Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Facing Pages · Branch 438 of 516
Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110u
Ancient Greek
p. 872⟨Ἐν ταὐτῷ⟩
Ἔτι δὴ τοίνυν τοῖς ἐλευθέροις ἐστι τρία μαθήματα, λογισμοὶ μὲν καὶ τὰ περὶ ἀριθμοὺς ἓν μάθημα, μετρητικὴ δὲ μήκους καὶ ἐπιπέδου καὶ βάθους ὡς ἓν αὖ δεύτερον, τρίτον δὲ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων περιόδου πρὸς ἄλληλα ὡς πέφυκε πορεύεσθαι. ταῦτα δὲ ξύμπαντα, οὐχ ὡς ἀκριβείας ἐχόμενα δεῖ διαπονεῖν τοὺς πολλούς, ἀλλά τινας ὀλίγους· οὓς δὲ, προϊόντες ἐπὶ τῷ τέλει φράσομεν. οὕτω γὰρ πρέπον ἂν εἴη· τῷ δὲ πλήθει ὅσα αὐτῶν ἀναγκαῖα . . . ἀλλ’ ἔοικεν ὁ τὸν θεὸν πρῶτος παροιμιασάμενος εἰς ταῦτα ἀποβλέψας εἰπεῖν, ὡς οὐδὲ θεὸς ἀνάγκῃ μή ποτε φανῇ μαχόμενος, ὅσαι θεῖαί γε, οἶμαι, τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰσιν· ἐπεὶ τῶν γε ἀνθρωπίνων, εἰς ἃς οἱ πολλοὶ βλέποντες λέγουσι τὸ τοιοῦτον, οὗτος πάντων ⟨τῶν⟩ λόγων εὐηθέστατός ἐστι μακρῷ. — Τίνες οὖν, ὦ ξένε, αἱ μὴ τοιαῦται ἀνάγκαι τῶν μαθημάτων, θεῖαι δέ; — Δοκῶ μέν, ἃς μή τις πράξας μηδὲ αὖ μαθὼν οὐκ ἄν ποτε γένοιτο ἐν ἀνθρώποις θεὸς οὐδὲ δαίμων οὐδὲ ἥρως.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 873⟨In the same work⟩
Three further subjects, then, belong to free people. Calculation and the study of numbers form one; measuring length, surface and depth, a second; and third, the circuit of the stars—how they naturally travel in relation to one another. The majority must not labor at all these in their precise form, but a certain few; which people, we shall specify when we reach the end. That would be fitting. For the majority, as much of them as is necessary . . .1275
But it seems that whoever first framed the proverb about god had these matters in view when he said that not even a god would ever be seen fighting necessity—at least, I think, those necessities that are divine. For as regards human necessities, which most people have in view when they say such a thing, this is by far the most foolish of all sayings.1276
— What, then, stranger, are the necessities of these studies that are not of that sort, but divine? —
I think that no one, without having practiced and learned these things, could ever become a god, a divine spirit or a hero among human beings.1277
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110u
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.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.