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.7.18.11–II.7.18.12

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.18.11–II.7.18.12

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Ancient Greek

p. 450

Ὁ μέσος βίος

II.7.18.11

Τὸν ⟨δ’⟩ ἀφαιρεθέντα τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν οὐκ εἶναι κακοδαίμονα, καθάπερ τὸν μηδ’ ὅλως ἔχοντα ταύτην, ἀλλ’ ἔσθ’ ὅτε μέσον. Βιοῦν γάρ ποτε καὶ σοφὸν καὶ μὴ σοφὸν τὸν μέσον λεγόμενον βίον, τὸν μήτε εὐδαίμονα μήτε κακοδαίμονα.

Ἐγρήγορσις κατὰ φύσιν

II.7.18.12

Περὶ δὲ τοὺς κοιμωμένους οὐκ εἶναι τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἢ οὐκ ἐντελεχείᾳ γε. Τὴν γὰρ ἐνέργειαν τῆς ψυχῆς περὶ τὴν ἐγρήγορσιν εἶναι, ταύτῃ δὲ προστίθεσθαι τὸ ‘κατὰ φύσιν’, διὰ τὸ μὴ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐγρήγορσιν τῶν σπουδαίων τελείας εἶναι χρῆσιν ἀρετῆς, ἀλλὰ τὴν κατὰ φύσιν. Ταύτην δ’ εἶναι τὴν τοῦ μὴ μαινομένου μηδ’ ἐξεστηκότος, ἐπεὶ τήν τε μανίαν καὶ τὴν ἔκστασιν ὡς τὸν ὕπνον ἐξιστάνειν αὐτὸν ταύτης τῆς χρήσεως, τάχα δὲ καὶ τῆς τοῦ λόγου καὶ πᾶσιν θηρίοις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 451

The Intermediate Life

II.7.18.11

⟨But⟩ a person deprived of happiness is not unhappy, just as a person who has never possessed it at all is not; sometimes he is intermediate.⁶⁰⁰ For both a wise and an unwise person sometimes live what is called the intermediate life, one that is neither happy nor unhappy.⁶⁰¹

Wakefulness in Accordance with Nature

II.7.18.12

Happiness does not occur in those who are asleep, or at least not in actuality.⁶⁰² For the soul’s activity occurs in wakefulness, and “in accordance with nature” is added to this, because not every waking state of the virtuous is an exercise of complete virtue, but only the waking state in accordance with nature. This is the state of someone who is neither mad nor out of his mind, since madness and mental derangement, like sleep, remove him from this exercise, and perhaps also from the exercise of reason, as with all beasts.⁶⁰³

600.The supplied connective δ’ is represented by bracketed “But.” The comparison with someone who has never possessed happiness is compressed. The translation takes the negation with both cases in light of the following explicit intermediate state. It does not imply that every loss of happiness makes someone happy, or that unhappiness is impossible. The qualification “sometimes” remains.

601.Μέσος is intermediate between the two named states. Both σοφός and μὴ σοφός, wise and not wise, are said sometimes to live this life. The passage therefore distinguishes not being happy from being positively unhappy. Κακοδαίμων is unhappy here, with the later κακοδαιμονία rendered unhappiness.

602.The qualification “or at least not in actuality” preserves ἢ οὐκ ἐντελεχείᾳ γε. The argument concerns the present exercise of activity, rather than a claim that a good person loses every disposition whenever asleep. Ἐντελέχεια is actuality here, while ἐνέργεια is activity. The next sentence requires wakefulness to be qualified further; being awake by itself is not enough.

603.The ancient account groups μανία and ἔκστασις as states that interrupt the relevant exercise, and compares their effect with sleep. “Mental derangement” renders ἔκστασις here, rather than suggesting contemplative ecstasy. The closing reference to beasts is highly compressed: “as with” makes explicit the comparison understood in the English, not an added Greek phrase. Τῆς τοῦ λόγου understands χρῆσις, exercise of reason, from the preceding clause; τάχα, perhaps, is retained. The next paragraph restricts happiness to rational life.

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.