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 239 of 516
Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.3–II.7.20.4
Ancient Greek
p. 474Ἔνδεια ὑπερβολὴ καὶ συμμετρία
Ταύτας δή φασιν ὑπ’ ἐνδείας καὶ ὑπερβολῆς φθείρεσθαι. Πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἔνδειξιν τούτου τοῖς ἐκ τῶν αἰσθήσεων μαρτυρίοις χρῶνται, βουλόμενοι ⟨ὑπὲρ⟩ τῶν ἀφανῶν τὴν ἐκ τῶν φανερῶν παρέχεσθαι πίστιν. Αὐτίκα γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν γυμνασίων πλειόνων τε γινομένων καὶ ἐλαττόνων φθείρεσθαι τὴν ἰσχύν· καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ποτῶν καὶ σιτίων ὡσαύτως· πλειόνων γὰρ προσφερομένων ἢ ἐλαττόνων φθείρεσθαι τὴν ὑγίειαν, συμμέτρων δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων ὄντων σῴζεσθαι τήν τε ἰσχὺν καὶ τὴν ὑγίειαν· παραπλησίως οὖν ἔχειν καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς σωφροσύνης καὶ ἀνδρείας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῶν.
Ἀνδρεία καὶ φόβος
Τὸν μὲν γὰρ τοιοῦτον ὄντα τὴν φύσιν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸν κεραυνὸν φοβεῖσθαι, μαινόμενον, ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἀνδρεῖον εἶναι· τὸν δ’ ἔμπαλιν πάντα φοβούμενον, ὥστε καὶ τὴν σκιάν, ἀγεννῆ καὶ δειλόν· ἀνδρεῖον δ’ ὁμολογουμένως τὸν μήτε πάντα μήτε μηδὲν φοβούμενον.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7
p. 475Deficiency Excess and Due Measure
These virtues, they say, are destroyed by deficiency and excess. To demonstrate this they use the evidence of the senses, wishing to provide assurance drawn from visible things ⟨concerning⟩ things that are not visible.633 For example, strength is destroyed both by too much exercise and by too little. The same holds for drink and food: too much or too little destroys health, whereas due measure in these things preserves both strength and health. So it is similarly with self-control, courage, and the other virtues.634
Courage and Fear
For someone whose nature is such that he does not fear even a thunderbolt is mad rather than courageous. Conversely, someone who fears everything, even a shadow, is ignoble and cowardly. The person who fears neither everything nor nothing is, by common agreement, courageous.635
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.3–II.7.20.4
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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.