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.7.10.3–II.7.10a.1

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.10.3–II.7.10a.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 282

Δόξα καὶ τὸ πρόσφατον

II.7.10.3

Ἐπὶ πάντων δὲ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς παθῶν, ἐπεὶ δόξας αὐτὰ λέγουσιν εἶναι, παραλαμβάνεσθαι τὴν δόξαν ἀντὶ τῆς ἀσθενοῦς ὑπολήψεως, τὸ δὲ πρόσφατον ἀντὶ τοῦ κινητικοῦ συστολῆς ἀλόγου ⟨ἢ⟩ ἐπάρσεως.

Τὸ ἄλογον καὶ ὁ ἀπειθὴς ἵππος

II.7.10a.1

Τὸ δὲ ἄλογον καὶ τὸ παρὰ φύσιν οὐ κοινῶς, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ‘ἄλογον’ ἴσον τῷ ἀπειθὲς τῷ λόγῳ. Πᾶν γὰρ πάθος βιαστικόν ἐστιν, ὡς πολλάκις ὁρῶντας τοὺς ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντας ὅτι συμφέρει τόδε οὐ ποιεῖν, ὑπὸ τῆς σφοδρότητος ἐκφερομένους, καθάπερ ὑπό τινος ἀπειθοῦς ἵππου, ἀνάγεσθαι πρὸς τὸ ποιεῖν αὐτό, παρ’ ὃ καὶ πολλάκις τινὰς ἐξομολογεῖσθαι λέγοντας τὸ θρυλούμενον τοῦτο:

Γνώμην δ’ ἔχοντά μ’ ἡ φύσις βιάζεται·

γνώμην γὰρ λέγει νῦν τὴν εἴδησιν καὶ γνῶσιν τῶν ὀρθῶν πραγμάτων.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 283

Opinion and Freshness

II.7.10.3

In the case of all the soul’s passions, since they say that these are opinions, “opinion” is to be understood as a weak supposition, and “fresh” as capable of bringing about an irrational contraction ⟨or⟩ uplift.³⁶⁰

Irrationality and the Disobedient Horse

II.7.10a.1

“Irrational” and “contrary to nature” are not used in their ordinary sense: “irrational” is equivalent to “disobedient to reason.” For every passion exerts force. Often people in the grip of passions see that it is advantageous not to do something, yet are carried away by the passion’s intensity, as by a disobedient horse, and driven to do it. Hence people often acknowledge this by repeating the familiar saying:³⁶¹

Though I have judgment, my nature compels me.

For “judgment” here means awareness and knowledge of what is right.³⁶²

360.“Fresh,” πρόσφατον, is explained by its continuing power to move the soul. It need not mean merely recent in time. “Weak supposition” preserves ἀσθενὴς ὑπόληψις rather than replacing it with knowledge. Contraction and uplift anticipate the definitions of distress and pleasure below; the connecting ἤ, “or,” is supplied by the editor.

361.The analogy explains a failure to obey reason despite seeing what is advantageous. “Irrational” does not mean that the person lacks the rational faculty altogether. The source itself immediately glosses the verse’s γνώμη as knowledge of what is right.

362.Wachsmuth identifies the verse as Euripides, fragment 837 in Nauck’s numbering, in an editorial parenthesis transferred here to the note. The quotation does not name a play or speaker. “My nature compels me” retains the verse’s φύσις; this is a dramatic saying used in the argument, not a redefinition of the Stoic norm “according to nature.”

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.