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.7.15.2

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.15.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 428

Λόγος πάθος καὶ ἁρμονία

II.7.15.2

Δύο δ’ ὥσπερ ἀρχὰς τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπάρχειν, τὸν λόγον καὶ τὸ πάθος· ταῦτα δὲ ὁτὲ μὲν ἀλλήλοις ὁμονοητικῶς συμφωνεῖν, ὁτὲ δὲ στασιαστικῶς διαφωνεῖν· τὴν δ’ ἀντίταξιν αὐτῶν γίνεσθαι δι’ ἡδονὰς καὶ λύπας. Τὴν μὲν οὖν τοῦ λόγου νίκην ἀπὸ τοῦ κράτους παρωνύμως ἐγκράτειαν ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχειν, τὴν δὲ τοῦ ἀλόγου διὰ τὸ τῆς ὁρμῆς ἀπειθὲς ἀκρασίαν· τὴν δ’ ἀμφοῖν ἁρμονίαν καὶ συμφωνίαν ἀρετήν, τοῦ μὲν ἄγοντος ἐφ’ ὃ δεῖ, τοῦ δ’ ἑπομένου πειθηνίως.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 429

Reason Passion and Harmony

II.7.15.2

There are, as it were, two principles of the virtues: reason and passion. At times these agree with one another in concord, and at times they disagree in rebellion. Their opposition arises through pleasures and pains. Accordingly, reason’s victory bears the name self-control, a name derived from mastery; the victory of the nonrational part is called lack of control, because of the disobedience of impulse.⁵⁶⁸ But the harmony and concord of the two are virtue: reason leads toward what it should, and the other follows obediently.⁵⁶⁹

568.The source connects ἐγκράτεια, self-control, with κράτος, mastery or power. Its opposite here is ἀκρασία, lack of control, when the nonrational element prevails. The printed ὁμονοητικῶς and στασιαστικῶς give concord and rebellion as contrasting images. “As it were” preserves the qualification on calling reason and passion principles of the virtues.

569.Virtue is identified with harmony between reason and passion, whereas self-control describes reason’s victory in a conflict. The leading and obediently following roles remain distinct within the harmony. Πάθος is passion or feeling in this account. Here ἐγκράτεια has the same English rendering as σωφροσύνη in some earlier passages, but it is a different Greek term with the specific definition just given. Compare the earlier Stoic definition of ἐγκράτεια at II.7.5b2.4; the anthology preserves the schools’ different accounts.

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.