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.8.42.16–II.8.42.17

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English Page · Branch 319 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.42.16–II.8.42.17

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Ancient Greek

p. 634

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.16

Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ Ὁμήρου τυγχάνεις ὢν ἐραστής τε καὶ ἐπαινέτης, ὅρα μοι μὴ καὶ αὐτὸς πρὸ τοῦ Πλάτωνος τὸ διττὸν οἶδε τῶν βίων, τὸν μέν τινα ἀκίνητον, ὃν ἑλέσθαι ἡ ψυχὴ ἢ μὴ ἑλέσθαι δύναται, ὅταν δὲ ἕληται ἀφύκτως ἔχουσα * * μεταβάλλειν, ἢ δι’ ἀρετῆς αὐτὸν διοικεῖ ἢ κακίας· τούτου γὰρ μεμνημένος φησί·

Πορφυρίου — συνέχεια

II.8.42.17

Μοῖραν δ’ οὔ τινά φημι πεφυγμένον ἔμμεναι ἀνδρῶν οὐ κακὸν οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλόν, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται.

Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν περὶ τοῦ πρώτου καὶ ἀπαραβάτου εἴη ἂν λέγων βίου· περὶ δὲ τοῦ δευτέρου, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν, τί οὖν φησὶν Ὅμηρος;

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 635

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.16

Since you are also a lover and admirer of Homer, consider whether he too, before Plato, knew the twofold character of lives: one kind is fixed, which the soul can choose or decline to choose; but once it has chosen, being in an inescapable condition * * to change it, it directs that life through virtue or vice.⁸⁸⁸ For it is with this life in mind that he says:

Porphyry continued

II.8.42.17

But I say no man has escaped his fate, neither coward nor brave, once he has been born.⁸⁸⁹

He would thus be saying this about the primary and inviolable life. But concerning the secondary life, that it is up to us, what, then, does Homer say?⁸⁹⁰

888.The two asterisks after ἔχουσα mark a gap, not necessarily two missing words. The missing text may have governed μεταβάλλειν, to change; the English deliberately leaves this broken connection visible. No wording meaning unable is supplied from an editorial reconstruction. The question proposes that Homer already knew the distinction of lives; it does not establish that Homer explicitly taught Porphyry’s account of the soul’s prior choice.

889.Iliad VI.488–489, spoken by Hector to Andromache as he prepares to return to battle. Coward and brave give κακός and ἐσθλός their force in that setting. Μοῖρα is an allotted fate or portion. The English is newly translated from the quotation as printed by Wachsmuth.

890.The identification of this fate with a primary, inviolable life is Porphyry’s interpretation. The potential expression εἴη ἂν λέγων is retained as would be saying; the passage does not turn the Homeric lines into an explicit declaration of the distinction between primary and secondary lives.

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.