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.7.5k.1–II.7.5k.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 116 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.5k.1–II.7.5k.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 228

Ἀγαθὰ ἐν κινήσει καὶ ἐν σχέσει

II.7.5k.1

Ἔτι δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰ μὲν εἶναι ἐν κινήσει, τὰ δὲ ἐν σχέσει. Ἐν κινήσει μὲν τὰ τοιαῦτα, χαράν, εὐφροσύνην, σώφρονα ὁμιλίαν· ἐν σχέσει δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα, εὔτακτον ἡσυχίαν, μονὴν ἀτάραχον, προσοχὴν ἔπανδρον. Τῶν δὲ ἐν σχέσει τὰς μὲν καὶ ἐν ἕξει εἶναι, οἷον τὰς ἀρετάς· τὰς δ’ ἐν σχέσει μόνον, ὡς τὰ ῥηθέντα. Ἐν ἕξει δὲ οὐ μόνας εἶναι τὰς ἀρετάς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς τέχνας τὰς ἐν τῷ σπουδαίῳ ἀνδρὶ ἀλλοιωθείσας ὑπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ γενομένας ἀμεταπτώτους, οἱονεὶ γὰρ ἀρετὰς γίνεσθαι.

Τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα καὶ τὸ τοῦ βίου τέλος

II.7.5k.2

Φασὶ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐν ἕξει ἀγαθῶν εἶναι καὶ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα καλούμενα, οἷον φιλομουσίαν, φιλογραμματίαν, φιλογεωμετρίαν καὶ τὰ παραπλήσια. Εἶναι γὰρ ὁδόν τινα ἐκλεκτικὴν τῶν ἐν ταύταις ταῖς τέχναις οἰκείων πρὸς ἀρετήν, ἀναφέρουσαν αὐτὰ ἐπὶ τὸ τοῦ βίου τέλος.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 229

Goods in Activity and Goods in a Condition

II.7.5k.1

Again, of goods, some are in activity and some in a condition. Those in activity include joy, gladness, and temperate association. Those in a condition include orderly quiet, undisturbed repose, and manly attentiveness.²⁷³ Of those in a condition, some are also in a state, such as the virtues; others are in a condition only, like the examples just given. Not only the virtues are in a state, but also the arts that have been transformed by virtue in the virtuous person and have become unalterable, for they become, as it were, virtues.²⁷⁴

Cultivated Pursuits and the End of Life

II.7.5k.2

They say that the so-called pursuits also belong among goods in a state: for example, love of music, love of letters, love of geometry, and similar things. For a pursuit is a certain way of selecting what in these arts is congenial to virtue and referring it to the end of life.²⁷⁵

273.Κίνησις is rendered “activity” in this classification, while σχέσις is “condition,” distinguished from ἕξις, “state.” Ὁμιλία can include intercourse or association; the Greek does not specify a narrower setting here. Προσοχὴ ἔπανδρος is rendered “manly attentiveness,” retaining the printed noun despite Wachsmuth’s doubt about it in the apparatus.

274.The examples just given belong to the condition-only class, while the virtues also belong to the state class. The statement about arts has two qualifications: transformation by virtue in the virtuous person and becoming unalterable. The concluding οἱονεί, “as it were,” is retained; the text does not simply identify every art with a virtue.

275.The definition specifies selection, ἐκλεκτική, and direction toward the end of life. It does not declare every element of every cultivated art good. The printed αὐτά refers back to the selected things congenial to virtue. Compare the earlier definition of a pursuit at II.7.5b11.

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.