Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
Stobaeus, Volume II
Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.
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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.120.1
Ancient Greek
p. 890Ἀρχύτα Πυθαγορείου ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ παιδεύσεως ἠθικῆς
Φιλοσοφίαν φαντὶ ὄρεξιν εἶμεν τῶ ἀναλαμβάνεν ἢ συνέχεν αὔταυτον ἐν ἀρετᾷ πρακτικᾷ καττὰν ἔφεσιν τᾶς σοφίας δι’ αὐταύταν· ταύτας δ’ ἀρχὰν μὲν τὰν φύσιν προειδέμεν, μέσα δὲ τὰν ἄσκησιν, τέρμα δὲ τὰν εἴδησιν φέρεν. Εὐτυχὲς μὲν ὦν εἶμεν φῦναι εὖ, τραφῆμέν τε καὶ ἀχθῆμεν καττὸν ὀρθὸν νόμον καθομόλογά τε τᾷ φύσι ἔθεα· δεῖ δ’ ἀσκηθῆμεν ὑπό τε γενέτορας ἢ ἐπιτρόπως, παιδευτάς τε σώφρονας γενέσθαι· καλὸν δὲ τὸ αὐτὸν αὑτῷ ποτιτάσσεν τὰ ἄριστα, μηδὲ ποτιδέεσθαι ἀνάγκας, εὐπειθέα δ’ εἶμεν τοῖς ὑφαγεομένοις τὰ ἄριστα ποτὶ πρᾶξιν καὶ εἴδησιν· ταὶ γὰρ εὐφυΐαι καὶ ταὶ καλαὶ τροφαὶ πολλάκις φθάνοντι τὰς διδασκαλίας ἐς ὀρθότατα ἄγοισαι, ἀποδέοντι δὲ μόνον λόγω ἁγεμόνος, τὸν ἐντίθητι ἐπιστάμα.
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 891Archytas the Pythagorean, On Moral Education
They say philosophy is a desire to establish or maintain oneself in practical virtue, in pursuit of wisdom for its own sake.1302 Nature is its beginning, practice its middle, and knowledge its end.1303 It is fortunate, then, to be naturally well endowed, and to be reared and guided by right law and habits in accord with nature. One must be trained under parents or guardians, and the teachers must be temperate. But it is good to prescribe the best things for oneself without needing compulsion, and to obey those who guide one toward the best things in action and knowledge. For natural gifts and good upbringing often anticipate instruction, leading toward what is most correct; they lack only reason as a guide, which knowledge instills.1304
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.120.1
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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.