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.8.41.1–II.8.41.2

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Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.41.1–II.8.41.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 612

Ἐν ταὐτῷ

II.8.41.1

Τὸ γὰρ ὅλον βούλημα τοιοῦτ’ ἔοικεν εἶναι τὸ τοῦ Πλάτωνος· ἔχειν μὲν τὸ αὐτεξούσιον τὰς ψυχάς, πρὶν εἰς σώματα καὶ βίους διαφόρους ἐμπεσεῖν, εἰς τὸ ⟨τοῦτον⟩ ἢ τοῦτον ἑλέσθαι τὸν βίον, ὃν μετὰ ποιᾶς ζωῆς καὶ σώματος οἰκείου τῇ ζωῇ ἐκτελεῖν μέλλει (καὶ γὰρ λέοντος βίον ἐπ’ αὐταῖς εἶναι ἑλέσθαι καὶ ἀνδρός)· κἀκεῖνο μὲν τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἅμα τῇ πρός τινα τῶν τοιούτων βίων πτώσει ἐμπεπόδισται.

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.41.2

Κατελθοῦσαι δὲ εἰς τὰ σώματα καὶ ἀντὶ ψυχῶν ἀπολύτων γεγονυῖαι ψυχαὶ ζῴων, τὸ αὐτεξούσιον φέρουσιν οἰκεῖον τῇ τοῦ ζῴου κατασκευῇ καὶ ἐφ’ ὧν μὲν εἶναι πολύνουν καὶ πολυκίνητον ὡς ἐπ’ ἀνθρώπου, ἐφ’ ὧν δὲ ὀλιγοκίνητον καὶ μονότροπον ὡς ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων σχεδὸν πάντων ζῴων. Ἐξηρτῆσθαι δὲ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον τοῦτο τῆς κατασκευῆς, κινούμενον μὲν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, φερόμενον δὲ κατὰ τὰς ἐκ τῆς κατασκευῆς γινομένας προθυμίας.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 613

From the same work

II.8.41.1

For Plato’s overall meaning seems to be this: before entering bodies and different lives, souls have self-government in choosing ⟨this⟩ life or that, which each soul is to complete with a certain kind of existence and a body suited to that existence (for it is up to them to choose a lion’s life as well as a man’s).⁸⁵⁹ That self-government has been constrained at the very moment of falling into one of these kinds of life.⁸⁶⁰

Porphyry continued

II.8.41.2

Once they have descended into bodies and have become souls of living creatures instead of unattached souls, they bring with them a self-government suited to the living creature’s constitution. In some cases it is varied in thought and movement, as in a human being; in others it has few movements and only one way of acting, as in almost all other living creatures.⁸⁶¹ This self-government depends on the constitution: it moves from itself, but is carried along in accordance with the inclinations arising from the constitution.⁸⁶²

859.Porphyry summarizes what he takes Plato to mean. Choosing a lion’s life or a man’s concerns primary kinds of life, distinguished from occupations at II.8.39.5–7. Ζωή here denotes the kind of living existence to which the body is suited; the choice is not simply that of a profession.

860.Supplied ⟨τοῦτον⟩ is shown as ⟨this⟩ in this life or that. The printed ἐμπεπόδισται means has been hindered or constrained: the freedom to choose a primary life is checked upon entry into that life. The following sentences distinguish the self-government that embodied creatures then possess, rather than saying that all self-government disappears.

861.Unattached souls renders ψυχαὶ ἀπόλυτοι, souls not yet joined to bodies. Here αὐτεξούσιον, self-government, has a range suited to each creature’s constitution: the contrast is between varied human activity and the restricted activity of almost all other animals, without making the latter claim universal. This is a more qualified use of self-government than the denial to nonrational animals at II.8.39.7.

862.Κινούμενον ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ describes movement originating from itself, while φερόμενον κατὰ τὰς… προθυμίας describes its direction according to inclinations arising from the constitution. Προθυμίαι are inclinations or eager impulses here. Both claims stand together: self-government is presented as self-moving while remaining dependent on the creature’s constitution.

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.