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.31.126.1
Ancient Greek
p. 948Μουσωνίου ἐκ τοῦ Ὅτι καὶ γυναιξὶ φιλοσοφητέον
Ἐπεὶ δ’ ἐπύθετό τις αὐτοῦ, εἰ καὶ γυναιξὶ φιλοσοφητέον, οὕτω πως ἤρξατο διδάσκειν ὡς φιλοσοφητέον αὐταῖς. Λόγον μέν, ἔφη, τὸν αὐτὸν εἰλήφασι παρὰ θεῶν αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ᾧ τε χρώμεθα πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ καθ’ ὃν διανοούμεθα περὶ ἑκάστου πράγματος, ⟨εἰ⟩ ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν ἐστι καὶ καλὸν ἢ αἰσχρόν. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ αἰσθήσεις τὰς αὐτὰς ἔχει τὸ θῆλυ τῷ ἄρρενι, ὁρᾶν, ἀκούειν, ὀσφραίνεσθαι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ μέρη σώματος τὰ αὐτὰ ὑπάρχει ἑκατέρῳ καὶ οὐδὲν θατέρῳ πλέον. Ἔτι δὲ ὄρεξις καὶ οἰκείωσις φύσει πρὸς ἀρετὴν οὐ μόνον γίνεται τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ γυναιξίν· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἧττον αὗταί γε τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοῖς μὲν καλοῖς καὶ δικαίοις ἔργοις ἀρέσκεσθαι πεφύκασι, τὰ δ’ ἐναντία τούτων προβάλλεσθαι. Τούτων δὲ ταύτῃ ἐχόντων, διὰ τί [πρότερον] τοῖς μὲν ἀνδράσι προσήκοι ἂν ζητεῖν καὶ σκοπεῖν ὅπως βιώσονται καλῶς, ὅπερ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν ἐστι, γυναιξὶ δὲ οὔ; πότερον, ὅτι ἄνδρας μὲν προσήκει ἀγαθοὺς εἶναι, γυναῖκας δὲ οὔ;
Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31
p. 949Musonius, That Women Too Should Practice Philosophy
When someone asked him whether women too should practice philosophy, he began to show, in something like these terms, that they should. Women, he said, have received from the gods the same reason as men, which we use in our dealings with one another and by which we reflect on each matter, ⟨whether⟩ it is good or bad, noble or shameful.1391 The female likewise has the same senses as the male: sight, hearing, smell and the rest. Both likewise have the same bodily parts, and neither has more than the other. Further, a natural desire for virtue and affinity with it belong not only to men but also to women.1392 For women are by nature no less pleased than men with noble and just deeds, and no less disposed to reject their opposites. Since this is so, why would it be fitting for men to investigate and consider how to live well—which is what practicing philosophy is—but not for women? Is it because men ought to be good, but women not?1393
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume II · Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.126.1
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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.