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.7.7.1–II.7.7.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 127 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.7.1–II.7.7.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 250

Περὶ τῶν ἀδιαφόρων

II.7.7.1

Διεληλυθότες δ’ ἱκανῶς περὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν καὶ αἱρετῶν καὶ φευκτῶν καὶ περὶ τέλους καὶ εὐδαιμονίας, ἀναγκαῖον ἡγησάμεθα καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν ἀδιαφόρων λεγόμενα κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν τάξιν ἐπελθεῖν.

Δύο σημασίαι τοῦ ἀδιαφόρου

II.7.7.2

Ἀδιάφορα δ’ εἶναι λέγουσι τὰ μεταξὺ τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν κακῶν, διχῶς τὸ ἀδιάφορον νοεῖσθαι φάμενοι, καθ’ ἕνα μὲν τρόπον τὸ μήτε ἀγαθὸν μήτε κακὸν καὶ τὸ μήτε αἱρετὸν μήτε φευκτόν· καθ’ ἕτερον δὲ τὸ μήτε ὁρμῆς μήτε ἀφορμῆς κινητικόν, καθ’ ὃ καὶ λέγεσθαί τινα καθάπαξ ἀδιάφορα εἶναι, οἷον τὸ ⟨ἀρτίας ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς τρίχας ἢ περιττάς, ἢ τὸ⟩ προτεῖναι τὸν δάκτυλον ὡδὶ ἢ ὡδί, ἢ τὸ ἀνελέσθαι τι τῶν ἐμποδών, κάρφος ἢ φύλλον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 251

On Indifferent Things

II.7.7.1

Having discussed sufficiently goods and evils, choiceworthy and avoidable things, and the end and happiness, we considered it necessary also to go through what is said about indifferent things in its proper order.³⁰⁹

Two Senses of Indifferent

II.7.7.2

They say that indifferent things lie between goods and evils, explaining that “indifferent” is understood in two senses. In one sense it means what is neither good nor evil, and neither choiceworthy nor avoidable. In the other it means what stimulates neither impulse nor aversion; in this sense some things are also said to be altogether indifferent.³¹⁰ Examples are ⟨having an even number of hairs on one’s head or an odd number, or⟩ extending a finger this way or that, or picking up something lying in the way, a piece of straw or a leaf.³¹¹

309.The first-person “we” belongs to the exposition preserved in the anthology. Wachsmuth questions whether “and choiceworthy and avoidable things” was added by a copyist from an earlier heading, but prints the words without deletion brackets; they are therefore translated here. “Indifferent” is a technical classification, explained in the following sentences, rather than an instruction to feel unconcerned.

310.Ὁρμή and ἀφορμή are rendered “impulse” and “aversion.” The first sense concerns good and evil, and the corresponding choiceworthy/avoidable distinction. The second concerns whether something stimulates movement toward or away from it. The following paragraph expressly denies that everything indifferent in the first sense is also indifferent for selection.

311.The angle brackets preserve Wachsmuth’s supplement, including the alternative connecting the hair example to the finger example. His apparatus cites Diogenes Laertius VII.104 and Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians XI.59–61 as parallels. The repeated ὡδί means “in this way”; “this way or that” expresses the contrast between the two gestures.

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.