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.15.25a–II.15.28

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Book II Chapter 15 · II.15.25a–II.15.28

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Ancient Greek

p. 706

⟨Incerti tragici⟩

II.15.25a

Καὶ τῷδε δηλώσαιμ’ ἄν, εἰ βούλοιο σύ, τἀληθές, ὡς ἔγωγε καὐτὸς ἄχθομαι, ὅστις λέγειν μὲν εὐπρεπῶς ἐπίσταται, τὰ δ’ ἔργα χείρω τῶν λόγων παρέσχετο.

Μενάνδρου

II.15.26

Ὁ μὲν λόγος σου, παῖ, κατ’ ὀρθὸν εὐδρομεῖ, τὸ δ’ ἔργον ἄλλην οἶμον ἐκπορεύεται.

Σοφοκλέους Ἐριφύλῃ

II.15.27

Γλῶσσ’ ἐν κενοῖσιν ἀνδράσιν τιμὴν ἔχει, ὅπου λόγοι σθένουσι τῶν ἔργων πλέον.

Μενάνδρου

II.15.28

⟨Ὁ⟩ μὴ φρονῶν μέν, πολλὰ δ’ ἐφ’ ἑκάστου λαλῶν, δείκνυσιν αὐτοῖς τὸν τρόπον τοῖς ῥήμασι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 15

p. 707

⟨Unknown tragedian⟩

II.15.25a

And by this I could show you, if you wished, the truth: that I too resent anyone who knows how to speak with elegance, but has produced deeds worse than his words.¹⁰⁰⁵

Menander

II.15.26

Your speech, boy, runs a straight course; but your conduct goes along another path.¹⁰⁰⁶

Sophocles, from Eriphyle

II.15.27

Among empty men the tongue is held in honor, where words have greater force than deeds.¹⁰⁰⁷

Menander

II.15.28

⟨He⟩ who has no sense, yet talks at length on each matter, shows his character in the very words he uses.¹⁰⁰⁸

1005.Wachsmuth separates these four verses as excerpt 25a and supplies the attribution ⟨Unknown tragedian⟩; they are not treated as a continuation securely belonging to Euripides. The opening by this refers to a demonstration whose wider context is absent. Εὐπρεπῶς suggests attractive or respectable presentation, tested here against conduct.

1006.The contrast extends a road image: speech runs straight, while the deed, τὸ ἔργον, takes a different path. The address παῖ means boy or child; the fragment does not identify the speaker or the person addressed.

1007.The tongue stands for verbal ability. Κενοῖσιν, empty, characterizes men lacking substance; it does not refer here to poverty. The lost Eriphyle is named, but the excerpt supplies no dramatic setting or speaker.

1008.The supplied article ⟨ὁ⟩ is represented by ⟨He⟩. Τρόπος is character or disposition: the thoughtless speaker’s own words expose it. The line thus treats speech itself as evidence of the person speaking.

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.