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 15 · II.15.17–II.15.21

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 352 of 516

Book II Chapter 15 · II.15.17–II.15.21

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Ancient Greek

p. 700

Εὐριπίδου Θυέστῃ

II.15.17

⟨Οὐ⟩ πώποτ’ ἔργου μᾶλλον εἱλόμην λόγους.

⟨Poetae incerti⟩

II.15.18

Τῷ λόγῳ μὲν εὖ διέρχῃ πάντα, τῷ δ’ ἔργῳ κακῶς.

Μενάνδρου

II.15.19

Οὐχ ὁ λόγος αὔξει τὴν τέχνην περισσὸς ὤν, ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ κοσμεῖ τὴν τέχνην τὰ πράγματα.

Εὐριπίδου Πελιάσιν

II.15.20

Φθείρου· τὸ γὰρ δρᾶν οὐκ ἔχων, λόγους ἔχεις.

Μενάνδρου

II.15.21

Τί δ’ ὄφελος ⟨εὖ⟩ λαλοῦντος, ἂν κακῶς φρονῇ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 15

p. 701

Euripides, Thyestes

II.15.17

⟨Never⟩ have I preferred words to action.⁹⁹⁴

⟨Unknown poet⟩

II.15.18

In speech you handle everything well, but in action badly.⁹⁹⁵

Menander

II.15.19

An abundance of words does not enhance an art; but the deeds themselves adorn the art.⁹⁹⁶

Euripides, Peliades

II.15.20

Be off! For you have words, though you lack the power to act.⁹⁹⁷

Menander

II.15.21

But what use is speaking ⟨well⟩ if one’s judgment is bad?⁹⁹⁸

994.Initial ⟨οὐ⟩, not, is supplied; together with πώποτε, ever, it is rendered ⟨Never⟩. The heading assigns this statement to Euripides’ Thyestes, but the isolated line does not identify its speaker or the situation in which the preference is declared.

995.The second-person διέρχῃ addresses an unnamed person: the same matters are handled well in speech and badly in action. The author is unidentified; the attribution ⟨Unknown poet⟩ is supplied editorially.

996.The heading assigns the couplet to Menander; the apparatus reports an attribution to Hermodotus elsewhere in Stobaeus. Τὰ πράγματα, the actual facts or deeds, adorn τέχνη, art or skill. The contrast is between the work itself and the mere abundance of words about it.

997.Printed λόγους ἔχεις means you have words. The compressed τὸ δρᾶν οὐκ ἔχων contrasts this with lacking the capacity to act. The apparatus records a proposed λόγους λέγεις, you speak words; the translation retains ἔχεις, have.

998.Supplied ⟨εὖ⟩, well, makes the explicit contrast with κακῶς, badly. The line asks whether skill in speech is any use when the thought or judgment behind it is poor.

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.