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.7.10a.2–II.7.10b.1

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 144 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.10a.2–II.7.10b.1

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Ancient Greek

p. 284

Τὸ παρὰ φύσιν καὶ ἡ τυραννὶς τῶν παθῶν

II.7.10a.2

Καὶ τὸ ‘παρὰ φύσιν’ δ’ εἴληπται ἐν τῇ τοῦ πάθους ὑπογραφῇ, ὡς συμβαίνοντος παρὰ τὸν ὀρθὸν καὶ κατὰ φύσιν λόγον. Πάντες δ’ οἱ ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντες ἀποστρέφονται τὸν λόγον, οὐ παραπλησίως δὲ τοῖς ἐξηπατημένοις ἐν ὁτῳοῦν, ἀλλ’ ἰδιαζόντως. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἠπατημένοι, λόγου χάριν περὶ ⟨τοῦ⟩ τὰς ἀτόμους ἀρχὰς εἶναι, διδαχθέντες ὅτι οὐκ εἰσιν, ἀφίστανται τῆς κρίσεως· οἱ δ’ ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντες, κἂν μάθωσι, κἂν μεταδιδαχθῶσιν ὅτι οὐ δεῖ λυπεῖσθαι ἢ φοβεῖσθαι, ἢ ὅλως ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς, ὅμως οὐκ ἀφίστανται τούτων, ἀλλ’ ἄγονται ὑπὸ τῶν παθῶν εἰς τὸ ὑπὸ τῆς τούτων κρατεῖσθαι τυραννίδος.

Ἐπιθυμία καὶ δόξα ἀγαθοῦ

II.7.10b.1

Τὴν μὲν οὖν ἐπιθυμίαν λέγουσιν ὄρεξιν εἶναι ἀπειθῆ λόγῳ· αἴτιον δ’ αὐτῆς τὸ δοξάζειν ἀγαθὸν ἐπιφέρεσθαι, οὗ παρόντος εὖ ἀπαλλάξομεν, τῆς δόξης αὐτῆς ἐχούσης τὸ ἀτάκτως κινητικὸν ⟨πρόσφατον τοῦ ὄντως αὐτὸ ὀρεκτὸν εἶναι⟩.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 285

Contrary to Nature and the Tyranny of Passions

II.7.10a.2

“Contrary to nature” too is used in the description of passion because passion occurs contrary to reason that is right and in accordance with nature. All who are in the grip of passions turn away from reason, but in a distinctive manner, unlike people mistaken about just anything. For those who are mistaken, for example about ⟨the claim⟩ that atoms are principles, abandon their judgment when taught that they are not.³⁶³ But those in the grip of passions, even if they learn, even if they are taught otherwise—that they ought not to feel distress or fear, or in general to be subject to the soul’s passions—still do not abandon these. Rather, the passions lead them into subjection to their tyranny.³⁶⁴

Craving and the Opinion of a Good

II.7.10b.1

They say, then, that craving is desire disobedient to reason. Its cause is the opinion that a good is approaching, in whose presence we shall fare well, the opinion itself possessing a ⟨freshness arising from the belief that it really is to be desired⟩ that stirs one in a disorderly way.³⁶⁵

363.The supplied τοῦ makes the following infinitival clause a noun phrase; ⟨the claim⟩ expresses its grammatical work in English. Atoms as principles are the example of a philosophical belief relinquished on instruction. The sentence is not a statement about modern atomic science.

364.The contrast concerns how people respond to correction: mistaken judgment yields to teaching in the example, whereas passion persists despite instruction. The text’s strong imagery of disobedience and tyranny is retained without adding a separate irrational part of the soul.

365.The final bracketed phrase is supplied in Wachsmuth’s Greek. It connects the opinion’s “freshness” with the conviction that its object really is to be desired. The English keeps the reconstruction visible. The cause specified is the person’s opinion about an approaching good; the passage does not affirm that the object actually is good.

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.