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.8.39.10–II.8.39.11

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Facing Pages · Branch 306 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.39.10–II.8.39.11

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Ancient Greek

p. 608

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.39.10

Οὔτε γὰρ ἀνήρ, κἂν σφόδρα δι’ ἀσέλγειαν μαλακίζηται καὶ πάντ’ αὐτῷ ἡ προαίρεσις μετασχηματίζῃ τὰ ἔξωθεν ⟨εἰς⟩ τὰ τῆς θηλείας συνήθη, γυνή ποτ’ ἂν γένοιτο, οὔτε γυνὴ τὰ ἀνδρῶν ἐγχειροῦσα δρᾶν, ἀνήρ ποτ’ ἂν γένοιτο.

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.39.11

Ζῶσι μὲν οὖν τοῦτον τὸν βίον αἱ ψυχαὶ μετ’ ἀνάγκης, διὰ λήθης αὐτὸν διεξέρχονται καὶ ὅτι ἐπ’ αὐταῖς ἡ αἵρεσις αὐτοῦ ποτὲ γέγονε, παντελῶς ἐπιλελησμέναι. Ἔρχεται δὲ ἐπ’ ἀνθρώπου μάλιστα ἀνειμένον [ἐλεύθερον] τὸ ἐθελούσιον πρὸς μὲν τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς, ὡς καθ’ ἑαυτὴν καὶ μὴ ἐν σώματι [δεδεμένην] πεπεδημένην, πρὸς δὲ τὰ τοῦ ζῴου καὶ συναμφοτέρου ⟨πρὸς⟩ αὐτεξούσια ἔργα λελυμένου. Σὺν γὰρ τούτῳ διεξάγει τὸν ἀνθρώπειον βίον ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, σὺν τῷ ἔχειν πρὸς τὰ τοῦ συναμφοτέρου αὐτεξούσια ἔργα τὴν ὁρμὴν προσήκουσαν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 609

Porphyry continued

II.8.39.10

For a man would never become a woman, even if he becomes extremely effeminate through licentiousness and his choice reshapes all his outward traits ⟨into⟩ those customary for a woman; nor would a woman, attempting to do what men do, ever become a man.⁸⁵⁴

Porphyry continued

II.8.39.11

Souls therefore live this life under necessity and pass through it in forgetfulness, having completely forgotten that its choice was once up to them.⁸⁵⁵ In the human case, voluntary action comes into play most freely with regard to matters of the soul, considering the soul on its own and not as fettered in a body; with regard to matters of the living creature and the composite, the human being is released ⟨for⟩ actions under his own control. For each of us passes through human life with this, together with the impulse appropriate to the composite’s actions under its own control.⁸⁵⁶

854.Porphyry offers this claim about male and female nature as evidence that a primary kind of life remains fixed. The words ἀσέλγεια, licentiousness, and μαλακίζεσθαι, to become effeminate or soft, carry the ancient author’s moral assessment of behavior; the passage is translated as his historical argument. Προαίρεσις is the subject of reshapes, so that deliberate choice is expressly acknowledged while its supposed limits are asserted. Supplied ⟨εἰς⟩ is shown as ⟨into⟩.

855.The necessity concerns the selected primary life just discussed, whereas the forgotten choice belongs to the soul before embodiment. Forgetfulness here explains why the agent living that life no longer remembers having chosen it. The conclusion still distinguishes this necessity from the voluntary actions considered in the next sentences.

856.The composite, συναμφότερον, is the embodied living creature constituted from soul and body; Wachsmuth compares Alcibiades I.130A, where body, soul, and their combination are distinguished. The concluding construction is compressed: it considers the soul on its own and also actions belonging to the composite. Rejected [ἐλεύθερον], free, and [δεδεμένην], bound, are omitted from the English body; unrestrained and fettered senses remain in the surviving ἀνειμένον and πεπεδημένην. Supplied ⟨πρὸς⟩ is shown as ⟨for⟩. Αὐτεξούσια describes actions under the agent’s own control, and ὁρμή the corresponding impulse to act.

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.