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.8.36–II.8.37

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Facing Pages · Branch 297 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.36–II.8.37

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Ancient Greek

p. 590

⟨Τοῦ αὐτοῦ⟩

II.8.36

Ὃς ἂν μὴ ἔχῃ διορίσασθαι τῷ λόγῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἀφελὼν τὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέαν καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν μάχῃ διὰ πάντων ἐλέγχων διεξιὼν μὴ κατὰ δόξαν ἀλλὰ κατ’ οὐσίαν προθυμούμενος ἐλέγχειν, ἐν πᾶσι τούτοις ἀπτῶτι τῷ λόγῳ διαπορεύηται, οὔτε αὐτὸ τὸ ἀγαθὸν φήσει εἰδέναι τὸν οὕτως ἔχοντα οὔτε ἄλλο ἀγαθὸν οὐδέν, ἀλλ’ εἴ πῃ αὐτοῦ εἰδώλου τινὸς ἐφάπτεται, δόξῃ οὐκ ἐπιστήμῃ ἐφάπτεσθαι καὶ τὸν νῦν βίον ὀνειροπολοῦντα καὶ ὑπνώττοντα, πρὶν ἐνθάδε ἐξέγρεσθαι, εἰς ᾅδου πρότερον ἀφικόμενον τελέως ἐπικαταδαρθεῖν.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ

II.8.37

Τὴν τῶν καλῶν καὶ δικαίων πέρι ⟨καὶ⟩ ἀγαθῶν καὶ τῶν τούτοις ἐναντίων ὄντως οὖσαν ἀληθῆ δόξαν μετὰ βεβαιώσεως, ὁπόταν ἐν ψυχαῖς ἐγγίγνηται, θείαν φημὶ ἐν δαιμονίῳ γίγνεσθαι γένει.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 591

⟨The same author⟩

II.8.36

If someone cannot distinguish the form of the good by an account, setting it apart from everything else, and make his way through all tests as in battle, eager to test according to essence rather than opinion, passing through all this without his account stumbling, one will not say that such a person knows the good itself or any other good whatsoever.⁸³³ Rather, if in some way he touches an image of it, he does so by opinion, not knowledge; and, dreaming and sleeping through his present life, he will reach Hades before awakening here and fall completely asleep.⁸³⁴

The same author

II.8.37

The opinion about noble and just ⟨and⟩ good things and their opposites that is genuinely true and firmly confirmed—whenever it arises in souls, I declare it divine and say that it comes into being in a godlike kind.⁸³⁵

833.Republic VII.534B–D. The supplied heading the same author remains bracketed. The passage describes the demands of dialectical examination: distinguishing the form of the good and sustaining an account through objections. Οὐσία here means essence or what a thing is, contrasted with opinion. Wachsmuth prints the third-person φήσει, will say; one will not say preserves that local shift instead of importing the dialogue’s second-person you will say.

834.The contrast between touching an image through opinion and knowing the good leads into the images of dreaming, waking, and death. Hades is the realm of the dead. The last clause keeps the printed infinitive ἐπικαταδαρθεῖν, to fall asleep completely, rather than replacing it with a different form from the Republic’s direct tradition.

835.Statesman 309C. The speaker is the Eleatic Stranger, who is explaining the divine bond by which the statesman joins different characters. Βεβαίωσις is confirmation or firm assurance, making this more than an unstable belief. Supplied ⟨καὶ⟩ is represented by ⟨and⟩. Δαιμόνιος here means godlike, and γένος a kind or class; the language associates this confirmed true opinion with a divine kind of being.

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.