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.31.22

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.22

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Ancient Greek

p. 770

Ξενοκράτης

II.31.22

Ξενοκράτης νέον φιλοσοφεῖν βουλόμενον ἤρετο, εἰ γεγεωμέτρηκε· τοῦ δὲ ἀποφήσαντος, ἀλλ’ εἰ ἠστρονόμηκε· καὶ τοῦτο ἀπειπόντος, ἀλλ’ εἰ τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν ἀνέγνωκεν· ὁ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ἔξαρνος ἦν· ἄλλως δὲ εἰ γράμματα οἶδεν· ⟨οὐδὲ⟩ ταῦτα ἔφη ἐκεῖνος εἰδέναι. «Πόκος τοίνυν», εἶπεν ὁ Ξενοκράτης, «ὑπὸ γναφέως οὐ πλύνεται».

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 771

Xenocrates

II.31.22

Xenocrates asked a young man who wished to study philosophy whether he had studied geometry. When he said no, Xenocrates asked whether he had studied astronomy; when he denied that too, whether he had read the poets. He denied this as well.¹¹¹³ Failing that, Xenocrates asked whether he knew his letters. He said that he did ⟨not even⟩ know those.¹¹¹⁴ “Fleece, then,” said Xenocrates, “is not washed by a fuller.”¹¹¹⁵

1113.The anecdote presents geometry, astronomy, reading the poets, and finally basic literacy as preparation for philosophy. Xenocrates is the subject of the story; the excerpt supplies no separate author heading. A related anecdote in Diogenes Laertius 4.10 has a different sequence and wording. Its additional material is not imported into Stobaeus’s text.

1114.The Greek compresses the later questions by omitting the repeated verb asked. Failing that renders the transition ἄλλως δέ without replacing Wachsmuth’s printed ἄλλως with a conjecture. Knowing one’s letters means basic literacy here. The supplied ⟨οὐδὲ⟩ is represented by ⟨not even⟩; the negative is an editorial supplement, not an unmarked word of the transmitted text.

1115.Πόκος means fleece or wool in its raw state; γναφεύς is a fuller, a worker who cleans and finishes cloth. The joke treats the unprepared student as raw material that has not reached the stage appropriate to the specialist’s work. This is the image’s implication, not a general claim that raw wool cannot be washed. The translation retains Wachsmuth’s πλύνεται, is washed, and his corrected ὑπὸ γναφέως, by a fuller. Compare the differently worded fleece saying in Diogenes Laertius 4.10.

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.