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Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110w
Ancient Greek
p. 878⟨Ἐν ταὐτῷ⟩
Ἀλλ’ εἴ πως μέλλομεν πείσειν, ⟨ὡς⟩ οὐδεὶς πώποτε πολίτης ἕτερος ἑτέρῳ ἀπήχθετο οὐδ’ ἔστι τοῦτο ὅσιον, τοιαῦτα μᾶλλον λεκτέα πρὸς τὰ παιδία εὐθὺς ἃ καὶ γέρουσι καὶ γραυσὶ καὶ πρεσβυτέροις γιγνομένοις καὶ τοὺς ποιητὰς ἐγγὺς τούτων ἀναγκαστέον λογοποιεῖν. Ἥρας δὲ δεσμοὺς ὑπὸ υἱέος καὶ Ἡφαίστου ῥίψεις ὑπὸ πατρὸς μέλλοντος τῇ μητρὶ τυπτομένῃ ἀμύνειν, καὶ θεομαχίας ὅσας Ὅμηρος πεποίηκεν οὐ παραδεκτέον εἰς τὴν πόλιν, οὔτε ἐν ὑπονοίαις πεποιημένας οὔτε ἄνευ ὑπονοιῶν. ὁ γὰρ νέος οὐχ οἷός τε κρίνειν ὅ τί τε ὑπόνοια καὶ μή, ἀλλ’ ⟨ἃ⟩ ἂν τηλικοῦτος ὢν λάβῃ ἐν ταῖς δόξαις, δυσέκνιπτά τε καὶ ἀμετάστατα φιλεῖ γίγνεσθαι. ὧν δὴ ἴσως ἕνεκα περὶ παντὸς ποιητέον ἃ πρῶτον ἀκούουσιν, ὅ τι κάλλιστα μεμυθολογημένα πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἀκούειν. — Ἔχει γάρ, ἔφη, λόγον.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 879⟨In the same work⟩
But if we are somehow to persuade them ⟨that⟩ no citizen has ever been at enmity with another and that this is not holy, then these, rather, are the kinds of things children should be told from the outset by old men and old women; and as they grow older, the poets must be compelled to compose stories close to these.1281
Hera’s being bound by her son, Hephaestus’s being hurled down by his father when he was about to defend his mother as she was being beaten, and all the battles of the gods that Homer has composed must not be admitted into the city, whether composed with underlying meanings or without them.1282
For the young person cannot judge what is an underlying meaning and what is not. But ⟨whatever⟩ beliefs he takes in at that age tend to become hard to wash away and unalterable. For these reasons, perhaps, we should make it our chief concern that the first stories they hear are told as beautifully as possible with a view to virtue. — That does make sense, he said.1283
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.110w
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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.