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.7.13.5–II.7.13.6

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English Page · Branch 197 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.5–II.7.13.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 390

Φύσις ἔθος λόγος

II.7.13.5

Ἐκ τριῶν δὲ συμβεβηκέναι τὴν ἀρετὴν τελειοῦσθαι, φύσεως, ἔθους, λόγου. Τὸν γὰρ ἄνθρωπον διαφέροντα κατά τε σῶμα καὶ ψυχὴν τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων διὰ τὸ μεταξὺ τῶν ἀθανάτων ὄντα καὶ τῶν θνητῶν κοινωνίαν ἐξηρτῆσθαι πρὸς ἄμφω, πρὸς μὲν τὰ λογικὰ τῷ κατὰ τὴν ψυχὴν θείῳ, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἄλογα τῷ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα θνητῷ, κατὰ λόγον ἀμφοῖν τῆς τελειότητος ἐφίεσθαι.

Οἰκείωσις καὶ τὰ κατὰ φύσιν

II.7.13.6

Καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ὀρέγεσθαι τοῦ εἶναι, φύσει γὰρ ᾠκειῶσθαι πρὸς ἑαυτόν, δι’ ὃ καὶ προσηκόντως ἀσμενίζειν μὲν ἐν τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν, δυσχεραίνειν δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς παρὰ φύσιν. Τήν τε γὰρ ὑγίειαν περιποιεῖσθαι σπουδάζειν καὶ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἔφεσιν ἔχειν καὶ τοῦ ζῆν ἀντιποιεῖσθαι τῷ ταῦτα μὲν εἶναι κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ⟨δι’⟩ αὑθ’ αἱρετὰ καὶ ἀγαθά. Κατὰ δὲ τἀναντία τὴν νόσον καὶ τὴν ἀλγηδόνα καὶ τὴν φθορὰν διακρούεσθαι καὶ παρακλίνειν τῷ παρὰ φύσιν ὑπάρχειν καὶ δι’ αὑτὰ φευκτὰ καὶ κακά.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 391

Nature Habit and Reason

II.7.13.5

Virtue comes to perfection through three things: nature, habit, and reason.⁵²¹ For the human being differs from the other creatures in both body and soul. Standing between immortals and mortals, he is linked in fellowship to both: to rational beings through what is divine in his soul, and to nonrational beings through what is mortal in his body. He therefore aims, in due proportion, at perfection in both.⁵²²

Affinity with Oneself and Natural Goods

II.7.13.6

First he desires to exist, for by nature he has an affinity with himself. Hence he fittingly welcomes things in accordance with nature and is distressed by things contrary to nature.⁵²³ He strives to secure health, has a longing for pleasure, and lays claim to life, because these are in accordance with nature and choiceworthy ⟨for⟩ their own sakes and good. Conversely, he wards off and avoids disease, pain, and destruction because they are contrary to nature, to be avoided for their own sakes, and bad.⁵²⁴

521.The opening names three contributions to perfected virtue, rather than attributing it to nature alone. Wachsmuth compares Magna Moralia I.35, 1197b38 onward, and the earlier account in this chapter at printed p. 51. Nature, habit, and reason are retained as separate terms.

522.The English takes ἀμφοῖν as referring to body and soul, the two respects in which the human being has just been described, and κατὰ λόγον as “in due proportion.” The Greek also uses paired expressions for immortals and mortals and for rational and nonrational beings. The sentence presents human affinity with both sides; it does not identify the mortal body with immortality or supply a doctrine of the soul’s fate after death.

523.ᾨκειῶσθαι expresses being made akin or attached to oneself, the relation discussed as οἰκείωσις, affinity or appropriation. Wachsmuth notes the Stoic vocabulary and compares Diogenes Laertius VII.85 and Cicero, On Ends III.16 and V.21. Its appearance in this Peripatetic account is retained. The welcome and distress are expressly tied to what accords with or opposes nature.

524.The passage calls health, pleasure, and life good and choiceworthy for their own sakes, and the contrary things bad. This differs from the earlier Stoic classification of such things as indifferent; the translation preserves the difference. Wachsmuth supplies δι’ in the first “for their own sakes”; its English equivalent is bracketed. The terms for destruction and avoidance do not specify a particular medical or practical course of action.

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.