwise, apart from them?⁸⁰⁹ For there is no watch kept by sleepers, nor victory for men who flee; nor can there be harvesting without sowing good, clean soil, or begetting without intercourse with a woman who is of age and has a fertile bodily constitution, or catching game in places where there is no game.⁸¹⁰

808.Iliad X.192–193. Nestor exhorts the guards at the Greek ships. The objection treats the camp’s safety as fated independently of their keeping watch; the reply in the continuation challenges that independence. The opening question and the imaginary speaker’s response are stages of the argument. Wachsmuth cites this Plutarch fragment as XV.3. The numbered layout divisions here do not introduce new ancient excerpts.

809.Συγκαθείμαρται means has been co-fated: the means and conditions are included with the outcome. The reply thus rejects the inference that a fated outcome makes the corresponding action unnecessary. The repeated through these, within these, in this way, and not otherwise deliberately emphasizes those connections. Supplied ⟨τὸ⟩ is the article that makes in this way parallel to the other nominal clauses; English absorbs it into the shared construction its being accomplished.

810.The examples specify different necessary conditions: wakefulness for guarding, standing rather than fleeing for victory, sowing for harvest, intercourse and fertility for begetting, and the presence of game for hunting. The agricultural wording retains both good and clean, corresponding to ἀγαθήν and καθαράν. No claim that effort guarantees every desired outcome is added to these examples.

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.