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 46 · II.46.heading–II.46.3

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Book II Chapter 46 · II.46.heading–II.46.3

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Ancient Greek

p. 1014

Κεφάλαιον ΜϚʹ

II.46.heading

Περὶ ἀχαριστίας.

Μενάνδρου

II.46.1

Ἀχάριστος ἄνθρωπος μὴ νομιζέσθω φίλος· μήθ’ ὃς πονηρός, κατεχέτω χρηστοῦ τόπον.

Σοφοκλέους Οἰδίποδος

II.46.2

Φίλον γὰρ ἐσθλὸν ἐκβαλεῖν ἴσον λέγω καὶ τὸν παρ’ αὐτῷ βίοτον, ὃν πλεῖστον φιλεῖ.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ Αἴαντος

II.46.3

Χάρις χάριν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τίκτουσ’ ἀεί. Ὅτου δ’ ἀπορρεῖ μνῆστις εὖ πεπονθότος, οὐκ ἂν γένοιτ’ ἔθ’ οὗτος εὐγενὴς ἀνήρ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 46

p. 1015

Chapter 46

II.46.heading

On Ingratitude.¹⁵⁰⁷

Menander

II.46.1

Let no ungrateful person be considered a friend; nor let one who is wicked occupy a good man’s place.¹⁵⁰⁸

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

II.46.2

For I say that casting out a good friend is the same as casting out the life one holds most dear.¹⁵⁰⁹

Sophocles, Ajax

II.46.3

For kindness is what always gives birth to kindness. But the man from whom memory of kindness received drains away could no longer be a noble man.¹⁵¹⁰

1507.Ἀχαριστία is ingratitude. The excerpts draw on several senses of χάρις: a favor, gratitude and a favor returned. Parenthetical D. numbers printed beside the selections are companion cross-references, not a replacement for Wachsmuth’s main numbering, which is retained here, including 9a.

1508.Wachsmuth cites Com. IV, p. 325, unassigned fragment 470. The two prohibitions concern who deserves the standing of a friend or a good person. The heading names Menander without identifying a play or speaker.

1509.Oedipus the King 611-612. The comparison makes rejecting a good friend equivalent to casting away one’s own cherished life. The printed παρ’ αὐτῷ refers to the life one has, rather than supplying a separate benefit or sum of money.

1510.Ajax 522-524. The repeated χάρις links a benefit with a responding benefit or gratitude. Memory of having been treated well is the test in the following lines. Εὐγενής can mean well-born; here the rebuke connects nobility with remembering kindness.

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.