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 439 of 516
Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110v.1
Ancient Greek
p. 874Πολιτείας βʹ
Τίς οὖν ἡ παιδεία; ἢ χαλεπὸν εὑρεῖν βελτίω τῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ πολλοῦ χρόνου εὑρημένης; ἔστι δέ που ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς σώμασι γυμναστική, ἡ δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ ψυχῇ μουσική. — Ἔστι γάρ. — Ἆρ’ οὖν οὐ μουσικῇ πρότερον ἀρχόμεθα παιδεύοντες ἢ γυμναστικῇ; — Πῶς δ’ οὔ; — Μουσικῆς δ’, εἶπον, τίθης λόγους ἢ οὔ; — Ἔγωγε. — Λόγων δὲ διττὸν εἶδος, τὸ μὲν ἀληθές, ψεῦδος δὲ θάτερον; — Ναί. — Παιδευτέον δ’ ἐν ἀμφοτέροις, πρότερον δὲ ἐν τοῖς ψευδέσιν; — Οὐ μανθάνω, ἔφη, πῶς λέγεις. — Οὐ μανθάνεις, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ὅτι πρῶτον τοῖς παιδίοις μύθους λέγομεν; τοῦτο δέ που ὡς τὸ ὅλον εἰπεῖν ψεῦδος, ἔνι δὲ καὶ ἀληθές. πρότερον δὲ μύθοις πρὸς τὰ παιδία ἢ γυμνασίοις χρώμεθα. — Ἔστι ταῦτα. — Τοῦτο δὴ ἔλεγον, ὅτι μουσικῆς πρότερον ἁπτέον ἢ γυμναστικῆς. — Ὀρθῶς, ἔφη.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 875Republic II
What, then, is the education to be? Or is it hard to find a better one than that discovered over so long a time? I suppose it consists of physical training for the body and music for the soul. — Indeed. — Then do we not begin educating with music before physical training? — How could we not? — Do you include accounts in music, I said, or not? — I do. — And do accounts have two forms, one true, the other false? — Yes. — Must we educate in both kinds, but in false ones first? — I do not understand, he said, what you mean.
— Do you not understand, I said, that we first tell children stories? This is, I suppose, generally speaking false, but there is truth in it too. We use stories with children before physical training. — That is so. — This is what I meant: we must take up music before physical training. — Right, he said.1278
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110v.1
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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.