Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

Explore the Lexicon

Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 1 · II.title–II.1.1

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Ancient Greek Page · Branch 6 of 516

Book II Chapter 1 · II.title–II.1.1

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 8

Ἰωάννου Στοβαίου

II.title

Ἐκλογῶν ἀποφθεγμάτων ὑποθηκῶν βιβλίον δεύτερον

Κεφάλαιον Αʹ

II.1.heading

Περὶ τῶν τὰ θεῖα ἑρμηνευόντων, καὶ ὡς εἴη ἀνθρώποις ἀκατάληπτος ἡ τῶν νοητῶν κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἀλήθεια.

Ἀριστάρχου ἐκ Ταντάλου

II.1.1

Καὶ ταῦτ’ ἴσον μὲν εὖ λέγειν, ἴσον δὲ μή· ἴσον δ’ ἐρευνᾶν, ἐξ ἴσου δὲ μὴ εἰδέναι. πλεῖον γὰρ οὐδὲν οἱ σοφοὶ τῶν μὴ σοφῶν εἰς ταῦτα γιγνώσκουσιν. Εἰ δ’ ἄλλου λέγει ἄμεινον ἄλλος, τῷ λέγειν ὑπερφέρει.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 1

p. 9

John Stobaeus

II.title

Extracts, Sayings, and Precepts

Book Two⁴

Chapter 1

II.1.heading

On those who interpret divine things, and how the truth of intelligible things in their essence is beyond human comprehension.⁵

From the Tantalus of Aristarchus

II.1.1

On these matters too, it is all one to speak well or not; inquiring and not knowing come to the same. For in these matters the wise know no more than those who are not wise. If one speaks better than another, it is in speaking that he excels.⁶

4.The Greek title stands on printed p. 1 (scan p. 4). Book II is the ancient division of the Anthology; Volume II is the physical volume of Wachsmuth’s edition. All surviving anthology text in this volume is included, through II.46.22; missing chapters are represented by their preserved headings.

5.“Intelligible” means apprehended by thought, as distinct from what is perceived by the senses; “in their essence” renders κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν. The heading states the topic under which the excerpts are collected. It should not be taken as a single conclusion endorsed equally by every speaker.

6.The repeated ἴσον and ἐξ ἴσου express equality: neither eloquence nor inquiry establishes greater knowledge here. The Greek contrasts speaking well with not doing so, without an explicit word for “badly.” In the last sentence, ἄλλου means “than another,” and τῷ λέγειν specifies speaking as the respect in which one excels. The lost dramatic setting prevents us from simply identifying the speaker’s view with Aristarchus’s own.

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.