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.7.19.7–II.7.19.8

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Facing Pages · Branch 235 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.19.7–II.7.19.8

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Ancient Greek

p. 466

Εὖ καὶ κακῶς χρῆσθαι

II.7.19.7

Οἷς δὲ τὸν ἀγαθὸν εὖ χρῆσθαι, τούτοις τὸν κακὸν κακῶς· ὥσπερ οἷς ἂν εὖ τὸν μουσικόν, τούτοις τὸν ἄμουσον κακῶς. Ἅμα δὲ κακῶς χρώμενον βλάπτεσθαι, καθάπερ ἵππον ἀγαθὸν ὄντα τὸν μὲν ἱππικὸν ὠφελεῖν, βλάπτειν δὲ τὸν ἄφιππον οὐ μετρίως.

Ψυχικὰ σωματικὰ καὶ ἐκτὸς ἀγαθά

II.7.19.8

Ἔτι τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰ μὲν εἶναι περὶ ψυχήν, τὰ δὲ περὶ σῶμα, τὰ δ’ ἐκτός. Περὶ ψυχὴν μέν, οἷον εὐφυΐαν τε καὶ τέχνην καὶ ἀρετὴν καὶ σοφίαν καὶ φρόνησιν καὶ ἡδονήν· περὶ σῶμα δὲ ὑγίειαν καὶ εὐαισθησίαν καὶ κάλλος καὶ ἰσχὺν καὶ ἀρτιότητα καὶ πάντα τὰ μόρια σὺν ταῖς δυνάμεσι καὶ ἐνεργείαις· ἐκτὸς δὲ πλοῦτον καὶ δόξαν καὶ εὐγένειαν καὶ δυναστείαν καὶ φίλους καὶ συγγενεῖς καὶ πατρίδα.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 467

Using Things Well and Badly

II.7.19.7

What the good person uses well, the bad person uses badly, just as what a trained musician uses well, someone untrained in music uses badly. At the same time, someone who uses things badly is harmed, just as a good horse benefits a skilled rider but harms an unskilled rider considerably.⁶²⁰

Goods of Soul Body and External Life

II.7.19.8

Again, some goods concern the soul, some the body, and some are external. Goods concerning the soul include natural aptitude, art, virtue, wisdom, practical wisdom, and pleasure.⁶²¹ Those concerning the body include health, keenness of sensation, beauty, strength, integrity, and all its parts together with their faculties and activities. External goods include wealth, reputation, noble birth, political power, friends, relatives, and one’s homeland.⁶²²

620.The musical comparison concerns trained and untrained use; no particular instrument is named. The horse remains good in the example, yet benefits or harms according to the rider’s competence. Οὐ μετρίως, literally not moderately, intensifies the harm. The examples explain why calling a resource good does not by itself guarantee benefit to every user.

621.All six goods of the soul are retained, including pleasure. Τέχνη is art or an organized skill; σοφία and φρόνησις remain wisdom and practical wisdom respectively. This is the Peripatetic classification. The earlier Stoic account grouped several similar items among preferred indifferents, illustrating the anthology’s preservation of different schools’ accounts.

622.Εὐαισθησία is keenness of sensation, as in II.7.13.19, and ἀρτιότης bodily integrity or completeness. The body’s parts, their faculties, and their activities remain distinct. Here δυνάμεις concerns faculties, while the preceding divisions used the same word for resources or powers. All seven external goods are retained. Δόξα is reputation, εὐγένεια noble birth, and δυναστεία political power or influence.

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.