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 31 · II.31.12.1

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 378 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.12.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 752

Ἀριστοφάνους Νεφελῶν

II.31.12.1

Λέξω τοίνυν τὴν ἀρχαίαν παιδείαν, ὡς διέκειτο, ὅτ’ ἐγὼ τὰ δίκαια λέγων ἤνθουν καὶ σωφροσύνη ’νενόμιστο. πρῶτον μὲν ἔδει παιδὸς φωνὴν γρύξαντος μηδέν’ ἀκοῦσαι εἶτα βαδίζειν ἐν ταῖσιν ὁδοῖς εὐτάκτως εἰς κιθαριστοῦ τοὺς κωμήτας γυμνοὺς ἀθρόους, κεἰ κριμνώδη κατανίφοι. εἶτ’ αὖ προμαθεῖν ᾆσμ’ ἐδίδασκεν τὼ μηρὼ ⟨μὴ⟩ ξυνέχοντας, ἢ Παλλάδα περσέπολιν δεινάν, ἢ Τηλέπορόν τι βόημα ἐντειναμένους τὴν ἁρμονίαν ἣν οἱ πατέρες παρέδωκαν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 753

Aristophanes, from Clouds

II.31.12.1

[Stronger Argument] I will explain how education was arranged in the old days, when I flourished by speaking what was just, and temperance was the rule.¹⁰⁸⁵ First, no one was to hear a boy’s voice—not even a grunt; then the boys of each district had to walk in orderly groups along the streets to the kithara teacher’s, lightly clad, even if snow fell thick as meal.¹⁰⁸⁶ Next he taught them to learn a song, ⟨not⟩ pressing their thighs together: either “Dread Pallas, sacker of cities,” or “Some far-traveling cry,” putting their voices to the mode their fathers had handed down.¹⁰⁸⁷

1085.Clouds 961–1008. The personified Stronger, or Just, Argument defends older education against the Weaker, or Unjust, Argument in a contest over Pheidippides’s training. Speaker labels and continuation headings are editorial. These are rival comic voices, not an unqualified statement of Aristophanes’s own educational program.

1086.Γυμνούς can mean naked or lightly clad, including wearing only a tunic without a mantle. Here the walk through winter weather stresses hardiness; complete street nudity is not required by the word. The later scene at the physical trainer’s has a different setting.

1087.The quoted phrases are openings of songs. Ἁρμονία is the musical mode or melodic arrangement handed down from the fathers. Supplied ⟨μή⟩ is rendered ⟨not⟩; the instruction explicitly keeps the thighs apart. The verse joins traditional music to disciplined bodily posture.

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.