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 31 · II.31.7–II.31.8

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English Page · Branch 376 of 516

Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.7–II.31.8

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Ancient Greek

p. 748

Σοφοκλέους Αἴαντος

II.31.7

Οἱ γὰρ κακοὶ γνώμαισι τἀγαθὸν χεροῖν ἔχοντες οὐκ ἴσασι πρίν τις ἐκβάλῃ.

Εὐριπίδου Ἱππολύτου

II.31.8

Ὦ πόλλ’ ἁμαρτάνοντες ἄνθρωποι μάτην, τί δὴ τέχνας μὲν μυρίας διδάσκετε καὶ πάντα μηχανᾶσθε κἀξευρίσκετε, ἓν δ’ οὐκ ἐπίστασθ’, οὐδ’ ἐθηράσασθέ πω, φρονεῖν διδάσκειν οἷσιν οὐκ ἔνεστι νοῦς;

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 749

Sophocles, from Ajax

II.31.7

For those poor in judgment, though they hold a good thing in their hands, do not recognize it until someone casts it away.¹⁰⁷⁷

Euripides, from Hippolytus

II.31.8

O humans, who make so many errors in vain,¹⁰⁷⁸ why do you teach countless arts and devise and discover everything, yet not know one thing, nor have yet hunted it down: to teach good judgment to those who have no sense?¹⁰⁷⁹

1077.Ajax 964–965. Tecmessa speaks after Ajax’s death. In the preceding verses she says that those rejoicing over him may mourn his loss when they need his spear. The good held but unrecognized is illustrated by Ajax’s military service; the anthology gives only the general maxim.

1078.Hippolytus 916–920. Theseus speaks to Hippolytus after Phaedra’s death and her accusation against him. He wrongly thinks his innocent son guilty; the angry complaint therefore belongs to a dramatic misjudgment. The anthology selects these five verses from their exchange.

1079.Τέχναι are teachable skills or arts. Φρονεῖν is to exercise understanding or sound judgment, and νοῦς is understanding. The one thing missing is the ability to teach good judgment to those who lack it; the question contrasts this failure with the many arts people already teach.

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.