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.7.5b9.3–II.7.5b10

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Facing Pages · Branch 106 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5b9.3–II.7.5b10

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Ancient Greek

p. 208

Ἔρως καὶ φιλοποιία

II.7.5b9.3

Τὸ δὲ ἐρᾶν αὐτὸ μόνον ἀδιάφορον εἶναι, ἐπειδὴ γίνεται ποτὲ καὶ περὶ φαύλους. Τὸν δὲ ἔρωτα οὔτε ἐπιθυμίαν εἶναι οὔτε τινὸς φαύλου πράγματος, ἀλλ’ ἐπιβολὴν φιλοποιίας διὰ κάλλους ἔμφασιν.

Πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν

II.7.5b10

Λέγουσι δὲ καὶ πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν τὸν σοφόν, ἃ ποιεῖ· δῆλον. Ὃν τρόπον γὰρ λέγομεν πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν τὸν αὐλητὴν ἢ κιθαρῳδόν, συνεπακουομένου τοῦ ὅτι τὰ μὲν κατὰ τὴν αὔλησιν, τὰ δὲ κατὰ τὴν κιθαρῳδίαν, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν τὸν φρόνιμον, καὶ ὅσα ποιεῖ ναὶ [οὐ] μὰ Δία, καὶ ἃ μὴ ποιεῖ. Τῷ γὰρ κατὰ λόγον ὀρθὸν ἐπιτελεῖν πάντα καὶ οἷον κατ’ ἀρετήν, περὶ ὅλον οὖσαν τὸν βίον τέχνην, ἀκόλουθον ᾠήθησαν τὸ περὶ τοῦ πάντ’ εὖ ποιεῖν τὸν σοφὸν δόγμα. Κατὰ τὸ ἀνάλογον δὲ καὶ τὸν φαῦλον πάντα ὅσα ποιεῖ κακῶς ποιεῖν καὶ κατὰ πάσας τὰς κακίας.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 209

Love and the Making of Friendship

II.7.5b9.3

Loving by itself, however, is indifferent, since it is sometimes found among the base as well. Love is neither appetite nor directed toward anything base, but an undertaking to make friendship on account of the appearance of beauty.²⁴⁰

Doing Everything Well

II.7.5b10

They also say that the wise person does everything well—what he does, obviously. For just as we say that the flute player or the singer to the lyre does everything well, with the understanding that the former’s actions concern flute playing and the latter’s singing to the lyre, so the practically wise person does everything well, both what he does—yes, by Zeus—and what he does not do.²⁴¹ Because he accomplishes everything according to right reason and, as it were, according to virtue, an art extending over the whole of life, they thought the doctrine that the wise person does everything well followed consistently. Correspondingly, the base person does everything he does badly and in accordance with all the vices.²⁴²

240.The text distinguishes loving considered by itself from the definition of love directed toward friendship. “Indifferent” retains the ethical classification, rather than expressing emotional coldness. Ἐπιθυμία is appetite or desire in the technical discussion; φιλοποιία is the making of friendship, and ἔμφασις the appearance or manifestation of beauty. The two statements are preserved together without silently removing their tension.

241.The comparison qualifies “everything” by the relevant art. Αὐλητής is a player of the aulos, conventionally called a flute; κιθαρῳδός sings to a stringed instrument. The source’s emphatic and paradoxical extension to what the wise person does not do is retained. Wachsmuth brackets the rejected οὐ after ναί; it remains in the Greek but is omitted from the English, as his deletion requires.

242.Virtue’s art concerns the whole of life, which explains the wider scope of its “everything.” The following passage on particular professions also requires additional principles in some cases; the present statement should not be expanded into automatic mastery of every specialized craft. The final counterpart expressly concerns all the vices, matching the earlier inseparability claim for virtues.

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.