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 46 · II.46.12–II.46.14

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Book II Chapter 46 · II.46.12–II.46.14

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Ancient Greek

p. 1020

Θεόγνιδος

II.46.12

Δείλους εὖ ἔρδοντι δύω κακά· τῶν τε γὰρ αὐτοῦ χήρωσις κτεάνων καὶ χάρις οὐδεμία.

II.46.13

Διογένης ἐρωτηθείς, τί τάχιστα γηράσκει παρ’ ἀνθρώποις, εἶπε· “Χάρις”.

Αἰλιανοῦ

II.46.14

Θεμιστοκλῆς ὁ Νεοκλέους ἑαυτὸν εἴκαζε ταῖς δρυσί, λέγων ὅτι καὶ ἐκείνας ὑπέρχονται οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ δέονται αὐτῶν, εἰ ὕει, στέγην τὴν ἐκ τῶν κλάδων ποθοῦντες· ὅταν δὲ οὔσης εὐδίας παρίωσι, τίλλουσιν αὐτὰς καὶ περικλῶσι. καὶ αὐτὸς οὖν ἔλεγεν ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου τὰ αὐτὰ πάσχειν.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 46

p. 1021

Theognis

II.46.12

Two evils attend one who benefits the base: loss of his own possessions, and no gratitude.¹⁵²⁰

II.46.13

When Diogenes was asked what grows old fastest among people, he said, “Gratitude.”¹⁵²¹

Aelian

II.46.14

Themistocles, son of Neocles, compared himself to oak trees. He said that people take shelter beneath them too and need them when it rains, seeking the shelter of their branches; but when they pass by in fair weather, they strip them and break off branches.¹⁵²² He said that he himself suffered the same treatment from the people.¹⁵²³

1520.Theognis 955-956. The printed δύω, two, is retained, as is χήρωσις, a noun meaning loss or deprivation, rather than a different verbal reading. The two costs are giving up one’s own possessions and receiving no gratitude.

1521.The author’s name is part of the anecdote, not a separate heading. Χάρις is rendered gratitude in this chapter’s context: the answer treats gratitude as something that quickly ages or loses its force.

1522.The trees are needed for shelter in bad weather but damaged when that need has passed. The comparison makes usefulness followed by mistreatment the point of the anecdote.

1523.Wachsmuth cites Aelian, Various History IX.18. The parenthetical D.24 printed beside this excerpt is a companion numbering cross-reference; the D. numbers do not add further source sections to this chapter.

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.