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 31 · II.31.13–II.31.16

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.13–II.31.16

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Ancient Greek

p. 764

Μενάνδρου

II.31.13

[Μανθάνειν] ὅτου δ’ ἂν ἔργου τυγχάνῃς ἄπειρος ὤν, τὸ πυνθάνεσθαι τῶν κατειδότων καλόν.

Εὐριπίδου Ῥήσῳ

II.31.14

Σοφοῦ παρ’ ἀνδρὸς χρὴ σοφόν τι μανθάνειν.

Μενάνδρου

II.31.15

Πολὺ κρεῖττόν ἐστιν ἓν καλῶς μεμαθηκέναι, ἢ πολλὰ φαύλως περιβεβλῆσθαι πράγματα.

Σοφοκλέους Φθιωτίδων

II.31.16

Νέος πέφυκας· πολλὰ καὶ μαθεῖν σε δεῖ, καὶ πόλλ’ ἀκοῦσαι καὶ διδάσκεσθαι μακρά.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 765

Menander

II.31.13

Whatever task you happen to be inexperienced in, it is a good thing to ask those who know it.¹¹⁰¹

Euripides, from Rhesus

II.31.14

One should learn something wise from a wise man.¹¹⁰²

Menander

II.31.15

Far better to have learned one thing well than to have draped oneself poorly in many subjects.¹¹⁰³

Sophocles, from Women of Phthiotis

II.31.16

You are young: you must learn many things, hear many things, and be taught at length.¹¹⁰⁴

1101.Wachsmuth prints [Μανθάνειν], to learn, as rejected wording before the couplet. His apparatus records Meineke’s removal of it as a repetition from the following Euripidean verse, II.31.14. It is omitted from the English. The heading gives Menander’s name but no play or speaker; the advice concerns seeking knowledge when one lacks experience.

1102.Rhesus 206. The Chorus speaks to Dolon while asking about the disguise he proposes for spying on the Greeks; he goes on to describe a wolfskin. Σοφός can therefore imply cleverness or skill in this setting as well as wisdom. The anthology preserves the line as a general maxim and attributes the play to Euripides in its heading.

1103.Περιβεβλῆσθαι suggests covering or clothing oneself with many things. The contrast concerns how well something is learned and how poorly a larger range may be acquired. Πράγματα is broad, matters or subjects; the excerpt names no particular field of study or Menandrian play.

1104.Φθιωτίδες is a feminine plural title, rendered Women of Phthiotis; Wachsmuth cites fragment 627 in Nauck’s numbering. No particular speaker is identified here. Μακρά is the printed neuter plural, rendered at length: the advice joins learning and listening with extended instruction.

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.