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.7.23.1–II.7.23.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 252 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.23.1–II.7.23.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 500

Χάρις εὐεργεσία ἀμοιβὴ καὶ μνήμη

II.7.23.1

[Περὶ χάριτος].

Χάριν δὲ λέγεσθαι τριχῶς, τὴν μὲν ὑπουργίαν ὠφελίμου αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου ἕνεκα, τὴν δ’ ἄμειψιν ὑπουργίας ὠφελίμου, τὴν δὲ μνήμην ὑπουργίας τοιαύτης. Διὰ τοῦτο δὲ καὶ τὰς δαίμονας τρεῖς ὁ βίος κατεφήμισε.

Χάρις ἐν ὄψει καὶ ἐν λόγοις

II.7.23.2

Λέγεσθαι δὲ χάριν καὶ τὴν ἐν ὄψει ἢ ἐν λόγοις, καθ’ ἣν τὸν μὲν εὔχαριν ὀνομάζεσθαι, τὸν δ’ ἐπίχαριν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 501

Favor Requital and Remembrance

II.7.23.1

Charis is spoken of in three senses: the rendering of something useful for the recipient’s own sake; requital for a beneficial service; and remembrance of such a service.⁶⁷⁶ Ordinary custom has therefore also declared the goddesses three in number.⁶⁷⁷

Grace in Appearance and Speech

II.7.23.2

Charis also means grace in appearance or in speech, in virtue of which one person is called graceful, another charming.⁶⁷⁸

676.The bracketed summary heading reads “On charis,” meaning favor, gratitude, or grace according to context. One English word cannot convey every sense. The first concerns giving a benefit for its recipient’s own sake, the second returning a benefit, and the third remembering it. The first clause retains genitive ὠφελίμου in Greek; rendering something useful expresses that construction rather than changing it to the accusative adjective recorded in the apparatus.

677.The feminine τὰς δαίμονας refers to the Graces, the Charites, whose name shares the same stem as χάρις. The three goddesses illustrate the three senses just distinguished. Ὁ βίος is ordinary life, rendered ordinary custom in this religious explanation. It is not the personal name Bias, a proposed reading recorded by Wachsmuth but not printed here. No individual names for the goddesses are supplied.

678.This further sense concerns pleasing appearance or speech, rather than the giving, returning, and remembering of a benefit. The two adjectives are εὔχαρις, graceful or gracious, and ἐπίχαρις, charming or pleasing. Their pairing follows the Greek sequence; the sentence does not provide a further formal definition for each. The shared element char- connects them with χάρις.

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.