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.7.14.7

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Facing Pages · Branch 212 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.14.7

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Ancient Greek

p. 420

Εὐδαιμονία ὡς ἐνέργεια

II.7.14.7

Ὅθεν ἐνέργειαν εἶναι τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν κατ’ ἀρετὴν ἐν πράξεσι χορηγουμέναις κατ’ εὐχήν· τὰ δὲ περὶ σῶμα καὶ τὰ ἔξωθεν ἀγαθὰ ποιητικὰ λέγεσθαι τῆς εὐδαιμονίας τῷ συμβάλλεσθαί τι παρόντα· τοὺς δὲ νομίζοντας αὐτὰ συμπληροῦν τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι ἡ μὲν εὐδαιμονία βίος ἐστίν, ὁ δὲ βίος ἐκ πράξεως συμπληροῦται. Τῶν δὲ σωματικῶν ἢ τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀγαθῶν οὐδὲν οὔτε πρᾶξιν εἶναι καθ’ ἑαυτὸ οὔθ’ ὅλως ἐνέργειαν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 421

Happiness as Activity

II.7.14.7

Hence happiness is activity according to virtue in actions furnished as one would wish.⁵⁵⁸ Bodily and external goods are called productive of happiness because their presence contributes something to it. But those who think that these goods constitute happiness fail to understand that happiness is a life, and life is constituted by action. None of the bodily or external goods is itself either an action or, at all, an activity.⁵⁵⁹

558.Χορηγουμέναις concerns being furnished with provision or support. “As one would wish” renders κατ’ εὐχήν. Wachsmuth prints χορηγουμέναις as his correction of προηγουμέναις, comparing printed p. 50, line 12. The English follows that printed correction and does not turn the sentence into an assertion that happiness consists merely in receiving whatever one desires.

559.Ποιητικά means productive or causally contributory. The distinction is between the contribution these goods make when present and the action or activity that constitutes the happy life. Πρᾶξις and ἐνέργεια remain distinct as “action” and “activity.” The source’s “or” between bodily and external goods is retained; the final sentence denies that an item in either class is itself an activity.

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.