Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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 2 · II.2.20–II.2.23

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English Page · Branch 35 of 516

Book II Chapter 2 · II.2.20–II.2.23

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Ancient Greek

p. 66

Καρνεάδου

II.2.20

Καρνεάδης τὴν διαλεκτικὴν ἔλεγε πουλύποδι ἐοικέναι· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνον αὐξηθείσας τὰς πλεκτάνας κατεσθίειν, καὶ τούτους προϊούσης τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ τὰ σφέτερα ἀνατρέπειν.

Κλειτομάχου

II.2.21

Κλειτόμαχος εἴκαζε τὴν διαλεκτικὴν τῇ σελήνῃ· καὶ γὰρ ταύτην οὐ παύεσθαι φθίνουσαν καὶ αὐξομένην.

Ἀρίστωνος

II.2.22

Ἀρίστων τοὺς λόγους τῶν διαλεκτικῶν εἴκαζεν τοῖς τῶν ἀραχνίων ὑφάσμασιν οὐδὲν μὲν χρησίμοις, λίαν δὲ τεχνικοῖς.

Ἐκ τῶν Ἀρίστωνος Ὁμοιωμάτων

II.2.23

Ὁ ἐλλέβορος ὁλοσχερέστερος μὲν ληφθεὶς καθαίρει, εἰς δὲ πάνυ σμικρὰ τριφθεὶς πνίγει· οὕτω καὶ ἡ κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν λεπτολογία.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 2

p. 67

Carneades

II.2.20

Carneades said that dialectic resembles an octopus: the octopus eats its tentacles when they have grown, and dialecticians, as their ability develops, overturn their own arguments as well.⁸³

Clitomachus

II.2.21

Clitomachus compared dialectic to the moon: it too never ceases to wane and wax.⁸⁴

Ariston

II.2.22

Ariston compared the arguments of dialecticians to spiders’ webs: useful for nothing, but exceedingly skillfully made.⁸⁵

From Ariston’s Comparisons

II.2.23

Hellebore, taken in a coarser form, purges; ground into very fine particles, it chokes. So too with excessive subtlety in philosophy.⁸⁶

83.The Greek shifts from the singular “dialectic” to the plural τούτους, “these people,” understood here as dialecticians. “Arguments” makes explicit the sense of τὰ σφέτερα, “their own things.” The comparison turns growing argumentative power back against the positions of those who possess it.

84.The image is one of continual diminution and increase. The excerpt leaves the comparison brief; it does not identify particular arguments or schools with the moon’s different phases.

85.Τεχνικός here praises the skill displayed in making something. The criticism depends on separating that skill from usefulness, much as the Zeno saying at II.2.12 separates an accurate measure from the worth of what it measures.

86.The medical image plays on fineness: the finely ground substance corresponds to λεπτολογία, discourse carried into minute distinctions. In this context “excessive subtlety” conveys the criticism. The contrast is between a treatment that purges and refinement that defeats its purpose.

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.