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.8.42.12–II.8.42.13

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Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.42.12–II.8.42.13

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Ancient Greek

p. 630

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.12

Ἐντεῦθεν οὖν ἡ τῶν πρώτων κλήρων εὐμοιρία ἀποδοχῆς ἠξίωται καὶ ἡ τῶν ὑστέρων ἐστενοχωρεῖσθαι λέγεται. Σημαίνειν μὲν οὖν τὰ ποιὰ σχήματα τοὺς βίους τίθεται Πλάτων· ἀναγκάζειν δὲ οὐκέτι, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἑλομένας ζῆν καὶ καθὰ σημαίνει ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχειν τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν γεγραμμένων.

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.13

Αἰτία τοίνυν ἑλομένων ἢ γυναικὸς ἢ ἀνδρὸς βίον ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς ζῴου τῆς εἰς τὸν ὡροσκόπον φορᾶς· αἰτία δὲ καὶ τῆς ἐνεχθείσης εἰς τόνδε τὸν ὡροσκόπον τὸ ἑλέσθαι τὸν δεύτερον βίον, ὃν γεγραμμένον δεικνύει ἡ κατὰ τὸν ὡροσκόπον τεταγμένη διακόσμησις τῶν ἀστέρων.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 631

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.12

Thus the good fortune of the earlier lots has won acceptance, while that of the later ones is said to be cramped.⁸⁸² Plato, then, posits that the particular configurations signify lives, but not that they compel them. Rather, the souls that have made their choice live their lives and necessarily experience the connected sequence of what is inscribed, in accordance with what the configurations signify.⁸⁸³

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.13

Responsibility for being carried to the ascendant, then, rests with those who have chosen a woman’s or a man’s life or that of another living creature. Choosing the secondary life is likewise the responsibility of the soul carried to this particular ascendant—the life that the arrangement of the stars, ordered in relation to the ascendant, displays as inscribed.⁸⁸⁴

882.In Republic X, earlier numbers give priority in choosing, while the last chooser is still told not to despair. Porphyry supplies an astrological explanation for differences in room for choice. A favorable lot is not made sufficient for good judgment: Plato’s first chooser selects a disastrous tyranny.

883.The distinction is between σημαίνειν, to signify, and ἀναγκάζειν, to compel. Necessity belongs to the εἱρμός, the connected sequence of the selected life, while the initial selection remains attributed to the soul. The feminine ἑλομένας refers to souls; the Greek is not replaced by a formulation making the stars themselves choose.

884.The two clauses with αἰτία, cause or responsibility, are elliptical, and their genitives have prompted proposed grammatical repairs. The English reads responsibility as belonging to the choosers in the first clause and to the soul carried to the particular ascendant in the second, without changing those genitives. The contrast still distinguishes choosing a primary kind of life from choosing its further secondary character.

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.