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.8.42.10–II.8.42.11

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Facing Pages · Branch 316 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.42.10–II.8.42.11

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Ancient Greek

p. 628

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.10

Ἤδη οὖν ἡ μὲν ἑλομένη κυνὸς βίον ἔρχεται ἐπὶ τόνδε τὸν ὡροσκόπον· ἡ δὲ ἀνθρώπου κατὰ τὴν παράκλισιν τῆς στιγμῆς ἐπὶ τόνδε· φέρει δ’ αὐτὴν ἡ Δίκη κατὰ τῆς ἠθοποιίας ἰδιότητα ἐπί τινα μοῖραν τῆς περιφορᾶς, ἣ βίον ἔχει γεγραμμένον πρόσφορον ταῖς αὐτῆς προθυμίαις.

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.11

Ἡ δὲ Δίκη Τύχη λέγεται, αἰτία οὖσα ἄδηλος ἀνθρωπείῳ λογισμῷ. Ζῳδίων δὲ ὄντων δώδεκα, δι’ ὧν ἡ ὁδὸς ταῖς ψυχαῖς πεπίστευται τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις γίγνεσθαι τῇδε πανταχοῦ σχεδόν, αἱ μὲν πρῶται τοῦ ζῳδιακοῦ μοῖραι, ὡς ἂν ἀγαθῷ νενεμημέναι τῷ κυρίῳ τοῦ ζῳδίου, παρεδόθησαν εἶναι ἀμφιλαφεῖς· αἱ δὲ τελευταῖαι ἐπὶ πάντων τοῖς κακοποιοῖς λεγομένοις ἀστράσιν ἀπενεμήθησαν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 629

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.10

By now, then, the soul that has chosen a dog’s life comes to this ascendant, while the one that has chosen a human life comes to that ascendant as the instant shifts. Justice carries the soul, according to the distinctive way its character has been formed, to a certain degree of the revolution that has a life inscribed suited to the soul’s own inclinations.⁸⁷⁹

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.11

Justice is called Fortune, since she is a cause hidden from human reasoning.⁸⁸⁰ There are twelve zodiacal signs, and the Egyptians believe that souls make their journey here through them almost everywhere. The first degrees of the zodiac, having been assigned to the sign’s lord as a beneficent one, have been handed down as ample; the last degrees in every case have been assigned to the so-called malefic stars.⁸⁸¹

879.Παράκλισις τῆς στιγμῆς is a shifting or deviation of the instant, distinguishing arrivals at apparently the same time. Ἠθοποιία concerns the formation of character; the character and inclinations of the soul direct its relation to the displayed life. Δίκη, Justice, is personified as carrying the soul; the next sentence explains why this cause is also called Fortune.

880.Fortune, Τύχη, names a cause whose operation is hidden from human reasoning, rather than an absence of causation. Justice and Fortune are two descriptions of the same directing cause. The compressed placement of πανταχοῦ σχεδόν, almost everywhere, leaves its exact scope uncertain; the English keeps it with the journey rather than treating it as a claim about the distribution of Egyptian belief.

881.Ἀμφιλαφεῖς is ample or spacious; the contrast with cramped later lots suggests wider opportunity. Compare Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos I.5, on beneficent and maleficent planets, and On the Disposition of Terms, on planetary rulership of divisions of the signs (I.21 in Hübner’s edition; I.20 in Robbins’s). Porphyry is not assumed to reproduce Ptolemy’s table.

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.