Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

John Stobaeus

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.15.6–II.15.9

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Book II Chapter 15 · II.15.6–II.15.9

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Ancient Greek

p. 692

Poetae incerti

II.15.6

Ὁ βίος ἔστ’ ἀλαζονείας δεόμενος.

Ἐπιχάρμου

II.15.7

Πρὸς ⟨δὲ⟩ τοὺς πέλας πορεύου λαμπρὸν ἱμάτιον ἔχων, καὶ φρονεῖν πολλοῖσι δόξεις τυχὸν ἴσως ⟨οὐδὲν φρονῶν⟩.

Φωκυλίδου

II.15.8

Πολλοί τοι δοκέουσι σαόφρονες ἔμμεναι ἄνδρες, σὺν κόσμῳ στείχοντες, ἐλαφρόνοοί περ ἐόντες.

Εὐριπίδου

II.15.9

Πᾶς ὁ καθ’ ἑαυτὸν τεχνολογῶν θαυμάζεται, διακρινόμενος δὲ πρὸς ἑτέρους ἐλέγχεται, ὑποβολιμαίαν σύνεσιν ἠμφιεσμένος.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 15

p. 693

Unknown poet

II.15.6

Life is in need of boastfulness.⁹⁷⁹

Epicharmus

II.15.7

⟨But⟩ go to your neighbors wearing a splendid cloak, and many may perhaps think you sensible ⟨though you have no sense⟩.⁹⁸⁰

Phocylides

II.15.8

Many men, indeed, seem to have sound judgment, walking with decorum, though they are frivolous.⁹⁸¹

Euripides

II.15.9

Everyone who expounds an art on his own is admired;⁹⁸² but when tested against others he is exposed, clothed in counterfeit understanding.⁹⁸³

979.The poet is unidentified; Wachsmuth’s apparatus suggests a comic source. The printed line says that life needs ἀλαζονεία, boastfulness or pretension, without a negative. Its transmission is disputed, and the apparatus considers a negative reading; that conjecture is not substituted for the printed text.

980.Both ⟨δέ⟩, but, and the final ⟨οὐδὲν φρονῶν⟩, though you have no sense, are editorial supplements. Τυχὸν ἴσως doubles the expression of uncertainty, reflected by may perhaps. The cloak creates an impression of sound judgment. The attribution names Epicharmus without identifying a play.

981.The couplet is assigned to Phocylides without a work title. The epic forms σαόφρονες and ἔμμεναι mean sound in mind and to be. Κόσμος here concerns order or decorum in one’s bearing, contrasted with ἐλαφρόνοοι, light or frivolous in mind.

982.The attribution to Euripides is retained from the printed heading. The apparatus questions it and suggests Philippides, or possibly Hermippus; the source is therefore uncertain.

983.Τεχνολογῶν describes discourse on an art or technical subject. Comparison with others tests the apparent expertise. Ὑποβολιμαῖος evokes something substituted or passed off as genuine; together with the clothing image, it characterizes sham understanding.

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.