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.8.21–II.8.23

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Facing Pages · Branch 285 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.21–II.8.23

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Ancient Greek

p. 566

Διογένους

II.8.21

Διογένης ἔφη νομίζειν ὁρᾶν τὴν Τύχην ἐνορούουσαν αὐτῷ καὶ λέγουσαν

Τοῦτον δ’ οὐ δύναμαι βαλέειν κύνα λυσσητῆρα.

Ἐκ τοῦ Ἐπικτήτου Ἐγχειριδίου

II.8.22

Νόσος σώματός ἐστιν ἐμπόδιον, προαιρέσεως δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν, ἐὰν μὴ αὐτὴ θελήσῃ. Χώλωσις σκέλους ἐστὶν ἐμπόδιον, ⟨προαιρέσεως δὲ οὔ. Καὶ τοῦτο ἐφ’ ἑκάστου τῶν ἐμπιπτόντων ἐπίλεγε· εὑρήσεις γὰρ αὐτὸ ἄλλου τινὸς ἐμπόδιον,⟩ σὸν δ’ οὔ.

⟨Τοῦ αὐτοῦ⟩

II.8.23

Μὴ ζήτει τὰ γιγνόμενα γίγνεσθαι ὡς θέλεις, ἀλλὰ θέλε ὡς τὰ γιγνόμενα γίνεται καὶ εὐροήσεις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 567

Diogenes

II.8.21

Diogenes said he thought he saw Fortune leaping at him and saying:

But this raging dog I cannot strike.⁸⁰¹

From Epictetus’s Handbook

II.8.22

Disease is a hindrance to the body, but not to choice, unless choice itself wishes it. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, ⟨but not to choice. Say this to yourself about each thing that befalls you; for you will find it a hindrance to something else,⟩ but not to you.⁸⁰²

⟨The same author⟩

II.8.23

Do not seek for events to happen as you wish, but wish for events as they happen, and you will proceed smoothly.⁸⁰³

801.The quoted verse is Iliad VIII.299. The anecdote puts a Homeric line into Fortune’s mouth: Diogenes imagines himself as the dog she cannot hit. The movement expressed by ἐνορούουσαν is difficult and has been variously emended; leaping at him follows Wachsmuth’s printed form. The account reports what Diogenes thought he saw, without converting the imagined encounter into a literal event.

802.Handbook 9. Προαίρεσις, choice, is the capacity for deliberate moral choice central to Epictetus’s account. The distinction acknowledges bodily hindrances while locating the final you in that capacity. Wachsmuth prints a long supplement drawn from the Handbook, beginning but not to choice after leg and ending hindrance to something else. It remains bracketed throughout in both languages; the final but not to you is outside it. The Greek retains θελήσῃ and σὸν as printed here.

803.Handbook 8. Wachsmuth supplies the heading the same author to separate this excerpt from the preceding one; the attribution remains bracketed. Εὐροήσεις means you will flow well or have a smooth course, the image retained in proceed smoothly. The translation follows the printed order of the second clause and does not insert the extra infinitive found in a different wording of the Handbook.

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.