Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Facing Pages · Branch 19 of 516
Book II Chapter 1 · II.1.31.1
Ancient Greek
p. 34Ἀρριανοῦ Ἐπικτητείου Πρὸς τὸν περὶ οὐσίας ⟨διαλεγόμενον⟩
Τί μοι μέλει, φησί, πότερον ἐξ ἀτόμων, ἢ ἐξ ἀμέτρων, ἢ ἐκ πυρὸς καὶ γῆς συνέστηκε τὰ ὄντα; οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ μαθεῖν τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ καὶ κακοῦ, καὶ τὰ μέτρα τῶν ὀρέξεων καὶ ἐκκλίσεων, καὶ ἔτι ὁρμῶν καὶ ἀφορμῶν, καὶ τούτοις ὥσπερ κανόσι χρώμενον διοικεῖν τὰ τοῦ βίου, τὰ δ’ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ταῦτα χαίρειν ἐᾶν, ἅ τινα τυχὸν μὲν ἀκατάληπτά ἐστι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ γνώμῃ, εἰ δὲ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα θείη τις εἶναι καταληπτά, ἀλλ’ οὖν τί ὄφελος καταληφθέντων; οὐχὶ δὲ διακενῆς πράγματα ἔχειν φατέον τοὺς ταῦτα ὡς ἀναγκαῖα τῷ τοῦ φιλοσόφου λόγῳ προσνέμοντας;
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 1
p. 35Arrian’s Epictetan discourse: To one ⟨discussing⟩ substance · 1
“What concern is it of mine,” he says, “whether existing things are composed of atoms, of immeasurables, or of fire and earth?44 Is it not enough to learn the nature of good and evil, the proper measures of desire and aversion, and also of impulses toward action and away from it, and to use these as standards for managing one’s life? Can we not leave these matters beyond us alone? Perhaps they cannot be comprehended by human understanding; and even if one fully granted that they could be comprehended, what benefit would there be in comprehending them? Must we not say that those who assign these matters a necessary place in philosophical discourse are troubling themselves to no purpose?”45
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 1 · II.1.31.1
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.