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 242 of 516
Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.8–II.7.20.9
Ancient Greek
p. 480Ὀργιλότης ῥᾳθυμία καὶ πρᾳότης
Δι’ ὃ εἰ μὲν οὕτως τις ὀργίζοιτο ῥᾳδίως, ὥστε ἐπὶ παντὶ καὶ πάντως, τὴν ἕξιν ἂν ἔχων φανείη τὴν τῆς ὀργιλότητος· εἰ δὲ οὕτως, ὥστε μηδὲν μηδὲ ἐφ’ ὁτιοῦν, τὴν τῆς ῥᾳθυμίας· ἀμφοτέρας δ’ εἶναι ψεκτάς, ἐπαινουμένην δὲ ἕξιν ὑπάρχειν τὴν πρᾳότητα, καθ’ ἣν ὅτε δεῖ καὶ ὡς δεῖ καὶ ᾧ δεῖ ὀργιζόμεθα. Διόπερ ἕξεις εἶναι τὰς ἀρετάς, ἀφ’ ὧν τὰς ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐνεργείας ἐπαινεῖσθαι συμβέβηκεν.
Τὸ μέσον τὸ πρὸς ἡμᾶς
Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἡ ἀρετὴ τῶν πρακτῶν, πᾶσαν δὲ πρᾶξιν ἐν συνεχείᾳ θεωρεῖσθαι συμβέβηκε, παντὸς δὲ συνεχοῦς ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς μεγέθεσιν εἶναί τινα ὑπερβολὴν καὶ ἔλλειψιν καὶ μεσότητα καὶ ταῦτα ἢ πρὸς ἄλληλα ὑπάρχειν ἢ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ἐν πᾶσι δὴ τὸ μέσον τὸ πρὸς ἡμᾶς βέλτιστον, τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἡ ἐπιστήμη κελεύει καὶ ὁ λόγος·
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7
p. 481Irascibility Slackness and Gentleness
Hence, if someone became angry so readily as to do so at everything and in every way, he would appear to possess the state of irascibility. If, on the other hand, he became angry not at all and at nothing whatsoever, he would possess the state of slackness. Both are blameworthy; the praiseworthy state is gentleness, by which we become angry when, how, and with whom we should.640 Virtues, therefore, are states on the basis of which activities involving the passions come to be praised.641
The Mean Relative to Us
Since virtue belongs to the sphere of action, and every action admits of consideration along a continuum, every continuum, as with magnitudes, has some excess, deficiency, and mean. These exist either in relation to one another or in relation to us.642 In all these matters, then, the mean relative to us is best, for this accords with what knowledge and reason prescribe.643
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.20.8–II.7.20.9
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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.