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.7.11r–II.7.11s.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 190 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11r–II.7.11s.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 376

Τὰ πρὸς ἄνθρωπον λεγόμενα

II.7.11r

Καὶ τά τε ὑγιεινὰ καὶ νοσερὰ πρὸς ἄνθρωπον λέγεσθαι καὶ ὡς τρόφιμα, καὶ τὰ λυτικὰ καὶ στατικὰ καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια. Ὑγιεινὰ μὲν γὰρ εἶναι τὰ εὐφυῶς ἔχοντα πρὸς τὸ περιποιεῖν ὑγίειαν ἢ συνέχειν· νοσερὰ δὲ τὰ ἐναντίως ἔχοντα τούτοις. Παραπλήσιον δ’ εἶναι καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων λόγον.

Μαντικὴ καὶ τὰ εἴδη αὐτῆς

II.7.11s.1

Καὶ μαντικὸν δὲ μόνον εἶναι τὸν σπουδαῖον, ὡς ἂν ἐπιστήμην ἔχοντα διαγνωστικὴν σημείων τῶν ἐκ θεῶν ἢ δαιμόνων πρὸς ἀνθρώπινον βίον τεινόντων. Δι’ ὃ καὶ τὰ εἴδη τῆς μαντικῆς εἶναι περὶ αὐτόν, τό τε ὀνειροκριτικὸν καὶ τὸ οἰωνοσκοπικὸν καὶ θυτικὸν καὶ εἴ τινα ἄλλα τούτοις ἐστὶ παραπλήσια.

Αὐστηρότης

II.7.11s.2

Αὐστηρόν τε λέγεσθαι τὸν σπουδαῖον καθ’ ὅσον οὔτε προσφέρει τινὶ οὔτε προσίεται τὸν πρὸς χάριν λόγον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 377

Descriptions Relative to a Human Being

II.7.11r

Things are called healthful and disease causing relative to a human being, and likewise nutritious, loosening, checking, and similar things. For healthful things are those naturally suited to producing or maintaining health; disease-causing things are those disposed in the contrary way. The account of the other descriptions is similar.⁵⁰³

Divination and Its Forms

II.7.11s.1

Only the virtuous person is skilled in divination, since he possesses knowledge that discerns signs from gods or divine beings bearing on human life. Hence the forms of divination also belong to him: interpretation of dreams, observation of birds, divination through sacrifice, and any other similar forms.⁵⁰⁴

Austerity

II.7.11s.2

The virtuous person is called austere insofar as he neither offers anyone nor admits speech intended to curry favor.⁵⁰⁵

503.The opening includes the compressed καὶ ὡς τρόφιμα, “and as nutritious,” which the English takes as a parallel relative description. Λυτικά and στατικά are literally loosening and stopping or checking; Wachsmuth explains that both have medical usage. They are retained as descriptions of bodily effects, rather than silently changing λυτικά to a proposed word for analysis. The definition distinguishes producing health from maintaining it and defines the contrary relationally.

504.The definition specifies knowledge of signs and their bearing on human life. Δαίμονες are divine beings in this context. The three named forms retain their distinct objects, and “any other similar forms” leaves the list open. Compare II.7.5b12, where the related account of specialized pursuits also requires the acquisition of additional principles in some cases; that earlier qualification has not been inserted into the present wording.

505.Πρὸς χάριν qualifies the speech as aimed at pleasing or gaining favor. The denial covers both offering and receiving it. This account of austerity should be read with the earlier description of the virtuous person as gracious and persuasive, II.7.11m.3: its stated object is speech aimed at favor, not every form of agreeable company.

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.