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.7.6b–II.7.6c

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Facing Pages · Branch 123 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.6b–II.7.6c

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Ancient Greek

p. 242

Τρεῖς σημασίαι τοῦ τέλους

II.7.6b

Τὸ δὲ τέλος λέγεσθαι τριχῶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκ τῆς αἱρέσεως ταύτης· τό τε γὰρ τελικὸν ἀγαθὸν λέγεσθαι τέλος ἐν τῇ φιλολόγῳ συνηθείᾳ, ὡς τὴν ὁμολογίαν λέγουσι τέλος εἶναι· λέγουσι δὲ καὶ τὸν σκοπὸν τέλος, οἷον τὸν ὁμολογούμενον βίον ἀναφορικῶς λέγοντες ἐπὶ τὸ παρακείμενον κατηγόρημα· κατὰ δὲ τὸ τρίτον σημαινόμενον λέγουσι τέλος τὸ ἔσχατον τῶν ὀρεκτῶν, ἐφ’ ὃ πάντα τὰ ἄλλα ἀναφέρεσθαι.

Τέλος καὶ σκοπός

II.7.6c

Διαφέρειν δὲ τέλος καὶ σκοπὸν ἡγοῦνται· σκοπὸν μὲν γὰρ εἶναι τὸ ἐκκείμενον σῶμα, οὗ τυχεῖν ἐφίεσθαι * * * τοὺς τῆς εὐδαιμονίας στοχαζομένους, διὰ τὸ πάντα μὲν σπουδαῖον εὐδαιμονεῖν, πάντα δὲ φαῦλον ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων κακοδαιμονεῖν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 243

Three Senses of the End

II.7.6b

Those of this school use “end” in three senses. In learned usage the final good is called an end, as when they say that agreement is the end.²⁹⁴ They also call the target an end, for example the life in agreement, speaking by reference to the corresponding predicate. In the third sense they call the end the ultimate among the objects of desire, to which all the others are referred.²⁹⁵

End and Target

II.7.6c

They hold that end and target differ. The target, they say, is the body set before one, which those who aim at happiness strive to attain [text missing],²⁹⁶ since every virtuous person is happy and, conversely, every base person is unhappy.²⁹⁷

294.Φιλόλογος συνήθεια is learned usage here, rather than a modern discipline of literary criticism or merely an educated conversation. The first sense concerns the final good; its example is agreement, ὁμολογία. The paragraph describes three uses of a word rather than positing three different ultimate ends.

295.The target example is the life in agreement, ὁμολογούμενος βίος, related to the predicate “to live in agreement.” The third sense concerns the ultimate object to which the other objects of desire are referred. Compare the earlier target/end distinction at II.7.3c and the explicit attainment distinction below at II.7.6e.

296.The printed word is σῶμα, “body”; Wachsmuth records a conjectural σῆμα, “mark,” but does not print it. The English therefore preserves the corporeal expression instead of replacing it with an ordinary archery target. The asterisks mark a gap after ἐφίεσθαι, “strive,” before the Greek subject “those who aim at happiness.” English word order moves the subject before the verb while retaining the gap after “attain.”

297.The surviving explanation is incomplete. No missing definition of the end is reconstructed here. The closing contrast between every virtuous and every base person is the claim of this Stoic exposition; it concerns happiness in the ethical sense of a good life, not a guarantee that every virtuous person continually feels gladness.

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.