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 15 · II.15.3–II.15.5

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Facing Pages · Branch 347 of 516

Book II Chapter 15 · II.15.3–II.15.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 690

Αἰσχύλου Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας

II.15.3

⟨Οὐ⟩ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ’ εἶναι θέλω βαθεῖαν ἄλοκα διὰ φρενὸς καρπούμενος, ἐξ ἧς τὰ κεδνὰ βλαστάνει βουλεύματα.

⟨Εὐ⟩ήνου

II.15.4

Ἡγοῦμαι σοφίης εἶναι μέρος οὐκ ἐλάχιστον ὀρθῶς γιγνώσκειν, οἷος ἕκαστος ἀνήρ.

Σοφοκλέους Οἰδίποδος

II.15.5

Οὐ γὰρ λόγοισι τὸν βίον σπουδάζομεν λαμπρὸν ποιεῖσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ τοῖς δρωμένοις.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 15

p. 691

Aeschylus, from Seven against Thebes

II.15.3

For I wish ⟨not⟩ to seem the best, but to be so,⁹⁷⁴ reaping a harvest from a deep furrow in my mind, from which sound counsels sprout.⁹⁷⁵

⟨Eu⟩enus

II.15.4

I consider it no small part of wisdom⁹⁷⁶ to know correctly what each man is like.⁹⁷⁷

Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

II.15.5

For we do not strive to make our life illustrious by words more than by the deeds we do.⁹⁷⁸

974.The supplied negative ⟨Οὐ⟩ remains visible. In the play a messenger describes Amphiaraus, with third-person θέλει, he wishes. The anthology prints first-person θέλω, I wish, which is retained without turning the verse into a personal profession by Aeschylus. Wachsmuth cites 598–600; the consulted parallel edition numbers the corresponding lines 592–594.

975.The agricultural image joins a deep furrow in the mind with the good counsels that grow from it. Ἄλοξ is a furrow, καρπόομαι to reap or obtain a crop, and κεδνός good or sound. The image gives inward judgment a productive depth beyond outward reputation.

976.The beginning of the author’s name is supplied: ⟨Εὐ⟩ήνου, here ⟨Eu⟩enus. The source’s attribution is retained as reconstructed, without an added biographical identification.

977.Σοφίη is wisdom; γιγνώσκειν is to recognize or know. The point is accurate judgment of each person’s character. The phrase no small part preserves the Greek understatement, οὐκ ἐλάχιστον.

978.Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1143–1144. Theseus speaks after restoring Oedipus’s daughters to him; his fulfilled promise supplies the context for the contrast between words and deeds.

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.