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.8.46.2

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English Page · Branch 326 of 516

Book II Chapter 8 · II.8.46.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 648

Ἰαμβλίχου — συνέχεια

II.8.46.2

Βέλτιον οὖν ἀφορίζεσθαι· ἡ τύχη τῶν πλειόνων τάξεων ἢ καὶ ἄλλων δή τινων [ἤ] ἐστιν ἔφορος καὶ συναγωγὸς αἰτία, πρεσβυτέρα τῶν συνιόντων, ἣν τότε μὲν θεὸν ἐπικαλοῦμεν, ⟨τότε δὲ δαίμονα⟩ παρειλήφαμεν. Ἡνίκα μὲν γὰρ ἂν τὰ κρείττονα αἴτια τῶν συνι⟨όντων⟩ ᾖ, θεός ἐστιν αὐτῶν ἔφορος, ὅταν δὲ τὰ ἐν τῇ φύσει, δαίμων. Ἀεὶ οὖν μετ’ αἰτίας πάντα ἐπιτελεῖται καὶ οὐδ’ ὁτιοῦν ἄτακτον ἐν τοῖς γιγνομένοις ἐπεισέρχεται.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 8

p. 649

Iamblichus continued

II.8.46.2

It is better, then, to define it thus: fortune is an overseeing and unifying cause of the more numerous orders, or indeed of certain other things, prior to the things that come together. We have come to recognize it as a cause that we call at one time a god, ⟨at another a daimon⟩.⁹⁰⁶ For when the causes of the things that come together are higher, a god is their overseer; when they are causes within nature, a daimon. Everything, then, is always accomplished with a cause, and nothing whatsoever disorderly intrudes among things that come to be.⁹⁰⁷

906.The opening definition is textually uncertain. Wachsmuth leaves the more numerous orders, τῶν πλειόνων τάξεων, and or indeed of certain other things unresolved rather than printing a proposed replacement such as higher orders. Rejected [ἤ], or, remains in Greek and is omitted from English. Supplied ⟨τότε δὲ δαίμονα⟩ is shown as ⟨at another a daimon⟩. Fortune is presented as prior to the things brought together, rather than as their accidental product.

907.The contrast distinguishes higher causes from causes operating within nature, with a god or a daimon as overseer respectively. Daimon retains the Greek category of divine being. The supplied completion ⟨όντων⟩ is within συνιόντων, of the things that come together; the English translates the completed word as a whole. The Greek construction is compressed, and the concluding claim expressly keeps all occurrences within causal order.

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.