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 4 · II.4.heading–II.4.2

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Book II Chapter 4 · II.4.heading–II.4.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 76

Κεφάλαιον Δʹ

II.4.heading

⟨Περὶ λόγου καὶ γραμμάτων⟩

⟨Ἡσιόδου⟩

II.4.1

Πάντες ἐς αὐτὸν ὁρῶσι διακρίνοντα θέμιστας ἰθείῃσι δίκῃσιν· ὁ δ’ ἀσφαλέως ἀγορεύων αἶψά τε καὶ μέγα νεῖκος ἐπισταμένως κατέπαυσε. τοὔνεκα γὰρ βασιλῆες ἐχέφρονες, οὕνεκα λαοῖς βλαπτομένοις ἀγορῆφι μετάτροπα ἔργα τελεῦσι, ῥηιδίως μαλακοῖσι παραιφάμενοι ἐπέεσσιν. ἐρχόμενον δ’ ἀνὰ ἄστυ θεὸν ὣς ἱλάσκονται αἰδοῖ μειλιχίῃ· μετὰ δὲ πρέπει ἀγρομένοισιν.

Αἰσχύλου Προμηθέως

II.4.2

Καὶ μὴν ἀριθμὸν ἔξοχον σοφισμάτων ἐξηῦρον αὐτοῖς γραμμάτων τε σύνθεσιν, μνήμην ἁπάντων μουσομήτορ’ ἐργάνην.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 4

p. 77

Chapter 4

II.4.heading

⟨On Speech and Letters⟩⁹⁷

⟨Hesiod⟩

II.4.1

All look to him as he settles matters of right with straight judgments; speaking with assurance, he swiftly and skillfully brings even a great dispute to an end. For this is why kings are wise: for people who have suffered harm they set matters right in the assembly, easily persuading them with gentle words. As he passes through the city, they honor him like a god with kindly reverence; he stands out among the assembled people.⁹⁸

Aeschylus in Prometheus

II.4.2

And I invented number for them, foremost of ingenious devices, and the joining of letters: the memory of all things, the Muses’ mother, a craftswoman.⁹⁹

97.Wachsmuth supplies the title from Photius. His apparatus explains that only II.4.18–19 survive here in the Eclogae manuscripts F and P; he reconstructs the preceding sequence from the Florilegium. Λόγος ranges across speech, discourse, an account, and reason; γράμματα can mean letters or writing. The English follows each passage’s use.

98.Theogony 85–92. Wachsmuth supplies the attribution, since the Florilegium transmission joins these verses to preceding material without a separate heading. The king’s authority is shown in just judgment and the settling of disputes through speech. Μετάτροπα ἔργα, rendered “set matters right,” describes acts that reverse the harm; “straight” preserves the image in ἰθείῃσι.

99.Prometheus Bound 459–461; Prometheus speaks of his gifts to human beings. The joining of letters is writing. The feminine “craftswoman” renders ἐργάνην, and “the Muses’ mother” preserves μουσομήτορα: memory makes the arts possible. Wachsmuth prints the singular σύνθεσιν, “joining,” and the reading ἐργάνην rather than the alternative ἐργάτιν noted in his apparatus.

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.