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.31.65–II.31.66

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.65–II.31.66

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Ancient Greek

p. 810

Δημοκρίτου

II.31.65

Ἡ φύσις καὶ ἡ διδαχὴ παραπλήσιόν ἐστι· καὶ γὰρ ἡ διδαχὴ μεταρυσμοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, μεταρυσμοῦσα δὲ ⟨καὶ⟩ φύσις ποιέει.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ

II.31.66

Τὰ μὲν καλὰ ἔργματα τοῖσι πόνοισι ἡ μάθησις ἐξεργάζεται, τὰ δ’ αἰσχρὰ ἄνευ πόνων αὐτόματα ⟨ἡ ἀμαθίη⟩ καρποῦται· καὶ γὰρ ὦν οὐκ ἐθέλοντα πολλάκις ἐξέργει τοιοῦτον εἶναι· οὕτω μεγάλης τε τῆς φυτικῆς ἐστι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 811

Democritus

II.31.65

Nature and teaching are similar. For teaching reshapes a human being, and nature ⟨too⟩ produces by reshaping.¹¹⁸³

Democritus: From the same author

II.31.66

Learning produces noble deeds through toil, but ⟨ignorance⟩ reaps shameful ones of themselves, without toil.¹¹⁸⁴ For indeed it often forces a person to be like this even against his will. So … [the concluding clause is uncertain].¹¹⁸⁵

1183.Μεταρυσμοῖ and μεταρυσμοῦσα express reshaping. Wachsmuth prints nominative φύσις, nature; the English takes it as the subject of ποιέει, makes or produces, with an implicit object in this compressed clause. This differs from accusative φύσιν, which would give makes a nature. The supplied καί, too, is retained.

1184.The editor supplies ἡ ἀμαθίη, ignorance, as the contrasting subject. Noble deeds renders καλὰ ἔργματα; the printed ἔργματα is an editorial correction of the transmitted χρήματα. The following ἐξέργει is taken in its constraining sense, forces. Ignorance is understood here as continuing subject; the compressed reference remains uncertain.

1185.Wachsmuth prints the continuous clause οὕτω μεγάλης τε τῆς φυτικῆς ἐστι, containing “so,” “of great,” “and,” “of the vegetative,” and “is,” but its syntax and sense are unresolved. Φυτικῆς normally concerns plants or vegetative life. The English notice and dots are editorial, not a gap in the Greek. The apparatus proposes φοιτήσιος, instruction, with a recast clause about power; that conjecture is not adopted.

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.