Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 31 · II.31.126.5

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Book II Chapter 31 · II.31.126.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 956

Μουσωνίου — συνέχεια

II.31.126.5

Καὶ μὴν καὶ ἀνδρειοτέραν εἶναι προσήκει γυναῖκα τῆς ἀπαιδεύτου τὴν πεπαιδευμένην καὶ τὴν φιλόσοφον τῆς ἰδιώτιδος· ὡς μήτε θανάτου φόβῳ, μήτε ὄκνῳ τῷ πρὸς πόνον ὑπομεῖναί τι αἰσχρόν, μηδ’ ὑποπτῆξαι μηδενὶ ὅτι εὐγενής, ἢ ὅτι δυνατός, ἢ ὅτι πλούσιος, ἢ καὶ νὴ Δία ὅτι τύραννος. Ὑπάρχει γὰρ αὐτῇ μεμελετηκέναι μέγα φρονεῖν, καὶ τὸν μὲν θάνατον ἡγεῖσθαι μὴ κακόν, τὴν δὲ ζωὴν μὴ ἀγαθόν· ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὸν μὲν πόνον μὴ ἐκτρέπεσθαι, τὴν δὲ ἀπονίαν μὴ διώκειν ἐξ ἅπαντος. Ὅθεν εἰκὸς εἶναι τὴν γυναῖκα ταύτην καὶ αὐτουργικὴν καὶ κακόπαθον, οἵαν ἃ μὲν ἂν τέκῃ τρέφειν μαστῷ τῷ ἑαυτῆς, τῷ δὲ ἀνδρὶ ὑπηρετεῖν χερσὶ ταῖς ἑαυτῆς· ἃ δὲ δουλικὰ νομίζουσιν ἔνιοι, ταῦτα ἀόκνως ποιεῖν. Ἆρ’ οὐκ ἂν ἡ τοιαύτη γυνὴ μέγα μὲν ὄφελος εἴη τῷ γεγαμηκότι, κόσμος δὲ τοῖς προσήκουσι γένει, παράδειγμα δὲ χρηστὸν ταῖς ἐπισταμέναις αὐτήν;

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 31

p. 957

Musonius continued

II.31.126.5

Further, the educated woman should be more courageous than the uneducated one, and the woman who practices philosophy than the woman without that training. Neither fear of death nor reluctance to face hardship should make her put up with anything disgraceful, nor should she cower before anyone because he is nobly born, powerful, wealthy or even, by Zeus, a tyrant.¹⁴⁰³ For she has practiced thinking nobly, regarding death as not bad and life as not a good; likewise, not turning away from hardship or invariably pursuing freedom from it.¹⁴⁰⁴ Hence it is reasonable that this woman should work with her own hands and bear hardship: nursing the children she bears at her own breast, serving her husband with her own hands, and unhesitatingly doing what some regard as servile tasks.¹⁴⁰⁵ Would not such a woman be a great benefit to her husband, an ornament to her kinspeople and a good example to the women who know her?¹⁴⁰⁶

1403.Ἰδιῶτις contrasts here with the woman trained in philosophy. Courage includes refusing disgrace and not cowering before distinctions of birth, power or wealth, even the power of a tyrant.

1404.The negations remain distinct: death is not bad, while life is not a good. The passage does not say that death is good or life bad. Ἐξ ἅπαντος qualifies the pursuit of freedom from hardship, rather than forbidding all relief.

1405.Εἰκὸς makes the inference reasonable or likely. Αὐτουργική describes doing one’s own work, and κακόπαθος bearing hardship. Nursing and service to the husband remain explicit; servile is what some people call these tasks, not an unqualified description by the translator.

1406.The final question names three relationships: husband, relatives connected by birth and women acquainted with her. Κόσμος, ornament, presents her as bringing credit to her family.

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.