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.31.56–II.31.57

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.56–II.31.57

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Ancient Greek

p. 802

Δημοκρίτου

II.31.56

Πάντων κάκιστον ἡ εὐπετείη παιδεῦσαι τὴν νεότητα, αὕτη γάρ ἐστι ἣ τίκτει τὰς ἡδονὰς ταύτας, ἐκ τῶν ἡ κακότης γίνεται.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ

II.31.57

Ζηλωτικῶς ὁμῆ πονέειν παῖδες ἀνιέντες, οὔτε γράμματ’ ἂν μάθοιεν οὔτε μουσικὴν οὔτε ἀγωνίην, οὐδ’, ὅπερ μάλιστα τὴν ἀρετὴν ξυνέχει, τὸ αἰδέεσθαι· μάλα γὰρ ἐκ τούτου φιλέει γίνεσθαι ἡ αἰδώς.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 803

Democritus

II.31.56

Ease is the worst thing of all for educating the young.¹¹⁶⁶ For it is this that begets these pleasures, from which badness arises.¹¹⁶⁷

Democritus: From the same author

II.31.57

Children who relax their shared effort to excel¹¹⁶⁸ would learn neither letters nor music nor competitive practice,¹¹⁶⁹ nor what most holds virtue together—the feeling of shame. For a sense of shame is very apt to arise from this.¹¹⁷⁰

1166.The main heading Democritus reflects Burchard’s correction of the manuscript attribution to Democrates, reported in Wachsmuth’s apparatus. The printed εὐπετείη, ease, is nominative, followed by the compressed infinitive παιδεῦσαι, to educate. The English keeps ease as the subject, understood here as an unexacting approach to upbringing; it does not adopt Meineke’s proposed changes of case.

1167.Ταύτας means these or those. Wachsmuth questions the demonstrative, whose reference is not explained within the excerpt; Hense proposed φαύλας, base, but the translation retains these pleasures. The local ἐκ τῶν is rendered from which, linking the pleasures with the ensuing badness; the manuscript’s ἐξ ὧν is not substituted.

1168.Wachsmuth prints Ζηλωτικῶς ὁμῆ πονέειν as his reconstruction of a textually uncertain opening. The English connects these words with ἀνιέντες, relaxing or giving up, as shared effort directed toward excelling. The apparatus’s alternatives include Mullach’s willingly; none is substituted here. The potential force of ἂν μάθοιεν is preserved by would learn.

1169.Γράμματα means letters or basic literacy; μουσική includes music and poetic cultivation. The printed Ionic ἀγωνίην is rendered broadly as competitive practice, without specifying an athletic event. Meineke proposed ἀγωνιστικήν; the local word is retained.

1170.Τὸ αἰδέεσθαι is feeling shame or respect, and αἰδώς the related sense of shame or reverence. The relation of from this to the preceding clauses is compressed and is left open in English. Φιλέει means tends or is apt to here; very apt preserves both that qualification and μάλα.

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.