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 7 · II.7.3g.3–II.7.3h

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 81 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.3g.3–II.7.3h

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Ancient Greek

p. 158

Περὶ τέλους · τρεῖς σκοποί

II.7.3g.3

Σκοποὺς δ’ ὑποτίθεται τῆς ἐφέσεως τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ὀρέξεων τρεῖς, τὸν τοῦ καλοῦ, τοῦ συμφέροντος, τοῦ ἡδέος. Καλὸν μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἀρετὴ καὶ τὸ μέτοχον τῆς ἀρετῆς, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ὁ σπουδαῖος, καὶ τὸ ἀπ’ ἀρετῆς ἔργον· καὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν [τὸ] καλόν, καθὸ ἐπαινετὸν ἤτοι παρέχον ἐπαινετούς· συμφέρον δὲ ⟨τὸ⟩ πρὸς τὸ ζῆν εὔχρηστον· συμπαρατείνοι δ’ ἂν ἡ ἔννοια καὶ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν. Ταῦτα δ’ ἐστὶ πρῶτα κατὰ φύσιν ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, περὶ ὧν προείρηται. Ἡδὺ δ’ ἐστὶν οἰκεῖον ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος πάθος, εἰς τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ἐκ τοῦ παρὰ φύσιν ἀγωγόν, ὥσπερ ὁ Πλάτων ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ ὡρίσατο.

Περὶ τέλους · Εὔδοξος

II.7.3h

Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῶν Νικομαχείων Εὔδοξον τὸν ἀστρολόγον οἴεται τέλος δογματίζειν τὴν ἡδονήν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 159

On the End · Three Targets

II.7.3g.3

He posits three targets for the striving of human desires: the noble, the advantageous, and the pleasant. Noble are virtue and what participates in virtue, such as the worthy person himself, and the deed that proceeds from virtue. The good is noble insofar as it is praiseworthy or produces praiseworthy people. The advantageous is ⟨what is⟩ useful for living; the conception might also extend to living well. These are the primary things in accordance with nature for soul and body, discussed earlier. The pleasant is a congenial affection of soul and body, leading from a condition contrary to nature to one in accordance with nature, as Plato defined it in the Timaeus.¹⁷⁷

On the End · Eudoxus

II.7.3h

Aristotle, in the tenth book of the Nicomachean Ethics, thinks that Eudoxus, the student of the stars, maintained that pleasure is the end.¹⁷⁸

177.Compare Aristotle, Rhetoric I.6, 9, and 10, for the subjects of the advantageous, noble, and pleasant; the last reference is Plato, Timaeus 64D. Wachsmuth notes that the formulation about virtue and what participates in it has Stoic parallels, so this report need not reproduce Aristotle’s own terminology throughout. The rejected article [τὸ] is retained in Greek and omitted in English; the supplied ⟨τὸ⟩ before “useful” is expressed as ⟨what is⟩. “Leading” preserves the movement from an unnatural to a natural condition in the account of pleasure.

178.Nicomachean Ethics X.2, opening. The person is Eudoxus, not Eudorus of the earlier division of ethics. Ἀστρολόγος is rendered broadly as “student of the stars,” as in II.1.23. The report preserves οἴεται, “thinks,” rather than removing the qualification or presenting a direct quotation from Eudoxus.

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.