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 2 · II.2.13–II.2.15

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Book II Chapter 2 · II.2.13–II.2.15

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Ancient Greek

p. 62

Πυθαγόρου

II.2.13

Κενὸς ἐκείνου φιλοσόφου λόγος, ὑφ’ οὗ μηδὲν ἀνθρώπου πάθος θεραπεύεται. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἰατρικῆς οὐκ ὄφελος μὴ τὰς νόσους ἐκβαλλούσης ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων· οὕτως οὐδὲ φιλοσοφίας, εἰ μὴ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς κακὸν ἐκβάλλοι.

Ἐκ τῶν Ἀρίστωνος Ὁμοιωμάτων

II.2.14

Οἱ ἐν διαλεκτικῇ βαθύνοντες ἐοίκασι καρκίνους μασωμένοις, οἳ δι’ ὀλίγον τρόφιμον περὶ πολλὰ ὀστᾶ ἀσχολοῦνται.

Ἀντισθένους

II.2.15

Οὐκ ἀντιλέγοντα δεῖ τὸν ἀντιλέγοντα παύειν, ἀλλὰ διδάσκειν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸν μαινόμενον ἀντιμαινόμενός τις ἰᾶται.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 2

p. 63

Pythagoras

II.2.13

Empty is a philosopher’s discourse that heals no human affliction. For just as medicine is of no use if it does not drive diseases out of bodies, so philosophy is of no use if it does not drive evil out of the soul.⁷⁶

From Ariston’s Comparisons

II.2.14

Those who go deep into dialectic resemble people chewing crabs: they busy themselves with many shells for a little nourishment.⁷⁷

Antisthenes

II.2.15

One should put an end to a person’s contradiction by teaching, not by contradicting in return. No one cures a madman by going mad in return.⁷⁸

76.The attribution “Pythagoras” is retained from the printed heading. Wachsmuth notes a closely related saying in Porphyry, Letter to Marcella 31; the parallel does not warrant silently changing the anthology’s attribution. Πάθος, here “affliction,” acquires its force from the medical comparison. The final clause speaks of the soul’s κακόν, “evil,” rather than repeating the word for disease.

77.The printed βαθύνοντες means going deep or probing deeply. “Shells” renders ὀστᾶ, literally “bones,” in the crab comparison. Its point is the disproportion between the labor of extracting something and the small amount of nourishment obtained.

78.The repeated ἀντι- links answering contradiction with answering madness. The saying recommends instruction as a remedy for the dispute. “Madman” retains the ancient comparison’s language; the practical distinction is between helping someone and reproducing the behavior one opposes.

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.