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 8 · II.8.4–II.8.6

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Facing Pages · Branch 279 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.4–II.8.6

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Ancient Greek

p. 554

Εὐριπίδου Πειρίθῳ

II.8.4

Ὁ πρῶτος εἰπὼν οὐκ ἀγυμνάστῳ φρενὶ ἔρριψεν ὅστις τόνδ’ ἐκαίνισεν λόγον, ὡς τοῖσιν εὖ φρονοῦσι συμμαχεῖ τύχη.

Μενάνδρου

II.8.5

Ἀδύνατον ὡς ἔστιν τι σῶμα τῆς τύχης· ὁ μὴ φέρων δὲ κατὰ φύσιν τὰ πράγματα τύχην προσηγόρευσε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τρόπον.

Φιλήμονος Παγκρατιαστῇ

II.8.6

Καὐτόν τι πράττειν· οὐ μὲν οὖν τὰς ἐλπίδας ἐπὶ τῇ τύχῃ ⟨χρὴ⟩, παιδίον, πάντως ἔχειν, ὧν βούλεταί τις, ἀλλὰ καὐτὸν τῇ τύχῃ συλλαμβάνεσθαι· ῥᾷον ἡ τύχη πονεῖ, ἐὰν μεθ’ ἑτέρου τοῦτο, μὴ μόνη, ποιῇ.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 555

Euripides in Pirithous

II.8.4

Whoever first introduced this new saying did not speak with an untrained mind: fortune fights alongside those who think well.⁷⁸²

Menander

II.8.5

How feeble a thing is fortune’s body! Whoever does not bear events in accordance with nature has called his own character fortune.⁷⁸³

Philemon in The Pancratiast

II.8.6

Do something yourself as well. For you ⟨must⟩ not rest all your hopes on fortune, my child, for what you want, but yourself lend fortune a hand. Fortune labors more easily if she does this with another, not alone.⁷⁸⁴

782.The first two lines describe the unnamed originator of the maxim in the third. Συμμαχεῖ is a military image, fights as an ally. The attribution follows Wachsmuth’s heading, Euripides in Pirithous; the isolated verses do not establish who speaks them within the play.

783.The printed σῶμα means body. Its personification of fortune is retained instead of the different wording proposed by earlier editors. Τρόπος is a person’s character or disposition, not the external event itself. The final contrast challenges the habit of naming one’s own response fortune; κατὰ φύσιν, in accordance with nature, remains explicit.

784.The fragment opens with the infinitive πράττειν used as an injunction. Wachsmuth supplies ⟨χρὴ⟩, represented by bracketed must. The generic τις, someone, is made natural in English through you, continuing the direct address παιδίον, my child. Συλλαμβάνεσθαι is to assist or lend a hand: the speaker urges cooperation with fortune, rather than denying it every role. A pancratiast is an athlete in the pancration, a contest combining wrestling and striking.

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.