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.7.6d.1–II.7.6e.1

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.6d.1–II.7.6e.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 244

Ἀγαθὰ ἀναγκαῖα πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν

II.7.6d.1

Καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰ μὲν ἀναγκαῖα εἶναι πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν, τὰ δὲ μή. Καὶ ἀναγκαῖα μὲν τάς τε ἀρετὰς πάσας καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας τὰς χρηστικὰς αὐτῶν· οὐκ ἀναγκαῖα δὲ χαράν τε καὶ εὐφροσύνην καὶ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα.

Κακὰ ἀναγκαῖα πρὸς κακοδαιμονίαν

II.7.6d.2

Παραπλησίως δὲ καὶ τῶν κακῶν τὰ μὲν ἀναγκαῖα ὡς ἂν κακὰ πρὸς κακοδαιμονίαν εἶναι, τὰ δ’ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖα· ἀναγκαῖα μὲν τάς τε κακίας πάσας καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας τὰς ἐπ’ αὐτῶν· οὐκ ἀναγκαῖα δὲ τά τε πάθη πάντα καὶ τὰ ἀρρωστήματα καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια.

Τὸ εὐδαιμονεῖν ὡς τέλος

II.7.6e.1

Τέλος δέ φασιν εἶναι τὸ εὐδαιμονεῖν, οὗ ἕνεκα πάντα πράττεται, αὐτὸ δὲ πράττεται μὲν οὐδενὸς δὲ ἕνεκα· τοῦτο δὲ ὑπάρχειν ἐν τῷ κατ’ ἀρετὴν ζῆν, ἐν τῷ ὁμολογουμένως ζῆν, ἔτι, ταὐτοῦ ὄντος, ἐν τῷ κατὰ φύσιν ζῆν. Τὴν δὲ εὐδαιμονίαν ὁ Ζήνων ὡρίσατο τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον· εὐδαιμονία δ’ ἐστὶν εὔροια βίου.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 245

Goods Necessary for Happiness

II.7.6d.1

Of goods, some are necessary for happiness and some are not. All the virtues and the activities that exercise them are necessary; joy, gladness, and cultivated pursuits are not necessary.²⁹⁸

Evils Necessary for Unhappiness

II.7.6d.2

Similarly, of evils, some are necessary, as evils, for unhappiness, and some are not necessary. All the vices and the activities based on them are necessary; all the passions, the infirmities, and similar things are not necessary.²⁹⁹

Being Happy as the End

II.7.6e.1

They say that the end is being happy, for the sake of which everything is done, while it itself is done for the sake of nothing else. This consists in living in accordance with virtue, in living in agreement, and further, since it is the same thing, in living in accordance with nature.³⁰⁰ Zeno defined happiness thus: “Happiness is a good flow of life.”³⁰¹

298.Χρηστικαὶ ἐνέργειαι are activities that put the virtues to use. The distinction between necessary and unnecessary goods retains joy, gladness, and pursuits as goods while denying that they are requirements of happiness. Compare their earlier classifications at II.7.5a, 5c, and 5g.

299.“Necessary” specifies what constitutes the unhappy condition in this ethical account; it does not recommend acquiring an evil. The qualification ὡς ἂν κακά is retained as “as evils.” The source lists passions and infirmities among the unnecessary evils without replacing them by particular examples such as distress or fear. Ἐπ’ αὐτῶν is rendered “based on them,” referring to the vices.

300.The subject of the definition is τὸ εὐδαιμονεῖν, the activity expressed by “being happy,” rather than simply the noun “happiness.” The three formulations explain the same activity through virtue, agreement, and nature. The Greek explicitly states their identity; the English does not add further conditions to the definition.

301.Εὔροια is a good or favorable flow, and βίου means “of life.” The image describes the course of a life rather than an isolated pleasant feeling. The following sentence reports that Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and their successors also used this definition.

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.