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 5 · II.5.3.1–II.5.3.2

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Facing Pages · Branch 56 of 516

Book II Chapter 5 · II.5.3.1–II.5.3.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 108

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Ἴωνος

II.5.3.1

Ἔστι γὰρ τοῦτο τέχνην μὲν οὐκ ἂν παρὰ σοὶ περὶ Ὁμήρου εὖ λέγειν, ὃ νῦν δὴ ἔλεγον, θεία δὲ δύναμις ἥ σε κινεῖ, ὥσπερ ἐν τῇ λίθῳ, ἣν Εὐριπίδης μὲν Μαγνῆτιν ὠνόμασεν, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ Ἡρακλείαν· καὶ γὰρ αὕτη ἡ λίθος οὐ μόνον αὐτοὺς τοὺς δακτυλίους ἄγει τοὺς σιδηροῦς, ἀλλὰ καὶ δύναμιν ἐντίθησι τοῖς δακτυλίοις, ὥστε δύνασθαι ταὐτὸν τοῦτο ποιεῖν, ὅπερ ἡ λίθος, ἄλλους ἄγειν δακτυλίους· ὥστ’ ἐνίοτε ὁρμαθὸς πάνυ μακρὸς σιδηρίων καὶ δακτυλίων ἐξ ἀλλήλων ἤρτηται, πᾶσι δὲ τούτοις ἐξ ἐκείνης τῆς λίθου ἡ δύναμις ἀνήρτηται.

Πλάτωνος ἐκ τοῦ Ἴωνος · συνέχεια

II.5.3.2

Οὕτω δὲ καὶ ἡ Μοῦσα ἐνθέους μὲν ποιεῖ αὐτή, διὰ δὲ τῶν ἐνθέων τούτων ἄλλος ἐνθουσιαζόντων ὁρμαθὸς ἐξαρτᾶται. Πάντες γὰρ τῶν ἐπῶν ποιηταὶ οἱ ἀγαθοὶ οὐκ ἐκ τέχνης, ἀλλ’ ἔνθεοι ὄντες καὶ κατεχόμενοι πάντα ταῦτα τὰ καλὰ λέγουσι ποιήματα· καὶ οἱ μελοποιοὶ οἱ ἀγαθοὶ ὡσαύτως, ὥσπερ οἱ κορυβαντιῶντες οὐκ ἔμφρονες ὄντες ⟨ὀρχοῦνται, οὕτω καὶ οἱ μελοποιοὶ οὐκ ἔμφρονες ὄντες⟩ τὰ καλὰ μέλη ταῦτα ποιοῦσιν, ἀλλ’ ἐπειδὰν ἐμβῶσιν εἰς τὴν ἁρμονίαν καὶ εἰς τὸν ῥυθμόν, βακχεύουσι καὶ κατεχόμενοι ὥσπερ ἀρύονται ἐκ τῶν ποταμῶν μέλι καὶ γάλα κατεχόμενοι, ἔμφρονες δὲ οὔ, καὶ τῶν μελοποιῶν ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦτο ἐργάζεται, ὅπερ αὐτοὶ λέγουσι.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 5

p. 109

Plato from the Ion · 1

II.5.3.1

Your speaking well about Homer is not a matter of art, as I was just saying; rather, a divine power moves you, like the power in the stone which Euripides called the Magnesian stone, but most people call the Heraclean. For this stone not only attracts the iron rings themselves, but also puts a power into the rings, so that they can do the very same thing as the stone: attract other rings. Thus a very long chain of pieces of iron and rings sometimes hangs one from another, while the power of all of them hangs from that stone.¹²⁸

Plato from the Ion · 2

II.5.3.2

In the same way, the Muse herself makes people divinely inspired, and through these inspired people another chain of those possessed by inspiration is suspended. For all good epic poets utter all these beautiful poems through divine inspiration and possession, rather than through art. Good lyric poets do likewise: just as those in Corybantic frenzy, while not in their right minds, ⟨dance, so too lyric poets, while not in their right minds,⟩ compose these beautiful songs. Once they enter into melody and rhythm, they are in Bacchic frenzy and possessed, like those who draw honey and milk from rivers when possessed, but not when in their right minds; and the soul of the lyric poets does what they themselves describe.¹²⁹

128.Ion 533D–534D spans parts 1–4; Socrates addresses Ion, a performer and interpreter of Homer. Wachsmuth corrects the transmitted dialogue title “Hippias” to “Ion.” The English follows the sense of the printed, syntactically awkward opening rather than replacing its Greek with a modern Platonic text. Magnesian and Heraclean are names for the lodestone; “hangs” retains the link between the suspended chain and its dependence on a single source of power.

129.Ἔνθεος and ἐνθουσιάζειν describe divine inspiration or possession, rather than ordinary enthusiasm. Corybantic dancing and Bacchic frenzy provide ritual comparisons for the poet’s state. Angle brackets preserve the phrase restored from Plato after its omission in manuscripts F and P. In the river comparison Wachsmuth prints an uneven construction and the repeated masculine κατεχόμενοι; the English makes the comparison readable without adding the explicit “Bacchants” found in the parallel Platonic text.

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.